Version française
Version française
Pollyanna Whittier is the daughter of an American minister. But her father soon dies, and the little orphan is taken in by her aunt Polly Harrington. The aunt first behaves strangely (and coldly) toward her niece, who reminds her painful family memories...
Fortunately Pollyanna has a great secret, which helps her to be never shattered: her father taught her to look for the bright side of things, whatever can happen. Her optimism and her enthusiasm will make her win the heart of her aunt, and face up the adversity that is waiting for her.
This is a rather disputed series: many don't like it and are irritated by the heroine... It must be confessed that on the face of it, her behaviour is everything but believable: imagine a little girl who is glad when you say her she is punished and will only have bread and milk for dinner, because she likes bread and milk (sic!), imagine someone who jump for joy when you quarrel her and say you was worried about her, because it means you love her (I hardly exaggerate), you are actually thinking about Pollyanna Whittier. One of the most excessive and the most caricatured WMT character...
...But also one of the most lovable. The miracle in Pollyanna is that in spite of all the exaggerations of the heroine, in spite of the screenplay which is sometimes a bit far fetched, the series finally goes down rather well. My judgement has probably been affected by the excellent French dub: Valéry Siclay (Pollyanna's voice) has made the best dub I have ever heard in anime. She managed to make believable, and even natural Pollyanna's excesses. The same Valéry Siclay once said in an interview to the magazine "Animeland", that among all the characters she had dubbed in her life, Pollyanna was her favourite.
The same thing can be said about the story: some scenes are very exaggerated, melodramatic, excessively tearful (the characters cry more than in Little Prince Cedie), but the whole series is very well directed. Many things happen (Pollyanna is based on two books), and the story remains interesting from cover to cover. The first part successfully manages to shroud in mystery Aunt Polly and the Harringtons. The series alternates sad scenes (pathetic in the middle of the story), and cheerful scenes, without giving you the feeling you watch a "patchwork". The soundtrack is also very nice, and alternates again slow and moving melodies, and lively music. Finally, technical qualities reach the highest standard: the backgrounds are beautiful, the animation very fluid, and the chara design good. The series BTW received the Atom prize in 1986 in Japan.
In a word, Pollyanna is IMO a very good series. It's true some scenes are a bit irritating, but some others are really worth checking out, and the whole anime is one of my favourite series
The series arrived in 1988 on La 5. But after the death of this network, it hasn't been broadcasted on the regular TV any more. It was only shown on the cable (RTL9 - September 1996; TMC - 1999) and the satellite (AB cartoon - July 97). Several episodes disappeared during these later runs. The beginning song is interpreted by Claude Lombard.
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Frédéric Goëtzinger
(goetz@starnet.fr)
Opening date: March 23, 1998 - last update: September 23, 2001