The Little House
The Little House
NR | 08 August 1952 (USA)
The Little House Trailers

A small house has to try to compete with progress and the encroaching press of the big city.

Reviews
Robert Reynolds

This is a one shot cartoon produced by the Disney Animation studio. There will be spoilers ahead:This short is based on a children's book by Virginia Lee Burton. It concerns a charming little house. The house has facial features, as does virtually every object in the short-eyes, a mouth, facial expressions which give them personalities.Narrated by Sterling Holloway, it follows the little house's "life" from the first married couple to live there, through the expansion of town out to where the house is located, the march of time, events and progress, the survival of the house amidst all the changing landscape and the various things great and small the house witnesses over the years.It shows the house in a rundown, decrepit state and a crew coming to the house. The house figures this is it and closes its eyes. The short ends charmingly, coming full circle with a sweet, if implausible, ending.This short is available on the Disney Treasures Rarities DVD set and is well worth seeing. Recommended.

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MartinHafer

This is a little story about a house. It's very small and is made fun of by the fancier and larger houses. However, as the years pass, times change and homes come and go. What will happen with the little house? And, more importantly, does anyone care? Sterling Holloway narrates this extremely sentimental cartoon. It's the sort of thing adults would probably enjoy and kids would find very tedious. While I am an adult, I also found this one a bit too sentimental and lacked the fun I expect in a cartoon. You see it and be the judge. It's well made....but not fun to me and my taste. If you want to see it, it's available on the "Disney Rarities" DVD collection.

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Foreverisacastironmess

What a sweet, beautifully animated and poignant little gem! I especially love the animation of the early scenes where the house is all lonely at night, and the snowy scene on New Year's Eve. When I first watched this and saw the house with a face I thought it was just going to be some silly throwaway short. I couldn't have been more wrong! They do a great job of making you care(and fear!) for the house, and you go on quite the emotional journey for a mere eight minutes. Normally I'd have zero qualms about divulging the plot of something, but this one, I decided is just too precious to spoil, you've really got to see it for yourself. Aw, it almost brought tears to my eyes when the poor dishevelled house was crying and lamenting its sad lonely end... It seemed very much like an elderly person than a house that was being taken away. Simply heartbreaking. I just love how they could make you cry over a cartoon house! I don't mean to demean things by calling the house a cartoon, but this is some really stirring and powerful emotional stuff here! ::: I thought some things about this tale's message could be misconstrued as naive nowadays. Not by me. It's not saying all big cities and human progress is bad, just that some people prefer a more quiet and peaceful life. It's basically trying to say that we can get so caught up in "bigger and better" things, that sometimes we can forget along the way the things which matter the most. Make a Little House in your soul.

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Ron Oliver

THE LITTLE HOUSE sits on a little hill, way out in the country. Even though filled with a loving family, she can't help but notice the relentless approach of the big city coming ever closer to her...This cartoon is a charming adaptation of Virginia Lee Burton's 1942 Caldecott Medal winner. For the few minutes of its duration, the viewer feels deep interest in, and sympathy for, the little house - a tribute to the skill of the Disney artists in giving life to an inanimate object. The film benefits greatly from the expressive narration of Sterling Holloway.

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