| 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother | |
 1999 cover of the first DVD volume of the anime television series. | |
| 母をたずねて三千里 (Haha o Tazunete Sanzenri) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Adventure,drama,historical |
| Created by | Edmondo De Amicis |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by | Isao Takahata |
| Produced by | Kōichi Motohashi |
| Written by | Kazuo Fukazawa |
| Music by | Kōichi Sakata |
| Studio | Nippon Animation |
| Original network | FNS (Fuji TV) |
| Original run | 4 January 1976 – 26 December 1976 |
| Episodes | 52(List of episodes) |
| Anime film | |
| Directed by | Isao Takahata Hajime Okayasu |
| Studio | Nippon Animation |
| Released | 19 July 1980 |
| Runtime | 107 minutes |
| Anime film | |
| Marco: 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother | |
| Directed by | Kozo Kuzuha |
| Studio | Nippon Animation |
| Released | 2 April 1999 |
| Runtime | 98 minutes |
3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (母をたずねて三千里,Haha o Tazunete Sanzenri) is a Japaneseanimated television series directed byIsao Takahata that aired in 1976. It is loosely based on a small part of the Italian novelHeart (Cuore) created byEdmondo De Amicis, i.e., a monthly tale (racconto mensile)From the Apennines to the Andes (Dagli Appennini alle Ande), widely expanded into a 52-episode epic.[1][2]
The series was broadcast onWorld Masterpiece Theater (known at the time asCalpis Children's Theater), an animation staple that showcased each year an animated version of a different classic book or story. It was originally titledFrom the Apennines to the Andes.Nippon Animation, producers ofWorld Masterpiece Theater, adaptedCuore into a second anime television series in 1981,Ai no Gakko Cuore Monogatari, although this second series was not part of theWMT.
The series was dubbed into several languages and became an instant success in some countries, such asPortugal,Brazil,Peru,Spain,Venezuela,Colombia,Germany,Chile, thePhilippines,Malaysia,Turkey,Iran, theArab world, andIsrael. In someEuropean countries and inLatin America, the series is simply known asMarco. In the Arab world, the series was a huge success; it was calledWada'an Marco (وداعاً ماركو), meaningGoodbye Marco. In Israel, the series was calledHaLev (הלב), meaningThe Heart inHebrew, and was popular in Israel, especially during the 1990s.
The plot of the series focuses on Marco, a boy who lives with his family in the harbor city ofGenoa,Italy during a depression period in 1881. Marco's father, Pietro Rossi, is a manager of a hospital who dedicates his time to treating poor patients, and therefore the family has financial difficulties. His beloved mother, Anna Rossi, goes toArgentina to work as amaid to earn money for Marco. When the letters from his mother stop coming after an indication that she is sick, Marco fears the worst for her fate. Since his father is too busy working in his clinic and his older brother Tonio was sent to train as a locomotive driver inMilan, he is the only one free to go search for her.
Marco takes his older brother's pet monkey Amedio and they sneak aboard the Andrea Doria, a ship bound forBrazil. In Brazil, Marco boards an immigrant ship and arrives inBuenos Aires, where he meets apuppeteer called Peppino and his family, whom he knew from Genoa. They accompany him toBahía Blanca to try to locate his mother.
In Bahía Blanca, he discovers his uncle stole the letters which his mother had sent him. He returns to Buenos Aires and sails off on a ship toRosario; there he tries to figure out how to get on a train toCórdoba. Marco's Italian friends collect money and buy him a train ticket. Marco arrives in Córdoba, and successfully finds the agricultural engineer Mister Mequinez. He tells Marco that his mother works for his brother inTucumán and gives him enough money for a train ticket. But Marco ends up giving the money to a doctor to save the life of a poor girl he meets. Marco sneaks on the train, but he gets caught and tossed off in the middle of nowhere. A group of travelingRoma rescue him and give him an old donkey.
After a few days, the donkey dies and Marco continues to walk to Tucumán. He eventually arrives to his destination hungry and tired, and finds his mother. His mother is very sick and needs an operation, but she is too weak. As soon as she sees Marco, she regains her strength and manages to go through the surgery successfully.
At the end of the series, Marco and his mother return to Genoa, where the family is reunited.
It was directed byIsao Takahata, withHayao Miyazaki supervising the series layout andYōichi Kotabe—already known for his work onHeidi—in charge of character design. Art direction was handled by Takamura Mukuo, while the screenplay was written by newcomer Kazuo Fuzakawa, who expanded the original short story with numerous adventures and new characters, such as Fiorina and her family of puppeteers. As withHeidi, the production team conducted on-site research for the series, this time traveling to Genoa and Argentina.[3]
A condensed film was released in the 1980s using edited footage from the TV run. Nippon Animation also re-animated3000 Leagues as a feature-length film in 1999, with a theme song performed byScottish pop superstarSheena Easton ("Carry a Dream", which was included in her 1999 album calledHome that was only released in Japan).[citation needed]
The series was ranked 81st in a Top 100 Anime list byTV Asahi in September 2005.[4] It was also ranked 20th in a TV Asahi list of the favorite television anime of 100 celebrities in 2006.[5]
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