The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (TV series)

 is an anime adaptation of the 1906 novel "The Wonderful Adventures of Nils" by the Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf. The 52 episode series ran on the Japanese network NHK from January 1980 to March 1981. The series was the first production by Pierrot. The anime was mostly true to the original, apart from the appearance of Nils' pet hamster, and the larger role given to Smirre the fox. The music was written by Czech composer Karel Svoboda; Yukihide Takekawa provided the soundtrack for its original Japanese broadcast and for some other countries.
The anime was also broadcast in Canada (in French), France, Germany, Sweden, Finland ("Peukaloisen retket" – "Wren's wanderings"), Iceland (as "Nilli Hólmgeirsson"), the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece (as "Το θαυμαστό ταξίδι του Νίλς Χόλγκερσον" – "The wondrous journey of Nils Holgersson"), Bulgaria ("Чудното пътуване на Нилс Холгерсон с дивите гъски" – "The wondrous journey of Nils Holgersson with the Wild Geese"), Poland (as "Nils and the wild geese"), Portugal, Romania (as "Aventurile lui Nils Holgersson"), in the Arab world (as "مغامرات نيلز" – "Nils' Adventures"), Spain, Slovenia (as "Nils Holgerson" with only one "s"), Slovakia (again as "Nils Holgerson"), Hungary (as "Nils Holgersson csodálatos utazása a vadludakkal"), Israel (as "נילס הולגרסון" – "Nils Holgersson"), Turkey (as "Nils ve Uçan Kaz" – "Nils and the Flying Goose"), Italy, Hong Kong (dubbed into Cantonese), Mainland China, South Africa (in Afrikaans as "Die wonderlike avonture van Nils Holgerson"), and Albania (as "Aventurat e Nils Holgersonit"). In some countries it was edited for length to allow for commercials. In Germany, the episodes of the animated series were also combined into a full-length animated feature (1h 22min) released in 1981; that feature was also dubbed and released in Estonia on DVD and VHS. The anime was also adapted into a German comic book series, with art by the Spanish Studio Interpubli and the German Atelier Roche.
Plot.
Nils Holgersson is a 14-year-old farm boy, the son of poor farmers. He is lazy and disrespectful to others. In his spare time he enjoys tormenting the animals that live on his family farm.
One Sunday, while his parents are at church and have left him home to read the day's homily in the family Bible, Nils captures a "tomte" in a net. In exchange for his freedom, the tomte offers Nils a large gold coin. Nils rejects the offer, and so the tomte transforms Nils into a tomte himself, shrinking him and his pet hamster Carrot to a tiny size and granting him the ability to talk with animals. The farm animals are delighted to see their tormentor reduced to their size and become angry and hungry for revenge. Meanwhile, wild geese are flying over the farm during their spring migration, and they taunt a white farm goose named Morten (whom Nils has also tormented by typing a rope around his neck). Morten decides he wants to join the wild flock. Escaping from the angry animals, Nils scrambles onto Morten's back with his new friend Carrot, and they join the flock of wild geese flying towards Lapland for the summer.
The wild geese, who are not pleased at all to be joined by a boy and a domestic goose, eventually take him on an adventurous trip across all the historical provinces of Sweden. They encounter many adventures and characters such as Smirre the fox. Nils' adventures, as well as the characters and situations he encounters, teach him to help other people and not to be selfish. In the course of the trip, Nils learns that if he can prove he has changed for the better, the tomte might be disposed to change him back to his normal size.
Regional releases.
A Japanese DVD Region 2 box set of the series was produced in 2002, and a French DVD box set in 2005. The TV movie was released in Bulgaria by A-design. Discotek Media released the TV series with subs in 2020. An Afrikaans DVD box set of the series was also produced.