Heidi | |
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Also known as | Heidi 3D |
Genre | Animation Adventure Dramedy Historical |
Created by | Jan Van Rijsselberge (of the series itself) Christel Gonnard (writing bible) Johanna Spyri (base novel) |
Based on | Heidi by Johanna Spyri |
Written by | Laurent Auclair Christel Gonnard Jean-Rémi François Sophie Decroisette (participating writer) and twelve others [1] |
Directed by | Jerome Mouscadet |
Voices of | Nathalie Homs (narrator) Emmylou Homs Benoît Allemane Lucille Boudonnat Vania Pradier Gilduin Tissier |
Theme music composer | French theme song: Music: David Vadant Romain Allender Patrick Sigwalt Lyrics: Sophie Decroisette International theme song: Music: Johan Vanden Eede Lyrics: Gert Verhulst Hans Bourlon Alain Vande Putte |
Opening theme | "Heidi" (the name of both theme songs) |
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No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 65 |
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Running time | 21 minutes (approx. per episode) |
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Original release | |
Network | ZDF (Germany) TF1 (TFOU) (France) |
Release | January 11, 2015 – 2020 |
Heidi is an animated children's television series, based on the 1881 novel Heidi by Johanna Spyri. [2] The original television series from 2007 was a Swiss-French-Italian-Australian co-production in 27 episodes of 26 minutes.
A "remake" (rather than a re-telling) of Heidi, Girl of the Alps , much of the story is the same; the titular character is a then-eight-year-old girl, who is taken to her grandfather on the Swiss Alps by her aunt Dete to live with him and while the girl ends up improving his life, she also befriends Peter, the goatherd of the village Dorfli below and the one who causes her to find a big passion of hers, goats and other animals in general.
In this version, there is also a trio, Karl, Theresa, and William, who usually try to do something that would degrade Peter, whom they often refer to as a mountain goat, in some way or another. In the first winter up there, a letter is eventually gotten and what results from there will end up changing another's life, as well.
The series has been distributed in 138 countries around the world.
A second season had been released in 2019 with Studio 100's Australian animation studio Flying Bark Productions dropping out of the series and a different voice cast just like Studio 100 Animation's other animated series Maya the Bee . [3]
The actors cited are from the English cast.
Dubbed "Heidi: New Adventures" on Netflix.
Heidi was produced by ZDF, one of the series' co-producers, with the intention of renewing Heidi, Girl of the Alps and fellow series to the modern children's audience. The series was produced from 2013 to 2014, mainly in France, much like Maya the Bee and Vicky the Viking before, including being done by the same main studio, on the behalf of ZDF, but in this production, multiple other companies, including the Australia-based, specifically-made Heidi Pyl, joined in on making the series.
In the first production, from the writing bible, written by Christel Gonnard, the first twenty-seven episodes had their locations shot with high-definition footage, for reference to the animators making the now-fictionalized locations of the series, in Haute-Savoie for the Alps (referred to as that, rather than the Alm, as in the base series and novel) and in Friborg for Frankfurt, similarly to Zuyio (later Nippon)'s team shooting pictures of the official locations themselves, and for the setting references to background painters and writers, for the base series. The two halves that happened to be made in that production were directed, respectively, by Pierre-Antoine Hiroz and Anne Deluz. The theme music was two songs at the time; the credits song, replaced by a piece of background music from the series, when the series was bought the rights out of, was sung by Cindy Santos, first known in 2006, when she participated in the French show Nouvelle Star.
The first three episodes were screened as a "world preview" at Geneva's Tout Ecran Movie Festival (Festival Cinéma Tout Ecran) on October 31, 2007 (albeit only coincidentally for Halloween). Later, a twenty-episode documentary series, of three minutes each episode, and produced by Rita and Chocolat TV Productions, aired on Télévision Suisse Romande as well as on Chocolat's website, before the latter was removed, which documented the first production. Afterwards, an account of a promoter, impersonating an now-teenage Heidi, was opened on a blog and a MySpace page, where the character promoted the series. The series premiered on the Swiss network Télévision Suisse Romande the same year on December 22, in Swiss HD. In France, Studio 100 Animation bought the rights in 2013 and produced a 3D series of 39 episodes of 26 minutes each, now directed by Jérôme Mouscadet, from that year to 2014 and the completed series began airing in 2015.
Due to the partnership of Eurovision Fiction, the series was sent to their affiliated countries, including Ireland, Norway, Cyprus (in Greek dub), Slovakia, Bulgaria and Poland and aired (as of recent, at least part-finished) on the EBU member chains of those countries.
A second season with 26 episodes was soon made.
A feature length film adaptation named Heidi: Rescue of the Lynx , which serves as a continuation of the Studio 100's animated series, was released on June 26, 2025 in Germany. The film was produced by Studio 100's divisions Studio 100 International and Studio 100 Film with German feature animation studio Studio Isar Animation animating the film, alongside Spanish animation studio and Studio 100's partner 3Doubles Producciones and Hungarian animation studio Hotel Hungaria Animation. [4]