Heidi's Song

The much loved, oft retold story of Heidi gets the Hanna-Barbera treatment: it remains the tale of a cute little blonde who refuses to see catastrophe (grandfather breaks his leg, Klara is still no better, and Heidi herself is almost devoured by rats) other than as an opportunity for a grating cheerfulness, spiced with a Disney-like catalogue of anthropomorphic mutts and vermin and a few tunes. But, interestingly, the film-makers seem to have taken the classic animation of Chuck Jones as their model (where they have not cannibalised their own TV series), introducing a saving strain of acerbity into an otherwise cloying cartoon.