Metacritic reviews

One of the most appealing, beautifully made and well-loved of all the classic children's animal movies. [21 Sep 2001, p.C1]

Oftentimes, animal pictures make the unhappy mistake of attributing almost human rationalization to simple four-footed beasts. An outstanding virtue of this picture is that it does nothing of the sort. It treats the dog as an animal whose loyalty is all the more wondrous and appealing because it is simple and free of human wile.

This film is a fairly well-balanced effort, and if you're in the mood for an evening of obvious sentiment, this boy-and-his-dog film works quite well.

The slightly older set will be hard-pressed to watch Lassie Come Home without a great big lump in the throat.

Classic 1943 canine weepie.

Nobody made this heart-warming fluff better than MGM.

From the novel of Eric Knight, and with Fred M. Wilcox directing his first feature picture, Lassie emerges as nice entertainment enhanced by color photography and good scenic shots.

This was understandably inspiring to wartime audiences and actually still holds up as a heartwarming story with a very decent cast.