Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story (2001)

Newcomer Ashley Rose Orr sings and dances up a storm in this made-for-TV movie from Disney. Based on Shirley Temple Black's autobiography, Child Star, the movie does an excellent job of depicting her life as a beacon of hope during the depression years. If Orr doesn't look exactly like the pint-sized dynamo (or act as well), she captures her effervescent essence--her sparkle--and is ably supported by Connie Britton and Colin Friels as her naive, if supportive, parents. The story falters when it skips to Temple at 15, three years after Twentieth Century Fox had severed its ties with her. As the movie ends, we see her returning to acting. It isn't made clear that this would only be a temporary return or that she would devote the rest of her life to politics. Until that point, however, this is a compelling portrait of the quintessential child star. --Kathleen C. Fennessy Amazon.com

Great Shirley Temple Story for kids!

We have loved this film so much that we "wore out" our VHS tape and had to order the DVD! My daughter loves watching Shirley Temple grow up and I love watching how it makes my daughter smile. June 23, 2008

Sweet, special film!

Child Star - The Shirley Temple Story is a wonderful biography of America's favorite kid actress. Although not perfect, it remains one of my favorite due to the subject matter.

Ashley Rose Orr was a bit long in the tooth to play Shirley at some points of the story, but it was generally believable. The period costumes also added a great deal to the authenticity.

If you are a Shirley fan, this DVD belongs in your collection, right next to your real Shirley movies. February 14, 2008

Ashley Rose Orr Was Great As Shirley

The fact of the matter is they searched over 10,000 girls before casting Ashley in the lead role as the young Shirley, this had to be a very tough role to cast, think about it, how many girls between the ages of 6 and 11 could do it, first of all the girl had to at least look similar to Shirley, next she had to be able to do hard dance steps (especially tap) then she had to be able to sing, and last of all she had to have the IQ to be able to act the part of Shirley and have similar speech and mannerisms, Well Ashley hit on all counts in my book and I have been a fan of Shirleys since I was a child (i am 49 now) the movie itself I thought was very well done and the acting by most of the rest of the cast was also excellent (the girl who played the older Shirley in the last few minutes of the movie was beautiful but her acting was not the best, however she was not all that bad, overall this was an enjoyable movie that I believe any fan of Shirley Temple will enjoy. December 2, 2006

Check out the real Shirley instead

When this movie was first played on TV, I was so excited because I have been a major Shirley fan since I was 9(I'm now 21) but when I was watched I was highly dissapointed. The story is supposed to be based on Shirley Temple Black's autobiography "Child Star" and I only saw a handful of items that were actually taken from the book, the rest of it was just fluff. Plus they didn't go past Shirley's early teens when the book covers up until after she marries her second husband. They seemed to only want to focus on the happy aspects of Shirley's life but she and her family were not always so happy go lucky. Ashley Orr is horrific at playing Shirley-first of all she's too old to play 5,6,7 and even 8 year old Shirley and she was too sticky sweet, I know Shirley was too but not that sweet. I would have actually given this movie 0 stars if I had the option, it was horrible. So if you want to know the real story find her book "Child Star" and if you want to see the real Shirley work her magic on the screen go find any of her movies and stay away from this one.

"Bright eyes" , "Heidi" , and "Poor Little Rich Girl" are good movies to start off with. February 27, 2005

Nice Look Back

Based on her autobiography, Child Star tells the story of the fame of Shirley Temple, perhaps the most loved child star of all time. The movie does a good job of setting the time period, the depression by using newsreel footage and radio broadcasts. Many of her most famous routines are faithfully recreated, sometimes as clips from the movies, other times as if they were filming the movie.

The acting is good. Ashley Rose Orr "sparkles" as Shirley (Shirley's mother always told her to "sparkle"). It's tough recreating a living legend, but she can sing and dance and act quite well, although she did say "Oh, my goodness" a bit too many times. Connie Britton is good as Shirley's mother, although Colin Friel is bland as her father. A standout is Hinton Battle as Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

Shirley Temple fans will enjoy this movie. She's one of those rare child stars who seems well-adjusted, so there's nothing really controversial in the film. Anything that is controversial, such as Shirley's father spending almost all her money, is sugar-coated, perhaps because Shirley was a consultant on the movie. Unfortunately, the movie veers off course in the end by showing Shirley as a teenager. A much better ending would have been her leaving the 20th Century Fox studios when they terminated her contract.

DVD extras include an audio commentary by Melissa Joan Hart, who produced the movie along with her mother, and an interesting feature on the making of the movie.
February 8, 2005

More reviews at Amazon.com ...