Astonishingly, I still haven't finished watching Heidi. I've owned the box set for five months, but I've just been dragging my heels, only watching in fits and spurts, an episode here, an episode there. It's not that I don't enjoy the series - I think it's absolutely fantastic. It's a damned crime that Americans are literally the only ones who've never seen this show. The problem is that there are no English subtitles available, so watching requires a far greater amount of concentration to follow.It certainly doesn't help that my Japanese is so poor. To the series' credit, I'm able to follow quite a lot via of the layouts, compositions, and overall directing. But it's still a great challenge to be engaged and take everything in as best you can.
These shots come from around episode 25 or so, I can't recall off the top of my head. It has such a brilliant Orson Welles quality to it; being a great Welles fan, naturally, I took a shine to it. The Heidi series will occasionally, every now and then, throw something in that's extrordinary. One story scene was narrated with crayon-drawn backgrounds. Emotions veer from joyful exhuberance to the depths of sorrow. Heidi drifts away into flights of imagination, the very signature style Takahata would use throughout his career.
I can't imagine why Heidi couldn't be sold in the US, although I think you'd need to put it on television if it ever has a chance of breaking wide open. If you just dropped a box set onto store shelves, it would probably be ignored by most parents (looking for the next Disney fix to screw their children over) and the anime nerds (looking for more giant robots and naked chicks). There has to be a solution somewhere.
18 comments:
I wish I knew how to solve it. I wish it was just easy if someone bothered sending it over 20 years ago and it got aired on TV via cable if that was the best way for it. Other countries had it easy when it came to the broadcast of this show. Especially in those countries that had state-run broadcasters and less to zero competition like Spain, where I read the passing of Francisco Franco prompted a pre-emption of an episode of Heidi from being aired on TV, leading to a public outcry from those that were more interested in watching the 'cartoon' than to hear of their dictator's passing (at least that's what one forum member told me elsewhere).
The following link suggests that an English dub version does (or did?) exist in MIT.
http://web.mit.edu/sp.270/www/sp.270-series-2004.pdf
I can check out with my friends in Cambridge/Boston. See if you can check it out too. IF you can assert availability or non-availability through your sources, can you update me on it on my mail ID 'vichakshan@yahoo.co.in'?
I loved this series and watched every single episode on the Indian Cartoon network (dubbed in English). I am trying so hard to find it online or on DVD. Did you manage to find, with any luck ?
Would love to hear if someone gets his/her hands on english dubbed version. It was on cartoon network in India and its an international channel. Can someone guide or find out a way to contact them about it.
I am sure desparate , so my daughter can have the same fun I had watching it.
Any help is appreciated!!
Hi..I would like to know ih i could get a DVD/CD of english version which was telecasted in indin cartoon n/w channel. Please help me out. I love the story.
I have been searching this from past 5-6 years.
i watched it on cartoon network india.i am still searching for the episodes on internet.someone please mail me if they find any.
teenprince@gmail.com
I found your blog randomly when I googled Heide cartoon... I watched this series when I was 5 or 6.... It carved my memory... We accidentally found a site on the web where I was able to order the whole series 25 years after watching it, it was in Arabic then and I ordered the arabic version... Guess what! I just finished Episode 24 tnite and will start on 25 tomorrow... God! It;s brining back all these memories... Heidi shaped part of my personality... it;s when I watched it again now, at 30, some of my questions about why Im this or that are answered now... Cool Blog.. Will read you always!...
I have been searching for the english version of Heidi,since a long time.Its been 10 years now.It was aired in India on Cartoon network,even my mom enjoyed the innocence and story of heidi.
Could only find its japanese version on dvd,but no subtitles.
Hope,through this blog,our message and eagerness would be conveyed to the concerned ppl,so that they soon release the eng version or 1 with eng subtitles.
An Eager fan
I'm also hunting for this Heide Series (English Version)... I found some links which might help in the subtitles for English... If any of you have any inputs, please let me know...
If we fail to retrieve this movie; the next generation would miss a great movie
I watched the whole series on Cartoon Network India back in 2001. The series was dubbed in english for broadcast in India by the animation studio themselves but they never included it on the DVD release. Nippon Animation Studios has also produced another anime named Ramayan: The legend of prince Ram.
I found it! I found it!!
http://store1.globaleasysell.com/Items/1001902
Heidi with english subtitles! There you go!
I purchased years ago an English version years ago in Toy R Us on VHS. It only goes for 90 minutes. But that is the best I have been able to find a dubbed english version. I have been searching for over 12 years.
Hey Im a hard rock fan of that series, regularly spending time online to find out if i can get a copy of this series with eng subs. As you have mentioned that you have a 90 min version of it , many fans like me would be pleased if u could upload a copy of that.
people who are in india can buy this dvd from here
http://www.labourindia.com/products.htm
there is
HEIDI (ENGLISH, MALAYALAM)
under World Classic Series
they say it costs around Rs. 50
Mighty Deity: Are you sure that is the DVD, and not just a book? I just checked the website, and it seemed to me that these were books on that particular page. It would help, of course, if their website was more than just text. It's so 1996.
Thank you so much for sharing, and I'm looking forward to investigating this further. We may have to order a copy and see what arrives in our mailbox.
Daniel Thomas MacInnes
I am also quiet not sure, because they have put some CD's price 250 rs but this one is only 50rs so it may be a book also
I love this cartoon series...sob sob thinking about it just brings a flood of reminiscence of childhood bliss and innocence when i was a kid,growing up watching Heidi. Wish i could watch it all over again.
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