Between 1934 and 1940,
Shirley Temple was the biggest little star in Hollywood; the curly-headed tyke began doing song-and-dance numbers in one-reel comedies at the age of four, at six years she stole the show in the musical
Stand Up and Cheer, and at ten she was the number one box-office attraction in America, and had even taken home a special Oscar. Based on Temple's 1988 autobiography, Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story stars Ashley Rose Orr as the pint-size superstar in a story that concentrates on the sunny side of her rise to fame and soft-peddles allegations that her parents (here played by
Connie Britton and
Colin Friels) mismanaged the fortune she earned during her years as a pre-teen celebrity. Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story was produced by the mother-and-daughter team of Paula Hart and
Melissa Joan Hart; the Harts have their own perspective on life as a youthful celebrity, thanks to Melissa's career as the star of the TV series
Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, while Paula's younger daughter (and Melissa's younger sister) Emily Anne Hart appears in the film as the teenaged
Shirley Temple. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide