“Once upon a time, there was a little house on a little hill, way out in the country. She was a happy little house, for she loved the country life… the peace and quiet, the warm sun on her roof, and the whisper of the summer breeze around her eaves.” These words are kindly delivered by narrator Sterling Holloway at the beginning of the 1952 cartoon short, The Little House. The story, based on the popular book of the same title by Virginia Lee Burton, tells of the little house who watches progress turn her little “home” town into a big city all around her. When the abandoned and boarded up little house looks like she has met her fate, to be demolished and put out of her misery, she finds herself moved to a new “home” land, and restored and refurbished by a couple of home-loving newlyweds. As Holloway’s narration concludes, “All that really mattered was that she found someone, or rather, they’d found her. Someone to love and cherish her. Someone who knew that the best place to find peace and happiness is in a little house, on a little hill, way out in the country.”
