version française
version française
London, 1885. Sara Crewe, who has lived her childhood in India with her widowed father, is sent to Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies. After a few days, and a series of unhappy incidents, Miss Minchin takes a strong dislike to her. But Sara is nonetheless the most pampered pupil in the school : she is indeed the wealthiest, she wears the most elegant clothes, and will thus be used as a show pupil for the seminary. These preferential treatments bring her the hatred of Lavinia, the former headmistress's pet. But Sara also makes friends, and leads a rather comfortable existence ... until her 11th birthday.
That day, she indeed learns the death and the ruin of her father. He had invested all his fortune in a diamond mine which, apparently, contained only stones. Sara's existence will then suddenly change : she has not a penny left, and is sent to work as a scullery maid; she will have to bear the harshness of Miss Minchin and the humiliations of Lavinia. Fortunately, her friends don't let her down; they will help her to never give up.
Personal comments:
You may have understood it while reading the synopsis, this series is everything but a comedy. Some people even consider it as the saddest anime ever made. And it is true that A Little Princess Sara is a drama with an heavy and dark atmosphere, and that everything is done to make it as moving as possible.
There are countless moving scenes; much more than in the original novel, and some of them reach an intensity I found nowhere else. KUROKAWA wonderfully manages to make the tension increase every now and then, but he also succeeds in giving life to the countless peaceful sequences (or even dream scenes) of the anime. But what makes the emotion unique is also (and above all) Yasuo HIGUCHI's music.
A Little Princess Sara's soundtrack is IMO a true masterpiece. I saw many films and animes in my life, and some of them had nice background music. But none of them had the same effect on me. None was so beautiful and so varied at the same time, none of them fitted that perfectly to the scenes they accompanied (check carefully, it is the only place I use the word perfectly in my site). A Little Princess Sara's soundtrack is for a great deal in the intensity of the series. I only wish Nippon Animation had released it on a CD.
With all what I have written, we have material to make a beautiful series. But A Little Princess Sara has many others treasures.^_^ I'm also found of this anime because it is made very vivid by an exellent animation, which makes expressions change with fluidity, and successfully uses body language. I also love it because it contains a myriad of little scenes whose purpose is to make the setting become reality as if you were right there. Each detail has been thought about to make the series vivid and realistic; and all that with soberness: when you watch A Little Princess Sara without taking care to them, you don't notice these details. They are not here to be be noticed, but to set up the general atmosphere.
And the characters are not to be forgotten: no good characters means no good WMT! Once again, a great work has been done to make A Little Princess Sara's ones more vivid. They are very different from the original novel, and, contrary to all appearances, their personality is often complex. Contrary to people often think, it is not only a match between gentle Sara and evil Miss Minchin! As for Sara Crewe, around whom the whole story is constructed, what can be said, except she is one of the most beautiful and the most fascinating anime character ever created.
Voilà! You now know my opinion: all the components that make up a good anime are combined in A Little Princess Sara. I have almost no reproach to make to the series (some details here and there annoy me a bit, but that's all). As a matter of fact (but maybe you had already guessed it), it's my all time favourite anime.^_^
The series arrived in France in September 1987, on the network "La 5", and was there re-aired several times. After the death of La 5, the series was broadcasted on TF1, on cable TV (I don't remember whether it was on TMC or RTL9), and on France 3 in March 1996. It was than the turn of the satellite network AB cartoon / Manga (5 times since early 97), and the cable channel TMC (September-November 97, on Sunday in 2000-2001). In a word, A Little Princess Sara has been often broadcasted!^_^ It has indeed probably been the most successful WMT here. It was especially mentioned twice in the French Anime Grand Prix (yearly poll made by the magazine Animeland among the French anime fans): it was the 20th TV series in 1996, the 24th in 1997 and the 35th in 1998. Following this relative success, AB finally decided to release the series on video.
Note the Japanese songs that appear 3 times in the series have been replaced in the French version by a piece of BGM (also very nice) and that the French beginning song is interpreted by Christina D'Avena (there is also a version sang by Claude Lombard).
In Germany, the series is regularly shown on RTL2 (early and late 97, and from May to July 98). But it last German re-air took place on the little channel TM3 in January-February and October-December 99, January, March, June and November 2000 (phew!). Austrians could also see it on ORF1 (last time in August-October 98). The German version has no beginning song, but a short 5 seconds long jingle. On the other hand, the Japanese songs that appear in the series have been kept.
The series has been broadcasted on Italia 1 (last time in Automn 2000). Apparently, during the first broadcast (in 1986), the Italian title wasn't Lovely Sara, but a much longer one. The Italian new opening has the same music as its French conterpart, and is also sung by Christina D'Avena.
The Japanese songs of the series have been cut like in France. "Mizuiro" is replaced by the instrumental version of the Italian song, and "Hana no sasayaki" by some BGM pieces. The result is much lower than in the French version IMO (and the last scene somehow spoilt). Moreover, many characters have had their names changed in the Italian version (Sara Crewe -> Sara Morris, Mr Dufarge -> Mr Dupond, Lottie -> Lalla !!!, Emily -> Priscilla !!!!!!). I find this more annoying than in the French and German version where some (rare) changes had been made. (fortunately the overall quality of the dub remains good)
Sara seems to have been a huge success other there: after the series ended, Channel 2 (who had broadcasted it) even made a live action movie based on it!
The Arabic version of Little Princess Sara has a new opening song on pictures mainly coming from the two last episodes. The synopsis put at the end of each episode have also been kept. On the other hand, the heroin of the story has here been renames Sali... This version was aired during the summer 1999 on the Tunisian channel Canal 21, but no doubt there has been other broadcasts in Arabic countries.
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Frédéric Goetzinger
(goetz@starnet.fr) Opening date: March 23, 1998 - last update: September 23, 2001