In an alternate universe, the primary animated adaptation of Astrid Lindgren’s beloved youngsters’s character Pippi Longstocking may additionally have been one of many first Studio Ghibli movies. Years earlier than they based the world-renowned animation studio and created masterpiece after masterpiece of the medium, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata as soon as dreamed of adapting the Pippi Longstocking e-book collection right into a feature-length movie. (Since Ghibli wasn’t but a twinkle within the duo’s eyes, this Pippi film would have technically been Studio Ghibli-adjacent). The pair had been so passionately invested within the thought, they created intricate, lovingly detailed art work and scouted areas in Lindgren’s native Sweden. However what appeared on the floor like an ideal mixture — that of Hayao Miyazaki and a spirited heroine — by no means advanced past that art work. What occurred to stop a Studio Ghibli Pippi Longstocking from chickening out?
Circa the early Seventies, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata had been skilled animators. The pair had met on Takahata’s characteristic movie debut The Nice Journey of Horus, Prince of the Solar in 1968. Every contributed to anime tv collection over the following years. Miyazaki wouldn’t debut as a characteristic movie director till 1979’s The Fort of Cagliostro, and the duo wouldn’t co-found Ghibli with producer Toshio Suzuki till 1985. The studio’s first movie, Fort within the Sky, arrived a 12 months later. (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was produced by the Topcraft animation studio though it’s honorarily included within the Ghibli canon.)
This historical past and future are each tied to their failed Pippi Longstocking challenge. By the late Seventies, each animators had been completely invested in adapting Astrid Lindgren’s internationally bestselling collection into the animation medium. Lindgren’s creation is a tenacious, audacious, and imaginative nine-year-old redhead who additionally occurs to be the “strongest lady on this planet.” The daughter of a pirate captain, she lives by her personal means and has no real interest in rising up, far preferring her established lifetime of journey, and likewise has no endurance for the foolishness of adults. She’s a call-it-like-she-sees-it lady, one who breaks social constrictions and mocks social norms, or simply ignores them fully.
For all her blitheness, nevertheless, Pippi is thoughtful, loving, and smart past her years. As she muses to herself, “In case you are very robust you could even be very type.” Lindgren initially invented the character of Pippi for her daughter Karin earlier than writing the revealed works. The primary e-book, titled simply Pippi Longstocking, debuted in 1945. Since then, the collection has offered thousands and thousands of copies worldwide, charming and resonating with youngsters and adults of like minds in all places.
Lower to the aforementioned late ’70s. On the time, Miyazaki and Takahata labored for an additional animation studio and started eagerly collaborating on the probabilities of an animated Pippi Lockstocking adaptation. Examples like Kiki’s Supply Service and Spirited Away had been years away but, however given Miyazaki’s admiration for complicated lady heroes, it’s no surprise that Pippi appealed to him particularly. His love for the feisty, joyful character shines by within the film-that-never-was’s idea artwork, which is obtainable on-line courtesy of the Ghibli LiveJournal web page.
The clearest and most respected English supply concerning the movie’s growth and its cancelation is Astrid Lindgren’s official web site, which in flip credit observations translated from The Phantom Pippi Longstocking e-book revealed by Studio Ghibli in 2014. In response to each, the trio of Miyazaki, Takahata, and influential animator Yasuo Ōtsuka had been passionate sufficient to fly to Sweden for a deliberate assembly with Lindgren to debate the challenge and acquire her blessing (aka, the collection’ rights). Whereas in Lindgren’s dwelling nation, Miyazaki and Takahata scouted areas and drew inspiration from Sweden’s majestic environment and picturesque vistas, incorporating this into the storyboards.
Nevertheless, as soon as the duo reached Stockholm for his or her scheduled assembly, they realized Lindgren “couldn’t see them.” There was no alternative to pitch their concepts and present Lindgren their artwork, or exhibit their apparent ardour for the challenge. And with out that likelihood, Miyazaki and Takahata’s Pippi Longstocking movie was lifeless within the water. Because the character’s creator and overseer, nothing might occur with out Lindgren’s permission.
To say the animators had been disheartened appears an understatement. Astrid Lindgren’s web site/The Phantom Pippi Longstocking quotes Miyazaki as stating at a later date, “We invested an unlimited quantity of power in doing what we had been planning on doing. It depleted me, so now I not need to do it. That’s simply the way it goes. You can’t achieve animation for those who don’t commit every part you’ve obtained to it.”