Nobody's Boy: Remi (1980 Theatrical Edition)

いえなきこ げきじょうばん

Aired: 1980

A theatrical anime produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha and released by Toho, this feature-length compilation re-edits the 1977-78 Nippon TV series adapting Hector Malot's classic French children's novel 'Sans Famille' (Nobody's Boy). Director Osamu Dezaki brings his trademark stylised compositions to the story of Remi, an orphaned boy raised by the kindly Mother Barberin in a Provencal village. When his cold foster father unexpectedly sells him to the travelling showman Vitalis, Remi sets out across France with the dog Capi and the monkey Joli-Coeur, performing for coins and searching for his true family. Poverty, prejudice, the dignity of the itinerant artist, Vitalis's snowbound final lesson and the long road back to family love are distilled into a single feature with the weight and lyricism that made Dezaki one of the era's most celebrated anime stylists.