The Dog of Flanders
 

This is another one of those old anime from the World Masterpiece Theater...and an AWESOME one at that!

So the story's about Nello, a good-hearted young boy in 19th century Belgium who lives a poor but happy life with his grandfather Jehan. He saves a dog, Patrasche, from a cruel and abusive owner and keeps him as his own. They develop a VERY strong brotherly bond. Nello also has Alois (pronounced Ah-Lou-Ah in Flemish), a young girl from a rich family whose father doesn't like Nello for his poor upbringing. Nello wants to become an artist just like Peter Paul Reubens, but tragedy strikes Nello one after another and his bond with Patrasche is put to the test.

It's based on the Flemish novel by the author Ouida (or Marie Louisa de la Ramee). I read the book and it's great. There are actually TWO Dog of Flanders animes in existence. One by the World Masterpiece Theater in 1975, and one made by TMS Entertainment in 1992-1993 (which has apparently been buried 6 feet under dirt). Plus there's an anime movie for it that was made in 1997 (And that was ACTUALLY released in the US at one point! But now it's out of print and appallingly expensive!). I saw the movie and...I cried like a baby. TWICE!!! This is my all-time favorite World Masterpiece Theater title ever!!! Unfortunately, both TV series aren't subbed, even though RAWs and torrents are around. The thing is, this is the first "official" WMT title that ever came out in the 70's (next to Heidi, but they didn't call themselves WMT back then) and this is one of the highest rated anime in Japan! If only other countries would love it and groups would sub it!

I truly love this anime, and I sincerely hope others will see it for the true masterpiece that it really is, despite the original TV series being made in 1975. I feel so sad that true gems like this are so ignored and under-appreciated. So yeah, it was made in 1975, but that doesn't mean the story and animation aren't good! I commandeth you all to watch this anime!...and find a sub group willing to sub the series!:D:D:D

Unfortunately I only watched the 90s movie of it. And even though it is pretty good and strong I felt that it was missing a lot of stuff from the series. Hope to see the series someday (as well as the entire WMT series subbed).

Me too. I asked Takara Subs if they'd like to sub it and they said that although they're very interested, they don't have a Japanese-to-English translator. I plan to ask other groups later. I REALLY want this series to be subbed!

As FC has found out, SZS has picked up this series and done the first 8 episodes of it. I've added them to torrent submissions so perhaps we could see a tracker up soon.

Also: this thread needs pix so:
http://i.imgur.com/eG9J4.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._series%29.jpg

I haven't started watching this yet because I'm focusing on some other works ATM. In particular with SZS I am probably going to start with their work on Heidi since I enjoyed the Shirley Temple movie and the first 2 eps that MJN did back in 07/08.

i'm also watched the movie last year, i was surprised when i see it aired in my national cartoon channel in 2011 (and they still reairing sometimes even in 2012)! such a touching story that teared me up at the ending.

Was it aired in English or some other language? I'm trying to figure out whether or not we can have a tracker for this show on AS or not because I'm not sure about the licensing status.

Well, the movie is in English, but as of now it's out of print (and the DVDs are CRAZY EXPENSIVE!!! I'm still pestering Discotek to license it). Both the 1975 and 1992 TV series are still unlicensed.

Huh? You wanna buy it? :eyespin:

That's probably the version that I've watched.
Watched it at the anime era in the Philippines in which Princess Sarah (I like this one), Cedi, and other similar anime were aired as afternoon shows.