Twelve Months (1980 film)

Twelve Months (世界名作童話 森は生きている, Sekai Meisaku Dōwa Mori wa Ikiteiru, Russian: Двенадцать месяцев, Dvenadtsat mesyatsev) is a 1980 animated feature film directed by Yugo Serikawa, Kimio Yabuki and Tetsuo Imazawa, produced by Toei Animation from Japan in partnership with Soyuzmultfilm from the Soviet Union. It was based on the fairy tale of the same name written by Samuil Marshak. The music was composed by Vladimir Ivanovich Krivtsov (Владимир Иванович Кривцов) and performed by the National Leningrad Philharmonic under the direction of A. S. Dmitriev. Famous manga artist Osamu Tezuka served as co-producer and character designer on the film.

Twelve Months
Poster
Directed byYugo Serikawa
Kimio Yabuki
Tetsuo Imazawa
Produced byChiaki Imada
Osamu Tezuka
Written byKimio Yabuki
Ikuko Oyabu
Tomoe Takashi
Based onThe story by Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak
Music byVladimir Ivanovich Krivtsov
CinematographyRyoichi Toba
Yutaka Chikura
Production
company
Distributed byToei Company
Release date
March 15, 1980 (Japan)
Running time
65 minutes
CountryJapan
Soviet Union
LanguageJapanese / Russian / English

Plot synopsis

A spoiled, young queen asks for the impossible during a cold winter and requests for a bouquet of Galanthus, a spring wildflower, for New Year's Day in exchange for a reward of gold. One greedy woman desires to collect the bounty and instead of sending her own daughter, readily sends her young stepdaughter, Anja, to look for the white-blossomed flowers in the deep forest during a night snowstorm despite knowing the task will be impossible. Despite refusing, Anja is cast into the blizzard by her stepmother and in the barren forest, falls unconscious from the freezing cold. Later, she is awoken and is drawn to a light in the distance from a mysterious bonfire, surrounded by spirits whom reveal themselves as the Twelve Months. Learning of her task, the twelve spirits take pity on Anja. They use their powers to temporarily bring spring to allow the flowers to grow and be collected but requests no one is to know how and where she obtained the Galanthus. A grateful Anja returns home with the requested flowers and the bouquet is presented to the Queen by her stepmother and stepsister. However, the dissatisfied queen wishes to see where the flowers grow for herself.[1]

Cast

Character Original English
Anja Shinobu Otake Corinne Orr
Queen Ai Kanzaki Paula Parker
Stepmother Tokuko Sugiyama Joan Shepard
Stepmother's daughter Mariko Mukai Jenn Thompson
Professor Ichirō Nagai Unknown
Prime Minister Masashi Amenomori
Officer Daisuke Ryu
January Kiyoshi Kobayashi
February Unknown
March
April Katsuji Mori
May Unknown
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Soldier Masato Yamanouchi Earl Hammond
Young soldier Kōji Yakusho Unknown

Additional Voices

See also

References

  1. "Twelve Months > Overview". Allmovie. Retrieved April 15, 2010.
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