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HEIDI (arupusu no shoujo haiji /Heidi, Girl of the Alps)
From the novels by Johanna Spyri.
Heidi, a small girl, lives in the mountains with her old "Alm-uncle", actually
her grandfather,
a farmer, and then is sent to live in Stuttgart at a rather grand house
in the city as a companion for Clara, a disabled girl four years older
than Heidi. The house is run by a housekeeper who is terrified of animals,
however small. Heidi's untutored behaviour and homesickness provoke a fair
amount of chaos. Later, she returns to her beloved mountains.
This is one of the proto-WMT series, and was made in 1974. The character
design for Heidi in particular now looks very dated. However the series
is full of interesting detail recreated in the animation, and quite a lot
of humour. I've seen about half of the German edition, and about half of the of the Italian edition. The series is regularly repeated on RAI UNO and other channels, so I've been able to see nearly all of the series. Do get
a copy of the first Heidi book, of which the TV series is an expanded
version, but it's fairly easy to follow even if you don't have the book.
Data from Ben Ettinger (with permission).
A Dog of Flanders (furandaasu no inu)
I've seen only a couple of episodes of this, with Iranian dialogue, but one's first impression is that it's rather undistinguished. However, on playing it back through the PC I felt that the screenplay had a measured, somewhat filmic quality. There are efforts to lighten what is, by all acounts, a rather glum story with some comic relief, with, for instance, a rather comical duck. The later Japanese animated version, My Patraasche (1992) by NTV/TMS, is an all-round improvement.Dog cart Girl's parents Cottage Data from Ben Ettinger |
3000 LEAGUES IN SEARCH OF MOTHER (haha wo tazunete sanzen ri) ="Marco"
The images are from the Japanese movie version, which is cut from the TV series. The TV series (which I have not seen) has also been broadcast in Europe.At a time when many Italians emigrated in search of work, Marco's mother, a trained nurse, travels to Argentina in search of work. When her letters cease two years later, Marco goes in search of her. In Genova Marco meets a travelling entertainer and his family. Dramatically, this seems one of the more satisfying of the WMT series, with a strong narrative. Visually, I found that the series is let down by the crude character designs. The lavish background paintings are much more in keeping with the ambitions of the narrative. (BTW. the Japanese dialogue of the movie is fairly easy to follow if you are learning that language.) Peppino & family | Ship | Railway Data from Ben Ettinger |
ANNE OF GREEN GABLES (=Anna dai Capelli Rossi= Akage no An
= Anne mit den Röten Haar) Anne & Diana | Anne | Anne & Diana | Anne & Matthew
Adaptation
of the famous book by Lucy Maud Montgomery. This looks well animated, though the backgrounds look better than the character designs. It's a fairly faithful adaptation, with, of course,
a good story and intelligent script,
but there are a few WMT inserts which viewers may
be able to spot. For the benefit of those who are not familiar with the
book, Anne is an 11 year old orphan, an intelligent , imaginative and sensitive
child, who is adopted by a childless brother and sister, Marilla and Matthew. Her boundless
energy gets her into lots of minor scrapes. I confess to some bias, as
after some two dozen episodes I found I was very fond of Anne - a reaction
moreover not provoked by reading the original book. Anne's character design
changes subtly as she grows.
Italian edition: My Italian was negligible at the time, but I managed to
follow a few of the scenes. However, Italian sounds like the wrong language
for this series (set in Canada) and some of the other WMT
are more interestingly animated. The opening credit song is great. The
opening credit sequence refers to a scene in the first chapter of the book.
German edition: This apparently uses more of the Japanese opening
credits, though the opening song is much inferior to the Italian one. In
general, the German edition follows the book so closely that the latter
can be used as a script. Recommended.
Data from Ben Ettinger
