Movie · 1995 · Drama, Family, Fantasy · 1h 37m · G · English
Curator score: 8.1/10 (105.9K ratings)
No miracle is ever too small.
Overview
When her father enlists to fight for the British in WWI, young Sara Crewe goes to New York to attend the same boarding school her late mother attended. She soon clashes with the severe headmistress, Miss Minchin, who attempts to stifle Sara's creativity and sense of self-worth.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.1/10
IMDb: 7.6/10
Letterboxd: 3.82/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Metacritic: 83
TMDB: 7.6/10
Director
Alfonso Cuarón
Production
Warner Bros. Pictures, Baltimore Pictures, Mark Johnson Productions
Cast
Liesel Matthews, Eleanor Bron, Liam Cunningham, Rusty Schwimmer, Vanessa Lee Chester, Rachael Bella, Camilla Belle, Kelsey Mulrooney, Lauren Blumenfeld, Vincent Schiavelli, Time Winters, Arthur Malet, Heather DeLoach, Alexandra Rea-Baum, Juliana Harkavy, Taylor Fry, Darcie Bradford, Alison Moir, Kaitlin Cullum, Pushpa Rawal
Curator Review
Verdict
A richly made, emotionally direct children’s drama that pairs fairy-tale uplift with real hardship. Alfonso Cuarón’s visual confidence gives the story unusual warmth and texture, while the film’s faith in imagination, kindness, and resilience makes it a standout family watch.
Best for
families looking for a moving but accessible film
viewers who like literary adaptations with a magical-realist glow
fans of heartfelt coming-of-age stories
people who appreciate strong visual storytelling in children’s cinema
Skip if
you want a strictly realistic or modern kids’ movie
you’re looking for fast pacing and constant plot twists
you’re sensitive to class-era melodrama or tearjerker sentimentality
Overview
A Little Princess is one of those children’s films that feels genuinely cared for in every frame. It takes a familiar boarding-school setup and turns it into something luminous, using imagination not as an escape from pain but as a way to survive it. The result is tender, emotionally legible, and often surprisingly elegant.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is the balance between cruelty and grace. The film never softens the sting of loss, loneliness, or humiliation, but it refuses to let those things define Sara. That stubborn belief in dignity, storytelling, and friendship gives the movie its power.
Bottom line
Cuarón’s direction is a big part of the magic: the film looks richer and more expressive than most family dramas of its era. It can be openly sentimental, but the craftsmanship keeps it from feeling flimsy. Even when it leans into tears, it earns them.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Lucy (4★) · 1973 likes
me as a small child, sobbing: why is this movie so good?
me now, seeing the names alfonso cuaron and emmanuel lubezki in the credits: That's Why
Madison 🎭 (3.5★) · 1160 likes
“I am a princess. All girls are. Even if they live in tiny old attics, even if they dress in rags, even if they aren’t pretty or smart or young. They’re still princesses, all of us.”
THAT’S EMPOWERMENT BITCH
sydney (4★) · 846 likes
happy father's day to the dads giving their daughters the confidence to stand up for what's right, be kind and open-hearted, to crawl on a narrow board in the rain to a window across the street several stories up and climb back up when they're about to fall.
🌻 lindsay 🌻 (5★) · 826 likes
hitting your bully back with “did your father not love you” goes hard
Branson Reese · 660 likes
*this comes on TV during a sleepover and me and my boys start watching it as a joke* *within minutes we are absolutely captivated* *many of us are teary-eyed when the credits roll* *several poignant moments of silence pass before we start goading my friend Josh into shaving his ass*
1970 · Drama, History · 1h 35m · R · Curator 6.3/10 (17.8K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, MGM Plus, Philo, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
For viewers drawn to elegant, melancholy period drama with innocence shadowed by history.
2006 · Adventure, Fantasy, Drama · 1h 57m · R · Curator 8.5/10 (297.9K ratings) · Where to watch: MUBI
A visually sumptuous film about storytelling, grief, and the healing power of imagination.
Topics
family drama, fantasy realism, coming-of-age, tearjerker, boarding school, Victorian atmosphere, female empowerment, class conflict, lush cinematography, period piece