Heidi (1974) Japanese anime series by Zuiyo Eizo (now Nippon Animation) based on the Swiss novel Heidi's Years of Wandering and Learning by Johanna Spyri (1880). It was directed by Isao Takahata A feature-length film Heidi in the Mountains, aka The Story of Heidi, was edited from the series by Zuiyo (which by then was a separate entity from Nippon Animation, which employed many of the TV series' animation staff) distributed in 1979. All cast were replaced excluding Heidi and the grandfather. This movie is also the only incarnation of the Heidi anime to have been released commercially in the United States in English (on home video in the 1980s). Isao Takahata remarked "Neither Hayao Miyazaki nor I are completely related to any shortening version" on this work.
Direction
Takahata's patient, observational eye before Ghibli existed.
Cinematography
Hand-painted Alps that make Switzerland jealous.
Score
That theme song will live rent-free forever.
Director
Isao Takahata
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Takahata and Miyazaki disowned this theatrical cut—it's a Frankenstein edit of their TV series with an entirely new cast except Heidi and Grandpa.
This was America's only official Heidi anime release for decades, meaning many millennials' 'authentic' Swiss childhood memory is actually peak 1970s Japanese socialist realism.
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