The Wild Swans (1977 film)

The Wild Swans
Japanese theatrical release poster
Directed by	Yuji Endo, Nobutaka Nishizawa
Written by	Tomoe Takashi, Yasuko Miyazaki
Based on	The Six Swans by the Brothers Grimm and The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen
Produced by	Chiaki Imada
Starring	See voice cast
Cinematography	Tamio Hosoda
Edited by	Yasuo Iseki
Music by	Akihiro Komori
Production company	Toei Animation
Distributed by	Toei Company (Japan) Turner Program Services (North America)
Release date	19 March 1977 (1977-03-19) (Japan)
Running time	62 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

The Wild Swans (世界名作童話 白鳥の王子, Sekai Meisaku Dōwa: Hakuchō no Ōji, lit. "World Masterpiece Fairy Tales: The Swan Princes") is a 1977 Japanese anime fantasy film produced by Toei Animation, based on the Brothers Grimm's fairy tale The Six Swans and on Hans Christian Andersen's variation The Wild Swans. The film was first shown in Japan on 19 March 1977 in the Toei Manga Matsuri (Toei Cartoon Festival).

The Wild Swans represents the first entry in Toei's World Masterpiece Fairy Tales movie series, followed by Thumbelina (1978), Twelve Months (1980), Swan Lake (1981), and Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (1982).

Plot

King Hildebrand is hunting in the woods when he gets lost and asks an old woman for help. The old woman promises the King that her daughter Greta can show him the way out if he agrees to marry her. Enamored by Greta's beauty, King Hildebrand accepts her proposal and takes Greta back to the castle with him.

However, King Hildebrand has seven young children: six boys, and a girl named Eliza. Greta becomes jealous of them as the King frequently leaves her to visit their secret home in the woods that can only be found using an enchanted ball of yarn.

Greta steals the magic ball of yarn and goes into the woods instead of her husband. King Hildebrand's children excitedly come to greet their new stepmother. But when Eliza and her six brothers run out, Greta throws cursed cloth at the six princes, and they turn into swans and fly away. Eliza searches for and finds her brothers. Eliza's elder brother tells her that they are able to turn human at night but become swans when the sun rises. Eliza lives in the cave with her brothers until the arrival of spring when they have to migrate.

Before leaving, the princes tell Eliza that to break the spell, she must not speak for six years and sew six nettle cloth shirts for them. They warn her that if she speaks while knitting, her brothers will die. Despite the risk, Eliza insists on helping her brothers lift the curse.

Determined to free her brothers, Eliza begins to sew the shirts with the help of her tears. When her brothers return, she decides to run away out of fear of not being able to remain silent. Eliza settles in a hollow tree and continues to sew the shirts. After almost six years have passed, King Friedrich and his hunters find her and take her to court. The king is impressed by the girl and wants to marry her.

In the meantime, Greta was expelled from the castle by King Hildebrand after he found out what she had done to his children. However, after a disease strikes the land, Greta and her mother deceive King Friedrich into believing that Eliza is a witch who has cast a spell on the kingdom. Eliza is tried and found guilty after being caught gathering nettles in a cemetery at night. As punishment, she is sentenced to be burned alive.

As Eliza is led to the stake, she takes the shirts she had just finished sewing with her. Her brothers suddenly arrive and circle around her, and she is finally able to speak again. With their curse broken, Eliza forgives her stepmother's wickedness and marries King Friedrich, living happily ever after.

Voice Cast

Character	Original version (Japanese) [Original Version]	Turner Program Services version (English)
Eliza/Adult Eliza (エリザ)	Eiko Masuyama (増山江威子)	Corinne Orr
Greta (グレタ)	Kaneko Iwasaki (岩崎加根子)
Tears (涙)	Yasuko Miyazaki (宮崎恭子)
King Hildebrand (ヒルデブランド王)	Yousuke Kondo (近藤洋介)
Witch (魔女)	Tokuko Sugiyama (杉山とく子)
King Friedrich (フリードリッヒ王)	Taro Mochizuki (望月太郎)
Judge A (裁判官A)	Yasuyuki Kachi (可知靖之)
Judge A (裁判官B)	Shoshin Kobayashi (小林尚臣)
The Six Princes (六人の王子たち)	Kiyoshi Komiyama (小宮山清) Noriko Tsukase (つかせのりこ) Akira Kamiya (神谷明) Toru Furuya (古谷徹)

Additional Voices

• Original: Midori Goto (後藤みどり), Noriko Kanzaki (神崎教子), Haiyuza Theater Company (俳優座), Aoni Production (青二プロダクション)
• English: Earl Hammond

Music

The songs were composed by Akihiro Komori and performed by Columbia Orchestra. The lyrics were written by actress Yasuko Miyazaki under the nickname Takaba, who also wrote the screenplay.

1. "The Swan Princes" (白鳥の王子, Hakuchō no ōji) (Singers: Eiko Masuyama and The Chirps)
2. "I'm Sorry" (なみだとねんね, Namida to ne nen'ne) (Singers: Kumiko Ōsugi and The Chirps)

International releases

The film was dubbed in English in 1983 by Sound Shop Inc. in New York under the direction of Peter Fernandez and released by Turner Program Services. The movie was later released on VHS in 1984 by RCA Columbia Pictures Home Video.

In Italy, the movie was theatrically released on 23 November 1978 under the title "Heidi Becomes Princess" (Italian: Heidi diventa principessa). This was done to capitalize on a vague likeness between Eliza and Heidi from Heidi, Girl of the Alps, which had gained huge popularity in Italy that same year. Eliza's name was changed to Heidi in the movie, and Heidi's Italian child voice actress was hired to dub the character. The Italian version is a few minutes shorter, and features narration provided by the Italian narrator of the Heidi series.

The film was also dubbed in Spanish, French, German, Hungarian, Russian, Greek, Korean, and Arabic.

External links

• Official English webpage from Toei Animation
• The Wild Swans at IMDb
• The Wild Swans at FilmAffinity
• The Wild Swans at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• The Wild Swans (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia