Heidi, Girl of the Alps

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  In the Studio Ghibli documentary The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, Hayao Miyazaki called Heidi, Girl of the Alps Isao Takahata's "masterpiece." Miyazaki was not speaking from outside the project. He had contributed scene design, layout, and screenplay to the series himself. Heidi, Girl of the Alps is a 1974 Japanese animated series produced by Zuiyo Eizo and based on Johanna Spyri's novel. It was eventually dubbed into about twenty languages. The series found major audiences across Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Arab world, and South Africa. In Japan, it drew thousands of Japanese tourists to the Swiss Alps. In Spain, the show's stern governess became a byword for a particular kind of rigid, disapproving woman. Her name was later applied to female politicians and even to the Spanish parliament. Yet in Switzerland, the very country where Spyri's story takes place, the series was never officially broadcast. How a Japanese studio assembled the team that made it, and why the show resonated so differently from country to country, are worth examining.

• 2. A Project Long Deferred

  ›

  Shigeto Takahashi, then managing the animation company TCJ, produced a five-minute pilot for a Heidi series in 1967. The project was shelved before it ever reached audiences. Takahashi later founded Zuiyo, and his ambition to adapt Spyri's novel came with him. Production resumed in 1973 with a new pilot using character designs by Yasuji Mori. That pilot was never shown publicly. Only a handful of surviving cels and pieces of concept art remain as evidence it was ever made.

  When the full series went into production, Isao Takahata was named director. His collaborators included Yōichi Kotabe as character designer and animation director, and Toyoo Ashida as co-character designer. Yoshiyuki Tomino contributed storyboards and screenplay. Hayao Miyazaki, not yet widely known outside the industry, worked on scene design, layout, and screenplay. The series was the sixth and final entry in Calpis Comic Theater, the programming block that preceded the World Masterpiece Theater franchise.

  In 1975, Zuiyo Enterprise split into two companies. Nippon Animation took on the production staff who had worked on Heidi and continued the World Masterpiece Theater lineup. Zuiyo retained the rights to the show along with its debts. The feature-length film edit of the television series, released by Toho in March 1979, was assembled entirely by Zuiyo. Neither Takahata nor Miyazaki was involved; both had left the studio by that point.

  Peter's character underwent one of the most notable changes from Spyri's source novel. In the novel, Peter destroys Clara's wheelchair out of jealousy. In the anime, that act belongs to Clara herself. Before any of the series could be drawn, Takahata dispatched his core design team on a scouting trip to Switzerland.

• 3. Mountains and Maienfeld

  ›

  In the summer of 1973, Isao Takahata, Hayao Miyazaki, and character designer Yōichi Kotabe visited Maienfeld in Switzerland. The two-day stop also extended to Frankfurt, to study that city's settings for the series. Shigeto Takahashi had asked the production staff to research the actual locations so the series could depict them accurately. The group stayed at the Heidialp hut, which served as the direct model for the grandfather's mountain cottage.

  Before the trip, Kotabe had been drawing Heidi with two pigtails, following Yasuji Mori's earlier design. A Swiss librarian changed that. She told Kotabe that a young mountain girl could not tie her own hair into pigtails. Kotabe removed them from the design. For the grandfather's appearance, Kotabe sketched a wooden carved figure from a local souvenir shop, quietly enough to go unnoticed by the shopkeeper.

  Maienfeld's mountain landscape can be traced in the backgrounds throughout the finished series. Many new episodic adventures were added to expand the telling beyond what Spyri's novel contained, particularly in the early episodes.

• 4. The Alm and Its People

  ›

  Heidi's full name is Adelheid, though no one uses it throughout the series. She is five years old when the story begins, an orphan whose parents died four years before. Her Aunt Dete, who raised her in the years since, brings her to live with her paternal grandfather. That grandfather, known to the villagers of Dörfli as the Alm-Onji, carries a fearsome reputation. Local rumor claims he killed a man in his youth. He lives apart from the village, sharing his mountain hut only with a dog named Josef. Josef is a St. Bernard invented entirely for the anime and does not appear in Spyri's original novel. The Alm-Onji is a skilled woodcarver, making bowls and utensils that he trades with the villagers.

  Peter, the nine-year-old goatherd responsible for driving the village animals to the high mountain pasture each summer, becomes Heidi's closest companion. His father, also a goatherd, died before the story begins. Peter's family is not wealthy; neither Peter nor his mother can read. His blind grandmother's deepest wish is to have someone read aloud from a cherished book of psalms. Peter is a poor student, but toward the series' end he discovers a talent for carpentry, builds his own sled, and wins a local race. Among the animals in his care is a kid named Yuki, Japanese for "Snow," based on a goat called Schneehöppli in Spyri's novel.

  In Frankfurt, Heidi is brought to serve as a companion for Clara Sesemann, a twelve-year-old whose legs are paralyzed. Clara's father is a wealthy wine merchant who is mostly away on business. The household is run by Miss Rottenmeier, a strict governess who considers Heidi wild and in need of discipline. Clara's grandmother, who visits infrequently from Holstein, is the warmer presence in the house. Under the grandmother's guidance, Heidi finally learns to read through Grimms' Fairy Tales. The tutor who had spent months attempting the same task is astonished by the result.

  Heidi's health deteriorates in Frankfurt, and a doctor diagnoses her with a serious case of homesickness. He persuades Mr. Sesemann that returning her to the Alps is medically necessary. The doctor is later sent ahead to the mountains to assess whether the terrain suits a child in Clara's condition. Clara ultimately regains the ability to walk without assistance and promises to return to the Alps the following spring.

• 5. A World Audience

  ›

  A spokesperson for the German-language branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation offered one possible explanation for the series' absence in Switzerland. A live-action Heidi series, internationally co-produced, aired in 1978 and may have created a scheduling conflict. A second theory holds that animation was considered vulgar in Switzerland at the time. Whatever the explanation, Swiss viewers were not entirely without options. Broadcasts from neighboring Germany, France, and Italy, all of which aired the series, reached Swiss homes across the border.

  The German-language version premiered on Austria's ORF from the 28th of May 1977 and on Germany's ZDF from the 18th of September that year. Licensing was managed by Taurus Film and ZDF, which also handled German-market merchandising. A completely new musical score was created for the dub. Gert Wilden composed the in-episode music. Christian Bruhn wrote the title song's melody, performed by the folk duo Gitti und Erika. The lyrics were by Andrea Wagner and Wolfgang Weinzierl, the latter of whom also handled script translation and dubbing direction. The production was carried out in Munich by Beta-Technik, with twelve-year-old actress Kristin Fiedler voicing Heidi. The score made use of the alphorn, the zither, and cowbells, and elements of it carried into many other countries' versions.

  Italy's first broadcast ran from the 7th of February to the 2nd of June 1978 on Rai 1, followed by annual re-runs. The Italian dub was produced from the German version by Rome-based company C.D. Ten-year-old actress Francesca Guadagno voiced Heidi, and Elisabetta Viviani sang the title song. Italy also released three theatrical feature films from the television material. Heidi in città and Heidi torna tra i monti both appeared in 1978, and Heidi a scuola followed in 1979. All three were distributed in 16mm by Sampaolo Film.

  The French-language version aired in Quebec on Ici Radio-Canada Télé from the 24th of September 1977. Télé Luxembourg carried it from the 4th of May 1978. France's TF1 broadcast the series from the 26th of December 1979 to the 1st of January 1982, using a different opening theme performed by Danielle Licari. Portugal's RTP1 carried the series in Japanese with Portuguese subtitles from the 22nd of February 1976, later rebroadcasting it dubbed. Brazil's version began in 1980 on Rede Tupi and Rede Record, eventually moving to SBT, with all songs recorded in Portuguese and released on a separate album.

  The Arabic version premiered in 1984 as a collaboration between Kuwait and the United States. It was among the first dubs produced in the Persian Gulf. Actors from Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt worked alongside Arab actors based in the United States. The production used two studios: United Studios Company in Kuwait and Middle East Media Center in Hollywood. A new musical theme was composed by the Egyptian musician Adel Asfour and performed by the Jordanian singer Sameera Nimri. The version aired on KSA TV in Saudi Arabia in 1984 and on Kuwait TV in 1986, later spreading to Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Syria, and the UAE. In South Africa, the SABC broadcast an Afrikaans re-dub of the German version, produced by Leephy Studios. An English-language single of "Heidi," performed by Peter Lotis, reached number two on the Springbok Charts on the 16th of June 1978 and remained on the charts for thirteen weeks.

  The only verified complete English dub of the series is believed to have been produced in the Philippines. It was broadcast on Cartoon Network India in 2001 and has never appeared on home media. The only version of the anime commercially released in the United States and United Kingdom was a feature-length film edit. Its copyright dates to 1975, but it was not released in those markets until the 7th of May 1980. Pacific Arts Corporation brought it to home video in 1985 under the title The Story of Heidi. The film aired on Nickelodeon's Special Delivery anthology series in 1988 and on HBO during that decade. Spain was the one country where the series became not just widely seen but genuinely embedded in the culture, beginning from the 2nd of May 1975.

• 6. Spain's Own Heidi

  ›

  "Abuelito, dime tú," the Spanish version of the show's opening theme, became one of the best-known children's songs in Spain. The series aired on TVE simply as Heidi and grew into one of the most popular anime the country had ever broadcast. Spanish merchandise included toys and a bi-weekly comic book adaptation published by Ediciones Recreativas, which ran for more than a hundred issues between 1975 and 1981. Voice actress Sélica Torcal played Heidi first, followed later by Marisa Marco; the role became the most recognized of both their careers.

  The theme songs were broadcast in their original Japanese, but RCA recorded Spanish-language versions for the accompanying soundtrack albums. Those albums also summarized individual episodes. A Latin Spanish dub was produced in Mexico in 1978, with Heidi voiced by Cristina Camargo and the production managed by Carlos Amador. The Spanish recordings made for the Iberian market were reused for the Latin American broadcast as well.

  "Dime abuelito," credited on the Mexican charts simply as "Heidi," peaked at number five on the 4th of August 1978 chart. The series proved popular across Latin America. The governess carried the German designation Fräulein in her full title, meaning "unmarried woman"; that connotation fed into how her name circulated in Spain as a term of disapproval. Animetal, a Japanese heavy metal band, later recorded a cover of the show's original opening theme; the melody had stayed in circulation for decades.

• 7. Songs and What Remained

  ›

  Eriko Kishida wrote the lyrics for all of the songs in the series. Takeo Watanabe composed the music, and Yuji Matsuyama arranged it. Nippon Columbia published the resulting album in Japan in May 1974, with catalog number KKS-4098. The opening theme, "Tell me," known in Japanese as Oshiete, was sung by Kayoko Ishū. Both the opening and closing themes incorporated yodeling by Nelly Schwartz.

  The closing theme, "Wait and See" (Mattete Goran), was sung by Kumiko Ōsugi. She also recorded most of the show's insert songs: "Evening song," "Peter and me," and "Yuki and me." An alternate recording of "Yuki and me" was sung by Kazuko Sugiyama, who voiced Heidi in the Japanese cast. The insert song "Lullaby of the Alms" was recorded by Nelly Schwartz, with a second version by Kayoko Ishū.

  Japan Post issued stamps featuring Heidi, an honor few animated series have received. In 2015, the Belgian production house Studio 100 released a 39-episode remake of the series as an international co-production. A second season of 26 episodes, with an entirely original plot, followed in 2019. Zuiyo re-edited the complete series into two OVAs, released on the 21st of April 1993 on VHS and LaserDisc. The cast re-recorded their dialogue in Hi-Fi stereo for that release. Zuiyo also produced a parody broadcast on Fuji TV between 2016 and 2017, consisting of 130 ten-second shorts built around Heidi's grandfather. In December 2024, a YouTube spin-off began streaming, pairing Heidi's characters with those of the web anime Sorotani no Animecchi, with all characters speaking in Kansai dialect. The grandfather was never given a proper name in the original series. Yōichi Kotabe had based his design on a carved figure from a Maienfeld souvenir shop. Fifty years after that sketch, the character still has a screen to return to.