One boy, one wolf, 300 miles of wilderness — and Dvořák pulling ALL the heartstrings.
A gray wolf raised on a farm kills the family dog, and to save him from being destroyed, a boy named Lasset makes a trek through the wilderness with the wolf to a wilderness sanctuary 300 miles to the north. The BGM in the film consists entirely of Dvorak's Serenade for Strings, making it perhaps the only anime since Gauche the Cellist to make use of a single piece of classical music as the soundtrack. The plot of the film is simple and the outcome obvious, but the atmosphere of the film is genuine, and it is very moving in parts thanks to Dvorak's music (which is scored entirely for the most emotional of the instrument groups, the strings). This is a straightforward drama about the friendship between a boy and his wolf, and it pushes all the buttons you'd expect, but it's very enjoyable despite all that.
Score
Dvořák's Serenade for Strings — the ONLY music, and it WORKS.
Direction
Tsuneo Maeda lets silence and music breathe.
Production
Gauche the Cellist's spiritual sibling — classical anime rarity.
Director
Tsuneo Maeda
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This is one of only two anime films to use a single classical piece as soundtrack — the other being Isao Takahata's Gauche the Cellist (1982).
Director Tsuneo Maeda mostly worked on TV anime; this and Gauche remain rare theatrical showcases for the 'classical score anime' micro-genre.
JP
