The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (anime)

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (ニルスのふしぎな旅, Nirusu no Fushigi na Tabi) is an anime adaptation of the novel The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by the Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf. The 52 episode series ran on the Japanese network NHK from January 1980 to March 1981. The series was the very first production by Studio Pierrot. The anime was mostly fairly true to the original, apart from the appearance of Nils' pet hamster, and the greater role allowed to the fox Smirre. The music was written by Czech composer Karel Svoboda.

The anime was also broadcast in Canada (in French), France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Iceland (as "Nilli Hólmgeirsson"), The Netherlands, Belgium, Greece (as "Το θαυμαστό ταξίδι του Νίλς Χόλγκερσον" - "The wondrous journey of Nils Holgersson"), Bulgaria (as "Чудното пътуване на Нилс Холгерсон с дивите гъски" ("The wondrous journey of Nils Holgersson with the Wild Geese")), Poland (as "Nils and the wild geese"), Portugal, Romania, in the Arab World (as "مغامرات نيلز" Nils' Adventures), Spain, Slovenia (as "Nils Holgerson" with one s), Slovakia (again as "Nils Holgerson" with one s), Hungary (as "Nils Holgersson csodálatos utazása a vadludakkal"), Israel (as "נילס הולגרסון" - "Nils Holgersson"), Turkey (as "Uçan Kaz" ("The Flying Goose")), Italy, Hong Kong (dubbed into Cantonese), Mainland China, South Africa (Translated to Afrikaans as "Die wonderlike avonture van Niels Holgerson"), and Albania, but in some countries it was cut to allow for commercials. In Germany, the animated series episodes were also combined into one full feature animated movie (~ 1h 22min in length) in 1981; the same release has also been dubbed and released in Estonia on DVD and VHS.

Plot

Nils Holgersson is a 14-year-old farm boy, the son of poor farmers. He is lazy and disrespectful to his fellowman. In his spare time he enjoys abusing the animals in his family farm. One day Nils captures a tomte in a net while his family is at church and have left him home to memorize chapters from the Bible. The tomte proposes to Nils that if Nils frees him, the tomte will give him a huge gold coin. Nils rejects the offer and the tomte turns Nils into a tomte, which leaves him shrunken and able to talk with animals, who are thrilled to see the boy reduced to their size and are angry and hungry for revenge. While this is happening, wild geese are flying over the farm on one of their migrations, and a white farm goose called Morten attempts to join the wild ones. Nils manages to flee on Morten's back together with his new hamster friend Carrot, and they join a flock of wild geese flying towards Lapland for summer.

The wild geese, who are not pleased at all to be joined by a boy and a domestic goose, eventually take him on an adventurous trip across all the historical provinces of Sweden. They encounter many adventures and characters like Smirre. Along the ride and at the same time the characters and situations Nils encounters make him learn to help other people and not be selfish. During the trip, Nils learns that if he proves he has changed for the better, the tomte might be disposed to change him back to his normal size.

Main characters

Nils - Nils is the main protagonist of the series. He lives with his family on a farm in southern Sweden. Nils is lazy and disrespectful to his fellowman and enjoys abusing animals in his spare time. After the farm's tomte magically shrinks Nils he becomes much smaller than all the animals and is capable of speaking and understanding animals language. Since all of the farm animals are out for revenge, Nils travels with a flock of wild geese which is flying to the north of Sweden for summer. Nils wishes to transform back to his original size.

Carrot - Nils' little hamster friend, which also joins him on the ride. Carrot's name may also appear as Crumb and was one of Nils' closests friends.

Morten - A goose which originally belongs to Nils' family. Nils originally flies away from his farm on Morton's back after the farm's animals are seeking to get their revenge on Nils. Nils and Morten had their differences, but at the end one can see how much they cared for each other.

Captain Akka (Akka of Kebnekaise) - The matriarch of the wild geese flock.

Gusta - A warm-hearted, if not very bright female goose of the flock.

Ingrid - She was the beautiful elegant female geese, who first got captured by Smirre the jackal, but survived and partnered with Gunnar later on.

Gunnar - At the beginning of the journey, he is quite stern. Over time and after falling in love with Ingrid, he learns to loosen up, though.

Dunfuin -

Smirre - Primary antagonist and evil fox, who wants to eat the wild geese, but because of Nils it never happens. It follows wild geese to the Lapland.

Rosenbaum -

Ondori -

Gacho -

Gorgo - A large, black eagle, that was found in an empty nest by Akka, years ago. She raised him and taught him how to survive by eating fish, rather than preying on animals, such as geese. Nils saved Gorgo from a zoo. Nils, Carrot and Gorgo flew the last bit together to Lappland. Unfortunately, Gorgo had to stay in Lappland when the wild geese wanted to leave Lappland when winter came again.

Suirii - A female goose, who sings with a very high pitch voice and annoys everyone. She fell in love with Lasse (from the Afrikaans translation), while Gustav thought that she loved him.

Ten -

The Witch of Storm (Isatter Kajsa)-

Episodes

Mischievous Nils
Shrunken Nils
Riding a goose
SOS of the forest squirrels
Morten's big pinch
Bird strength contest
Battle of the mice
The crane's ball
Hungry Nils
Lex's evil scheme
Walking lead statue
Morten's first love
Goats of Hell's valley
Phantom town appearing on moonlit nights
The greedy crow and the coin bowl
Choose a crow boss
Ransomed duck child
The lake disappears
Spoiled fawn
Snake's revenge
A testy witch's prank
Bear twins who prowl the forest
Flood of swan lake
Operation 'To hell with Lex the guard-dog'
Rescue party from the sky
One stormy day
The story until now / Morten's engagement
Nils singing on a streetcorner
Arrested eagle
The taste of freshly baked bread
Monster of the forest
Look out, Nils: A mountain fire
Patrol of five
Battle of the spirits of sun and ice
Goose guard child looking for his father
Bird love
Morten the rookie papa
Lapland, land where the sun never sets
Don't follow me, Golgo
Wolf attack
Lake fire festival
Big man who built a forest
Nils's lullabye
Bataki shut in
Haunted house on a full moon
Sea shining silver
Main event of the village festival
Lex's new journey
Nils discovers a secret
Wild goose's present
To my old home
Goodbye, Akka

Cast

Nils: Mami Koyama

Carrot: Tadashi Yamazaki (character original to anime)

Márton: Yoshito Yasuhara

Akka: Nobuko Terashima

Gunnar: Hideyuki Tanaka

Ingrid: Minori Matsushima

Gusta: Shigeru Chiba

Lasse: Kenichi Ogata

Suirii: Yoneko Matsukane

Dunfin: Kumiko Takizawa

Golgo: Tesshō Genda

Lex: Kei Tomiyama

Fairy: Ryōji Saikachi

Emmerich: Sanji Hase

Nils' Father: Masane Tsukayama

Nils' Mother: Masako Ikeda

Regional releases

A Japanese DVD Region 2 box set of the series was produced in 2002, and a French DVD box set in 2005. The TV movie was released in Bulgaria by A-design. An English DVD release was never made. An Afrikaans DVD box set of the series was also produced

Contents

Plot

Main characters

Episodes

Cast

Regional releases

References