Polly is a 1989 American made-for-television musical film adapted from the book Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter featuring an all African-American cast (with the exception of Celeste Holm).
It was directed and choreographed by Debbie Allen, starring Keshia Knight Pulliam, Phylicia Rashad and also featured the final performance of actress Butterfly McQueen.
A key point in dividing the town is a ravine which has an unrepaired bridge which burned down many years ago, and no one knows how it started and is suspicious of everyone else.
Patricia Brennan of The Washington Post wrote that while the film "may be a little too sweet for everyone's taste", it features "some of the best original song-and-dance numbers to come to television in years.
"[1] Howard Rosenberg of Los Angeles Times called it the "worst kind of fairy tale, one that doesn’t seem to know it’s a fairy tale" and wrote that Pulliam's performance is "so gratingly precious and saccharine that she makes Shirley Temple seem like Lucretia Borgia.