To my mind, My Girl and Harriet the Spy share a lot of similarities. The "oodles of personality" statement about Michelle in Harriet the Spy applies equally to Anna in My Girl. This is a lovely family movie about an 11-year-old girl Vada Sultenfuss who lives in a funeral parlor run by her gentle but inattentive father. Saying that Vada is obsessed with death gives a rather gloomy impression, but this movie is anything but.

There are none of the usual family movie flaws. All the characters have depth, and there is no need to suspend belief at any point. The story is rather ordinary one, with Vada learning to deal with loss in life, and with her relationship to death. I wasn't bored for a moment however, as it's a joy to simply follow Vada's life.