The Little House (1952)

Directed by Wilfred Jackson.

The Little House (August 8, 1952) is a film adaptation of the book with the same name "The Little House" by Virginia Lee Burton.

This short centers around a little house that once resided in the middle of the country on a small hill and how progress and development makes her life a chaotic mess.

It depicts how she struggles with all the development around her and how she hopes to one day find the peace and joy she once had "in the good old days" before all the big cities and skyscrappers came to be.

The Little House makes a cameo in the new Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) movie.

The film was probably made in a traditionally 2D cel animating technique as it is what was more prevalent in those years.

I am not aware of how it was projected back then but probably shown as part of bigger films or shows on TV. I read it has had quite a few re runs from time to time and it is considered one of Disney's golden era classics.

Though quite old, it was not hard to find these days since it seems to be a very popular short and a quick search on Youtube helped me find it.

The book has been noted for its insights on urban sprawl. It won the 1943 Caldecott Medal.

It was identified as one of the top 100 best books for children by the National Education Association in 1999 and 2007 polls.

In recent years, the story has drawn criticism as being implicitly anti-urban. As CityLab's Carl Abbott noted in 2017 "Burton lovingly depicted the country setting as islands of meadow and trees that seem to float off the page. In contrast, the scenes of menacing urban growth are drawn with vigor, detail, and darker tones. Apartments and tenements surround the house, complete with rickety back stairways. Pounding traffic pollutes the air, trolleys clank, crowds hurry past, an elevated railway blocks light, and a subway rumbles directly beneath."