Heidi, the children’s series that triumphed around the world, is celebrating. This January marks 50 years since the first broadcast on television. It was on January 6, 1974 when we met this orphan girl for the first time, that she had to face a completely different life with her grandfather.
The young woman soon conquered the public in numerous countries. Her adventures and those of her friends Pedro and Clara traveled to more than 46 countries. She did not arrive in Spain until 1975, where she also broke all audience records.
But what has truly made Heidi an international character are the numerous adaptations that have told her story through all possible formats, from the remembered anime created by Isao Takahata, to Mad Heidi, a recreation of the novel in a horror tone. bloody.
The story of Heidi, her grandfather, her friends Pedro and Clara and the implacable Miss Rottenmeier continue to be an icon throughout the planet today, although especially in Switzerland, where there is even an open-air museum in the town of Maienfeld. .
The legendary series is based on Heidi’s Years of Wandering and Learning, the novel that the Swiss author Johanna Spyri wrote in 1880. This work catapulted her to fame: 50 million books sold, translated into more than 50 languages ??and inspiration for series, plays and even a movie.
It all begins when Heidi, a sweet girl, is orphaned and is taken by her maternal aunt Dete to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps. The man has a far from affable character, to the point that he is known as the Old Man of the Alps and that at first he does not accept the presence of the minor.
In this new day to day, Clara’s governess, Miss Rottenmeier, will also be present, another tough nut to crack and who will see Heidi as a threat to her strict rules.
There, he becomes inseparable from his new friends Pedro and Clara, a paralyzed girl whom he also takes care of. As seen in the anime series, both will help him conquer everyone around him in his new life in the Swiss Alps.