Release Date: November 29, 1948
This movie was a personal favorite of Walt Disney's. He once said, "So Dear was especially close to me. Why, that's the life my brother and I grew up with as kids in Missouri."
Bobby Driscoll and Luana Patten were reunited in this movie after appearing together in Song of the South. Bobby plays Jeremiah in this story and Luana plays his cousin Tildy. Jeremiah is a young boy living with grandmother in a small town. One day, a train stops in their town bearing the famous racing horse Don Patch. Jeremiah gets very excited about the famous race horse and dreams of owning his own champion animal. That night, he and his grandmother check on the ewes and find they have given birth to lambs, one of which is a little black lamb who is rejected by its mother. Jeremiah chooses to care for it himself and names the lamb Danny.
Unfortunately, as he grows, Danny is more than Jeremiah can handle, and more than his grandmother could stand. She wants to get rid of him, but when she sees how much Jeremiah loves the sheep, she can't quite bear to do it. Jeremiah continues to dream of his black sheep becoming a champion and wants nothing more than to take him to compete in the county fair.
Jeremiah's grandmother tells him that they can't go to the fair because they don't have the money to pay for the train ride or anything else once they get there, and their family doesn't spend money they don't have. Determined to go to the fair, Jeremiah works hard to earn the money. But just as he makes enough, Danny runs away! While Jeremiah is forced to wait out a storm to look for his prize lamb, his grandmother teaches him the importance of faith and putting God first no matter what.
The movie is framed through a family scrapbook, which contains memorabilia from the movie, along with wise sayings from a cartoon owl. Throughout the movie, the owl becomes animated and teaches lessons of morality. He quotes wise sayings, and also uses both biblical and historical figures to teach a point. As Jeremiah grows and cares for Danny, he learns just how true these sayings are, and he also learns to respect and trust in the faith of his grandmother and the things she has taught him. These lessons come full circle at the end of the movie when Jeremiah recognizes the reward that comes from following these wise sayings.
This movie also features actors such as Harry Carey (who sadly passed away before the film's premiere), Beulah Bondi and Burl Ives. Today, people young and old all over the country know Burl Ives's voice as Sam the Snowman in the 1964 film Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but at the time of this movie, Burl Ives was relatively new to the world of film. The song Lavender Blue (Dilly, Dilly), performed by him in this movie, was nominated for Best Song at the 1949 Oscars and became one of the most popular songs of the year.
I saw this movie for the first time a couple of years ago, and I fell in love with it! I wish it were more well known and more available. In the Disney catalog, this is definitely a gem worth discovering! It's no wonder to me that this film was dear to the heart of Walt Disney.
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