The Story of Heidi
(1974, Japan/West Germany) color animated 52 24-minute episodes (TV)
Voices: Kazuko Sugiyama (Heidi), Kôhei Miyauchi (Grandfather), Rihoko Yoshida (Clara), Noriko Ohara (Peter), Miyoko Asô (Miss Lottenmeyer), Toshiko Sawada (narrator)
English-Language version:
Voices: Randi Kiger (Heidi), Vic Perrin (Grandfather, the Doctor, Postman), Billy Whitaker (Peter), Janet Waldo (Dete), Michelle Laurita (Clara), Jacquelyn Hyde (Mrs. Rottenmeier), Barney Phillips (Father)
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Plot Outline (from IMDb): This animation series follows the childhood "adventures" of a girl named Heidi, who lives with her grandfather somewhere on the Alps.
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THE STORY OF HEIDI is a terrific animated feature, composited from the first four episodes of a popular TV series by Isao Takahata. A Japanese/West German co-production, HEIDI offers us the best of both worlds: an extremely faithful adaptation of the original Spyri tale, along with the wonderful talents of top Japanese animators.
Here, our Heidi is a feisty, pudgy brunette (!), which in fact may be more accurate than occidental treatments of the girl-hero, which tend to make her taller, blonder, and older. She, as well as Clara, Gramps and Peter, are winsome, fully-developed characters, no mean feat in a cartoon!
As an animated film is primarily a visual experience, this is what we must focus on, and here is where THE STORY OF HEIDI shines. The film is simply bursting with beautiful landscapes and lyrical passages. Heidi is shown gracefully runnning through her majestic wonderland in scenes which are downright pastoral. An amazing dream sequence features Heidi ruminating over the alphabet, which comes to life in her guilty conscience.
Eschewing the fixation on pretentious shadowplay in later anime, ...HEIDI gives us one of the last great examples of the exquisitely-drawn flat landscapes that gave Japanese animation its revered name in the first place. Moments with thunderstorms, winter landscapes and a blizzard at dawn create scenes of extraordinary beauty. Primarily accenting the rural, there are nonetheless some gorgeous urban vistas, as well as at least two excellent sequences involving period railraods.
One of the funniest characters is "Bernard", Grandfather's old St. Bernard. The lazy and silent Bernard is a wise and skeptical fellow, watching human folly with a mixture of awe and amusement. Heidi's boy-muse Peter is pretty funny too, although he is too often trotted out for cheap comic relief. Heidi also receives spiritual guidance from Blinky the Bluebird.
In an unusual departure from the book, Heidi and Grandfather actually perform physical therapy on Clara's crippled leg, adding a strange, quasi-erotic element to their relationship.
Super-animator Isao Takahata of course, went on the become a legend in the world of anime, but we like his early work here best of all. Many of his later themes are touched upon nicely here, including an adoration of nature, and a reverence for plucky young heroines.
Voices for the English-Language version include Vic Perrin as the grandfather (and other characters). Many will recognize Perrin's unqiue growl as the control voice on the legendary sci-fi series THE OUTER LIMITS!
Judging from reviews on the Internet, the original HEIDI TV series was widely shown in Europe, and extremely popular. Perhaps someday we will see the entire series on DVD! For now, we are grateful to see the feature compilation on Pacific Arts Video.
Video/DVD availability: VHS (Pacific Arts, oop)
(aka ARUPUSU NO SHOJO HAIJI, HEIDI: GIRL OF THE ALPS)
Nihon Animation Co. Ltd. / Zuiyo / Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen
Story: Johanna Spyri
Music by Christian Bruhn, Takeo Watanabe, Gert Wilden
Cinematography by Kei Kuroki
Produced by Shigeto Takahashi
Directed by Atsuji Hayakawa, Masao Kuroda, Isao Takahata
(1975) 93 minutes
V.G. Productions
Produced by Claudio Guzman, Charles Ver Halen
Dialogue: Dick Strome
Two different foreign posters for THE STORY OF HEIDI.
