Heidi (German, 1977)

This dub was the one that motivated the success of the series in a large part of Europe, thus being the basis of most European dubs, and also of some versions produced in India and Philipines.

Cast
In addition to the original dub from 1977, a compilation of scenes was broadcast on German television in 2002. All these scenes received a redub, although the original dub remains the official one.


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Transmission in Switzerland
For unknown reasons, the anime series was not released on Swiss television until 2019 on the SRF (Swiss state broadcaster). A spokesperson for the television network speculated on certain reasons, such as that at that time they were working on a new live-action version of the series, in co-production with other companies; and it was even said that the Swiss people had not liked the anime, but none of that is true. The Swiss childs watched the series from the 1970s and grew up with it since the neighboring German and Austrian channels used to broadcast it repeatedly in their time. What's more, even the Swiss in the Italian and French-speaking parts of the country saw the versions of those respective countries on their screens, which they could also capture on their televisions. In other words, anime in Switzerland is as well known as in the rest of Europe.

Adaptation

 * Considering that the original language of the book is German, various elements of the original work are considered at the time of translation from Japanese to German.
 * Spyri's original book grammar mixes elements of the Swiss and German dialects of the German language of the late 19th century, and many names have this archaic structure. A clear example of this is Heidi's grandpa. This character is called in a number of dubs, and in most literary translations simply as "grandpa", but in German he is known in modern times as Alpöhi, der Grossvater (Alpöhi, the grandpa). However, in the German dub, the character's name in late 19th century High German is retained, calling him "Alm-Öhi", as in the original novel.
 * In the dub, the characters from The Alps, including Heidi, speak with a thick Swiss German accent, which is common in the part of Switzerland where the story takes place. While all the characters from Frankfurt speak with the Essian dialect, typical of that area of Germany.
 * When Dete appears at the beginning of the story, she usually speaks with a Swiss accent, but since getting a job in Frankfurt, she speaks with a thick Hessian accent when she returns to look for Heidi.
 * Another dialect difference occurs with Peter's Grandma, and Clara's Grandma. Both are usually called 'Großmutter', the German word for grandma, but Peter's Grandma is usually called Grossmutter, which is the same, but adapted to the grammar of the Swiss German language, where the letter 'ß' does not exist, and is replaced by 'ss'.

German soundtrack
Heidi's German opening theme was written and composed by renowned German composer Christian Bruhn, and was performed by Gitti und Erika, a German music duo very popular in the 1970s, Heidi's song being their most recognized hit. The rest of the soundtrack was composed by Gert Wilden.
 * The German soundtrack, along with its dub, served as the basis for the European dubs: Afrikaans, Dutch (Hollandic and Flemish), French, Finnish, Greek, Italian, European Portuguese (home video dubs), and Ukrainian. It was also used as the basis for the someone regional dubs of Spain: Catalan and Valencian. Outside of Europe, it was adapted into the Filipino language; and in India, four dubs were produced, in Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu languages.
 * In recent international remasters, German masters are often used with the title translated into the Latin alphabet "Heidi", which is used in much of the world. The latter, however, is so despite the fact that the dub is not based on German, like the Spanish versions for example.