83
Metascore
19 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyAn astonishing work of studio artifice, A Little Princess is that rarest of creations, a children's film that plays equally well to kids and adults.
- Director Alfonso Cuaron, in his first American movie, has fashioned a world so real and so engaging that you can feel it and smell it and taste it as surely as if you were there.
- 88Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertCuaron's version of magic realism consists of seeing incredibly fanciful sets and situations in precise detail, and Johnson has provided him with the freedom and logistical support to create such places as the street where Miss Minchin's school looms so impressively.
- 80The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinShaking off the solemnity that smothers many a well-meaning, high-minded family film, this one revels in an exuberant sense of play, drawing its audience into the wittily heightened reality of a fairy tale. The material, like the title, is a tad precious, but the finished film is much too spirited and pretty for that to matter.
- 80Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumThe virtues on display are very much those of the heroine: generosity, imagination, charm, and the capacity to keep an audience mesmerized with a good story.
- 75ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliTo be sure, A Little Princess has a few missteps. For one thing, Miss Minchin could have been played with less villainy, but younger viewers will probably appreciate the one-dimensional nastiness. There are also a few moments of overt sweetness, but these are easily forgiven. Actually, there's very little this movie has to apologize for -- it's the rare kind of picture that can be enjoyed by viewers of eight, eighteen, and eighty.
- 75San Francisco ExaminerSan Francisco ExaminerA Little Princess is a delightful film. Bring your children, or just bring yourself.
- 75USA TodayMike ClarkUSA TodayMike ClarkA Little Princess is the first of its progeny to blend brains with entertainment. This stylish sleeper easily outpaces the studio's starchy updates of "Black Beauty" and "The Secret Garden", and even betters Shirley Temple's 1939 take on Frances Hodgson Burnett's Princess perennial. [18 May 1995, 12D.]
- 75Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittThis comedy-drama for children is made with more intelligence and imagination than many of the so-called art films that come our way, filling the screen with vivid images that ideally suit its fanciful plot.
- 50San Francisco ChroniclePeter StackSan Francisco ChroniclePeter StackInfused with a dark charm that will appeal to some girls, A Little Princess, based on the classic novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, is as near to a mannered, lushly photographed Merchant/Ivory-style film as you'll get in a kids' movie.