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Anime / Heidi, Girl of the Alps

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Heidi, Girl of the Alps is a 1974 Anime series that ran for 52 episodes based on the famous Swiss classic children's novel Heidi's Years of Wandering and Learning by Johanna Spyri, which was created as part of the World Masterpiece Theater series.note  The anime featured the talents of Yoshiyuki Tomino (storyboards), Isao Takahata (director) and Hayao Miyazakinote  (animator). Also, the character designs were done by Yoichi Kotabe, likely best known in the West for his later work with Nintendo.

It tells the tale of Heidi, a five-year-old orphan who is pretty much dumped by her aunt on her grandpa, a gruff man with a bad reputation who lives alone in the mountains. Heidi quickly melts the old man's heart and makes a friend in Peter, a goatherd six years older than her, and Grandpa's huge St Bernard dog, Josef/Joseph (renamed in many foreign dubs for some reason as some variation on the word "fog"). Just as she has gotten cozy in the Alps, her aunt comes back and tricks her into leaving the mountains for Frankfurt to become the companion of a lonely, rich, wheelchair using girl, Klara Sesemann. Once again, she makes friends with the whole household (except for uptight old hag Mrs. Rottenmeier), but she gets increasingly homesick, to the point that she starts sleepwalking. For her sanity's sake, she's allowed to go back to the Alps, with the promise that Klara will be allowed to visit her there. Which just happens to be exactly what Klara needs for her health...

First telecast on Fuji TV, Heidi was a big success, and it is still fondly remembered in Japan and many foreign countries, particularly in Europe and Latin America. Not so much in English-speaking countries, as only a movie-length edited version of the show (put together without Takahata and Miyazaki's input) made it to home video in the United Kingdom and the United States; the edited version also aired in the early '80s on HBO. Canada was more fortunate, getting the entire series in French on Radio-Canada television. Video game players (especially those who may have never heard of this version of the story) may recognize part of the opening theme from the arcade game Froggernote .

In 2014, Belgian animation company Studio 100 produced a CGI remake and makes slight changes to the story — for example, Heidi's aunt comes to live with her at Clara's house instead of just leaving Heidi there and disappearing, even falling in love and becoming engaged to Sebastian, Clara's family butler.

Do not confuse with Heidi's Song, although both are based on the same novel.


A lot of the tropes in this series are already covered at Heidi. Tropes exclusive to Heidi, Girl of the Alps include the following:

  • Adaptational Hairstyle Change: A mild example. Heidi's hair is black and curly in the original novel; in the anime, her hair is still black but appears to be straight instead of curly.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy: Although Peter is a bit annoyed at how much attention Heidi pays to Klara, he doesn't go as far as destroying Klara's wheelchair as he did in the book. It's actually Klara herself who does that; she had asked Alm-Uncle to put the wheelchair away so she could be more motivated to walk, but in a moment of weakness she tries to retrieve it and ends up accidentally pushing it down the mountain.
  • Alternative Foreign Theme Song:
    • The opening theme was changed for South African TV to the famous German Heidi song. Also, the Italian version has a different ending theme.
    • The Spanish language versions (for both Spain and Latin America), and (at least) the Brazilian Portuguese version use an adapted version of the original Japanese opening theme.note 
  • Anachronism Stew: Heidi and Klara's grandmother often play rock-paper-scissors during the Frankfurt Arc. "Jankenpon" (as the game is known in Japan) was brought to the West in the wake of the 20th century; the story is set in the early 1880s.
  • Big Friendly Dog: Downplayed with the Saint Bernard Joseph, who's aloof to people initially, including Heidi. He warms up if they prove to be good people, though, and he misses Heidi greatly when she leaves for Germany.
  • Butt-Monkey: Rottenmeier, in the last episodes. Seeing her being comically unable to adapt herself to the Alps life is freaking cathartic.
  • Canon Foreigner: Josef, the St. Bernard dog was created just for this series.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Heidi sometimes qualifies for this, but it's probably due to her young age despite her incredible intelligence.
  • Country Mouse: Much like in the book, Heidi doesn't like the life in the city to the point of falling ill from missing her dear mountains.
  • The Cutie: Heidi, definetly: a relatively short, chubby, baby-faced little girl with an innocent, cheery personality.
  • Defrosting Ice King: Heidi's grandfather starts off being a gruff and misanthropic man, but soon ends up softening up and cherishing Heidi's presence in his life.
  • Do Not Call Me "Paul": Or in this case, "Do not call me Adelheid". At least one scene in one episode has Heidi doing this to Miss Rottenmeier.
  • Doting Grandparent: Like in the novel, Heidi's grandfather, in spite of his aloof nature, adores Heidi, to the point of going back on his plan to sell their newborn goat to rent a house for the winter in Episode 37, "Goat's Baby", after seeing Heidi fall into grief. The narration, at least in the Cantonese dub, explicitly says that this moment shows how much Heidi's grandfather loves her.
  • Dramatically Missing the Point: Rottermeier needs to be shouted in the face by a furious Mr. Sesemann that Heidi is just as important in Sesemann's house as Klara, and that therefore the latter's happiness never had priority over the former's health.
  • Dub Name Change:
    • Peter is named Pedro in both Spanish dubs. Justified, since most Spanish (and Portuguese) translations of the book would use this name. The French version would also call him "Pierre".
    • Josef (the St. Bernard that lives with Heidi's grandfather) is often renamed in many other versions, including Niebla in both Spanish versions, Nebbia in the Italian version, Hercule in the French version, and Bernard in the English compilation film.
  • The Glomp: Heidi tends to glomp people when excited. She mostly does this to Peter, usually knocking him over.
  • Hate Sink: Rottenmeier just keeps getting harder and harder to like as she increasingly makes Heidi's life in Frankfurt a living hell. It's incredibly satisfying to eventually see her turn into a total Butt-Monkey at the Alps.
  • Help Mistaken for Attack: Heidi adopts a baby bird. She thinks Joseph wants to eat it and forbids him from doing so. Then later the bird gets into trouble and Joseph lunges at it, catching it in his mouth. Heidi thinks Joseph has eaten it and cries and hits Joseph, but then he opens his mouth to show the bird safe and sound and Heidi realizes he was just trying to protect it.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Klara; her motivation for learning to walk isn't because she is forced to do so, like in the books, but because she wants to be able to walk and run around with Heidi and her friends.
  • Imagine Spot: Peter and Heidi appear to have one in the finale during the winter, of spring coming early and Klara running up the hills with them, being able to rejoice at her return with the goats dancing around them.
  • Insistent Terminology: As with the book, and most other adaptations, Miss Rottenmeier insists on referring to Heidi by her full Christian name of "Adelheid". (Or "Adelaide", depending on the translation.note )
  • Little Miss Badass: In Episode 13, "Return to the Meadows", when a goatherd falsely accuses Peter of stealing his goat (when it ran away in the storm) and beats him up, Heidi tries to stop him—at first by shouting at him, and when that doesn't work, by biting him in the arm.
  • Never Learned to Read: Much like in the books, Heidi didn't learn to read until she was taught how to in Frankfurt. By the time she returns to the Alps, she can read on a basic level and is still continuing to learn new words through reading books.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Heidi is just "Heidi" to basically everyone except for Miss Rottenmeier.
  • Physical Therapy Plot: Some of the last several episodes cover several months where Klara learns to walk, after her managing to stand up for a few moments out of pure adrenaline demonstrates that her legs are fully functional. Heidi, Peter, and Grandfather spend many days of the spring and summer trying to help her strengthen her leg muscles and train her endurance; while the series ends with Klara ultimately Throwing Off the Disability, her last appearance shows her practising walking up stairs and later learning to run, showing her recovery as a gradual process.
  • Prefers Going Barefoot: Like most other adaptations of her story, Heidi often goes barefoot whenever she has the chance.
  • Prim and Proper Bun: Rottenmeier always wears her hair in one and is infamous for being a straight-laced, uptight woman.
  • Redubbing: One of only a handful of animes to be dubbed in Afrikaans during Apartheid.note 
  • Stylish Sunhats: Clara Sesseman is the daughter of a wealthy wine merchant, but he's usually away from home so she's looked after by her caretaker, Miss Rottenmeiner. When she's outside, Clara often wears a white sunhat with a pink ribbon.
  • Solid Clouds: The intro shows Heidi lying on a cloud and gazing at the landscape below.
  • Thwarted Escape: In the episode "A Hectic Night", Heidi almost manages to escape the Sesemanns' house, but as she was about to cross the street one of the servants notices her and is forced inside the house against her will.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Though debatable... since Heidi doesn't know too much about guns, but in the scene where the hunters were about to shoot a deer, you'd think that she's afraid... but she's not. She then stands up for an argument and ends it by sticking her tongue out.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Heidi and Peter often get into fights over different things, usually due to Heidi's love for nature, but they always eventually reconcile.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: After witnessing Heidi's sleepwalking, and learning from Rottenmeier that she forced Heidi to forget about her mountains and stop crying for the sake of Klara, Mr. Sesemann angrily calls Rottenmeier out for giving such cruel orders and directly says to her that is her fault that Heidi's health deteriorated.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: From the get-go, Heidi is a 5-year-old orphan yet she seems to talk like an 8-year-old.note 
  • Yodel Land: It's based on a novel that thrives on Yodel Land to the point of more or less being its Trope Codifier.

Alternative Title(s): Heidi

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