World Famous Fairy Tale Series

World Famous Fairy Tale Series (世界名作童話 まんがシリーズ, Sekai Meisaku Dōwa Manga Shirīzu, lit. "World Masterpiece Fairy Tale Manga Series"), also known as Classic Tales Retold, Fairy Tale Classics, Children's Classics or The World's Greatest Fairy Tales, is a Japanese anime series of short films based on fairy tales and classic stories, produced by Toei Animation between 1975 and 1983.

Premise

The series consists of 20 short films, on which many different artists worked over the years, such as Grendizer's directors Masayuki Akehi and Tomoharu Katsumata. Each short runs 10 minutes and is based on a popular fairy tale or a literature classic as in the case of The Wizard of Oz. All of the narration is provided by Kyōko Kishida while Naoko Watanabe sings the opening song.

The films were released in Japan by Toei Company and Fujifilm on Single-8 in three blocks: 10 films in October 1975, 5 in February 1979 and other 5 in February 1983.

The shorts later aired on TX Network in April 1988, and in 1991 the series was also released on VHS and Betamax by Toei Video, sometimes under the alternative titles Sekai Meisaku Dōwa-kan (世界名作童話館, lit. "World Masterpiece Children's Fairy Tale Hall") or Anime Meisaku Dōwa (アニメ名作童話, lit. "Anime Masterpiece Fairy Tale").

Some of the stories would be later adapted by Toei in its feature length fairy tale film series Sekai Meisaku Dōwa and in the TV anime series World Fairy Tale Series.

In the United States, the first 10 shorts aired in 1977 on CBS and in syndication in a version produced by Fred Ladd titled Classic Tales Retold. This version was later released on VHS in 1986 by Hi-Tops Video and on DVD in 2005 as The World's Greatest Fairy Tales. In 1983 Harmony Gold dubbed the second block of 5 shorts, that were released on VHS in the Children's Video Library series under the title Fairy Tale Classics (Children's Classics on the title card). In 1986, 4 shorts from the third block were adapted by Saban Entertainment in its version of Studio Unicorn's My Favorite Fairy Tales (leaving The Red Riding Hood unpublished) and released on VHS by Hi-Tops Video.

The series was also released in France (Contes Japonais), Italy (Le più famose favole del mondo) and other countries.

Cast

• Kyōko Kishida: Narrator
• Isao Hashizume: Miscellaneous (15–20)

Short films

References

External links

• Official website at Wayback Machine
• World Famous Fairy Tale Series at IMDb
• World Famous Fairy Tale Series at Anime News Network
• World Famous Fairy Tale Series at MyAnimeList
• World Famous Fairy Tale Series at Internet Archive (in Japanese)
• World Famous Fairy Tale Series at Internet Archive (English, The World's Greatest Fairy Tales)