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Satellite TV Anime Reviews - Illustrated

POLLYANNA (ai shoujo porianna monogatari) Pollyanna | Aunt Polly | View from Pollyanna's Window | After a fall
From the famous novel by Eleanor Porter. The eponymous heroine's name has almost passed into the language as a synonym for looking on the bright side of life! This is yet another WMT anime, as beautifully animated as any of the others, except that the character design for Pollyanna looks quite wrong for a girl of eleven. In the opening episodes, young Pollyanna is sent to stay with her aunt, and manages to react to a nasty attic room and a punishment bread-and-milk dinner with characteristic enthusiasm.
It looks good, but I wasn't overly enthusiastic about the script so far. and Pollyanna's German voicing is a bit shrill and annoying. Too much of a morally improving fantasy for my taste. I think Amy March is a less irritating child :-)
The Boston episodes, in which Pollyanna, recovering from a serious back injury, stays with rich but depressed Aunt Carew, are from the second Pollyanna book.  Production credits

EIN FROHLISCE FAMILIE (=Little Women) (ai no wakakusa monogatari) Group | Jo | Amy | Jo & Amy
Most fanboys would probably rather die than be seen watching a show with this title. Too bad for them. It's an irresistibly charming adaptation of the famous American novel. The character designs have something in common with those for WHISPER OF THE HEART, and the characters of Jo and Amy are so well brought to life that one rapidly gains a vivid impression of them. A few minutes and I was hooked. Recommended as a cure for depression!
My mother says that in the book the March household was poverty-stricken; they don't look so poor in this anime. Except that in the bits I've seen they always wear the same clothes. This is evidently another of those WMT anime.
The first fifteen or so episodes are a prequel originated (I assume) by the Japanese, and insert some dramatic American Civil War material which is conspicuously absent from the original. You can download the original novel. (having done so, it seems that while various scenes are faithfully adapted, the structure of the series departs widely from the first book. The book starts about ep#17 of the TV, and the TV ends at the end of Part 1 of the book (ch.23)). The un-adapted Part 2 of the novel, significantly, depicts the sisters as adults.  Production credits
See also:LW (german) and
LW (english)

LITTLE PRINCE CEDIE (shoukoushi sedi) a.k.a "Le petit Lord"

From the book Little Lord Fauntleroy" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I've only seen two or three episodes of this, in monochrome, (problems with playing SECAM!) but can report that it seems worth a look. Young Cedric has a rather shoujo pretty-boy appeal and the story, which reveals tensions between the adults as well as Cedric's good nature (he seems to be having a rather Pollyanna-ish effect on his gruff Grandfather), looks promising. There is a fair amount of humour derived from childish high jinks and the behaviour of at least one comic villain. The on-screen logo indicates that somebody recorded this from French satellite TV. Production credits

PETER PAN (peetaa pan no bouken)

Wendy & Pirates | Wendy, John & Michael | Peter, John & Michael | Wendy & Lost Boy In contrast to the other WMT anime, this is a very free adaptation of J.M.Barrie's classic. However it's colourful and a lot of fun, with comically nasty pirates and a playful Peter and adventurous Lost Boys. As one would expect of a Japanese adaptation, the girls, ie Wendy, Tiger Lily, and Luna (the latter not in the book) are all strong, sensible characters, with Wendy cast firmly in the role of Little Mother.  Production credits

DADDY LONG-LEGS (watashi no ashinaga ojisan)
I've only seen the first episode, but it looks quite a lot of fun. Judy Davis, a somewhat gawky, clumsy and over-energetic girl, is in an orphanage in the USA in the 1920's. In the first episode, she is hoping to get a scholarship to college (though she looks a bit young for this), but the visit of the patrons is marred by Judy continually falling over and spilling things on people, including the long-suffering matron.
The book:
In the prologue, the 17 year old Judy Davis, the oldest girl in the orphanage, is told that she is being given a college scholarship by an anonymous benefactor, because of her brilliance in English at school. At the orphanage she has had to look after the younger children and do housework. The only condition is that she has to write a monthly letter to her nameless benefactor. At college she finds herself in a completely different world. The rest of the book consists of her letters describing her busy new life.
The German dub is rather shrill.  Production credits

STORY OF THE TRAPP FAMILY SINGERS (=torappu ikke monogatari) (=Rodzina Trapp#w)
The version shown on Polsat 2 was dubbed in Italian & Polish, but had the original opening & closing credits, including the songs. The opening song is the do-re-mi song. The story is based on an autobiographical book by Maria Augusta Trapp, and inspired the famous "Sound of Music" movie and musicals.
T he first few episodes are set in Austria, where the family lived in quite luxurious circumstances (The father is a "Baron" and they all lived in a matching stately home). In 1942 the family flees from the Nazis to New York.
This might be an interesting anime if seen with comprehensible dialogue, but as many episodes don't seem to be from Maria's book, and most scenes are fairly static and "talky", it's impossible to follow if dubbed into a language one doesn't understand. The animation style is quirky rather than impressive. Anime journalists and WMT (World Masterpiece Theater) anime completists will probably want to check it out. 
Maria von Trapp (Baron's daughter); Baroness von Trapp; Baroness & nasty maid
Production credits