''Pippi Longstocking'' is a 1997

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

co-directed by Michael Schaack and Clive A. Smith, and written by Catharina Stackelberg, based on the eponymous children's books by

Astrid Lindgren Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren (; ; 14 November 1907 – 28 January 2002) was a Swedish writer of fiction and screenplays. She is best known for several children's book series, featuring Pippi Longstocking, Emil of Lönneberga, Karlsson-on- ...

. A joint Swedish-German-Canadian venture produced by

Svensk Filmindustri SF Studios is a Swedish film and television production and distribution company (both Swedish and international) with headquarters in Stockholm and local offices in Oslo, Copenhagen, Helsinki and London. The studio is owned by Nordic media congl ...

, IdunaFilm, TFC Trickompany and

Nelvana Nelvana Enterprises, Inc. (; previously known as Nelvana Limited, sometimes known as Nelvana Animation and simply Nelvana or Nelvana Communications) is a Canadian animation studio and entertainment company owned by Corus Entertainment. Founded ...

, the film features the voices of

Melissa Altro Melissa Altro (born May 16, 1982) is a Canadian voice actress and voiceover coach from Montreal, Quebec. Biography Prior to having a career to voice acting, Altro guest-starred on a 1994 episode of the YTV/Nickelodeon horror anthology serie ...

Catherine O'Hara Catherine Anne O'Hara (born March 4, 1954) is a Canadian-American actress. She is known for her comedy work on ''Second City Television'' (1976–84) and ''Schitt's Creek'' (2015–2020) and in films such as '' After Hours'' (1985), ''Beetleju ...

Gordon Pinsent Gordon Edward Pinsent (born July 12, 1930) is a Canadian actor, writer, director, and singer. He is known for his roles in numerous productions, including ''Away from Her'', ''The Rowdyman'', ''John and the Missus'', ''A Gift to Last'', '' Due So ...

Dave Thomas Dave may refer to: Film, television, and theater * Dave (film), ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver * Dave (musical), ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film * Dave (TV channel), a digital ...

Wayne Robson Wayne Robson (April 29, 1946 – April 4, 2011) was a Canadian television, stage, voice and film actor known for playing the part of Mike Hamar, an ex-convict and sometime thief, on the Canadian sitcom ''The Red Green Show'' from 1993 to 2006, as ...

and

Carole Pope Carole Ann Pope (born 6 August 1950) is a British-born Canadian rock singer-songwriter, whose provocative blend of hard-edged new wave rock with explicit homoerotic and BDSM-themed lyrics made her one of the first openly lesbian entertainers t ...

. For its releases in both the United States and Canada, the film was distributed theatrically by

Legacy Releasing Legacy Releasing was an independent film distribution company based in California. It was founded in 1996 by Mark Borde and J. David Williams, veterans in the motion picture industry. The company's first two releases, '' Once Upon a Time...When W ...

, and on VHS and DVD by

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video ...

under their

Warner Bros. Family Entertainment Warner can refer to: People * Warner (writer) * Warner (given name) * Warner (surname) Fictional characters * Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner, stars of the animated television series ''Animaniacs'' * Aaron Warner, a character in '' Shatter Me ...

label. It was also served as a pilot of a spin-off television series, which premiered on

Teletoon Teletoon (stylized as TELETOON) is a Canadian English-language specialty channel owned by Teletoon Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment. Its name is a portmanteau of "television" and " cartoon". The channel primarily broadcasts ...

in Canada, and then aired on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

. From there, only three out of thirteen episodes from the series' first season, ''Pippi Goes to the South Seas'', ''Pippi Meets Some Pearl Poachers'' and ''Pippi Goes Home'' were combined into a feature film ''Pippi's Adventures on the South Seas'', released on VHS and DVD by HBO Home Video on 2 May 2000. The film is Nelvana's first animated theatrical feature since '' Babar: The Movie''.

Plot

The film begins with Pippi sailing around the world with her father, Captain Efraim Longstocking, her pet horse, Horace, her pet

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...

, Mr. Nilsson, and various members of the ship's crew. One night during a hurricane, the captain is washed over board into the sea. As he drifts off, he calls to Pippi that he will "meet her in

Villa Villekulla Villa Villekulla is a fictional house that is the home of Pippi Longstocking, a character in a series of books. She lives there with her horse and monkey, Mr. Nilsson. Outside stands a tree that grows Sockerdricka, a soft drink sold in Sweden. ...

". To that effect, Pippi and her pet animals make their way home, Villa Villekulla, to await his return. Not long after arriving, she makes friends with the two children across the street — Tommy and Annika, who are captivated by her free spirit and fun-loving attitude. They soon convince her to go to school (for the first time in her life) where she gets into trouble, despite winning the hearts of her classmates. Pippi also soon attracts the attention of a local

social worker Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social work ...

, Mrs. Prysselius, who conspires to put her into foster care. When Mrs. Prysselius goes to speak with the local law enforcement of the need for the girl to be placed in a home for orphans, she lets certain details (her lack of adult supervision, living alone, having a large supply of gold coins kept out in the open, and most of all, leaving her door unlocked) be revealed to a pair of thieves already in jail. The thieves, Bloom and Thunder-Karlsson, decide to rob Pippi themselves once they break out of jail. Pippi and her friends take part in many adventures and close-calls, winning over almost everyone, with the exception of Mrs. Prysselius and Tommy and Annika's parents. Just when Mrs. Prysselius has had enough, gets into a breakdown and is about to drag Pippi straight to the children's home herself, Pippi's father returns to take her back to their life on the sea. However, Pippi decides that she can't leave her new friends and decides to stay in Villa Villekulla.

Cast

as Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Efraim's Daughter "Pippi" Longstocking *

as Mrs. Helga Prysselius *

as Captain Efraim Longstocking *

as Thunder-Karlsson *

as Bloom *

as Teacher *

Noah Reid Noah Nicholas Reid (born May 29, 1987) is a Canadian voice, stage, and screen actor; and musician. He has performed in several films and television series, including ''Franklin'' and the CBC comedy ''Schitt's Creek''. In 2016, he received a Cana ...

as Tommy Settegren * Olivia Garratt as Annika Settegren ** Judy Tate provides Annika's singing voice. * Rick Jones as Constable Kling / O'Malley * Philip Williams as Constable Klang / Ringmaster * Mari Trainor as Mrs. Kling *

Elva Mai Hoover Elva Mai Hoover is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her performance as Betty Fox in ''The Terry Fox Story'', for which she garnered a Genie Award nomination for Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actress a ...

as Mrs. Klang * Richard Binsley as Mr. Nilsson / Mrs. Prysselius' Dog *

Karen Bernstein Karen Bernstein is a Canadian retired voice actress. She is best known to many in North America as the original voice of Sailor Mercury in the Canadian dubbing of the first two seasons of '' Sailor Moon''. She was replaced by Liza Balkan. Bernst ...

as Mrs. Ingrid Settergren *

Martin Lavut Martin Lavut (December 18, 1934 – January 26, 2016) was a Canadian filmmaker born in Montreal, Quebec. He wrote and directed numerous theatrical and television dramas, and documentary films. Among his dramas are the films '' Certain Practices'', ' ...

as Mr. Settergren

Musical numbers

# "What Shall I Do Today?" - Pippi # "Hey-Ho, I'm Pippi" - Pippi # "Recipe for Life" - Pippi, Tommy and Annika # "A Bowler and a New Gold Tooth" - Bloom and Thunder-Karlsson # "A Bowler and a New Gold Tooth" (reprise) - Bloom and Thunder-Karlsson # "Pluttifikation" - Teacher, Pippi and Students # "The Schottische" - Bloom, Pippi and Thunder-Karlsson # "What Shall I Do Today?" (reprise) - Pippi # "Hey-Ho, I'm Pippi" (reprise) - Pippi # "Recipe for Life" (reprise) - Pippi

Release

Box office

''Pippi Longstocking'' opened theatrically in the United States on 22 August 1997 in 73 venues. In its opening weekend, the film earned $62,196, ranking number 23 in the box office. The film closed on 30 October 1997, having grossed $505,335.

Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics.

Review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reports a 43% rating based on 7 reviews, with an average rating of 4.4/10.

Lawrence Van Gelder Lawrence Ralph Van Gelder (February 17, 1933 – March 11, 2016) was an American journalist and instructor in journalism who worked at several different New York City-based newspapers in his long career. Until 2010, he was senior editor of the Ar ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' gave the film a mixed review, stating "As Goldilocks might say, when it comes to uncomplicated children's entertainment, this ''Pippi Longstocking'' is not too big, not too small, but just right." Howard Feinstein of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' largely disapproved of

's acting, but praised the performances for "Pluttifikation" and "A Bowler and a New Gold Tooth".

References

External links

* * * *
Review
at bfi.org.uk (with cast and crew credits) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pippi Longstocking 1997 films 1997 animated films 1997 independent films 1997 fantasy films 1990s musical comedy films English-language Canadian films English-language German films Swedish animated fantasy films Swedish musical films Swedish independent films German animated fantasy films German children's films German independent films German musical comedy films Canadian animated feature films Canadian musical films Canadian independent films Canadian animated fantasy films Animated musical films 1990s children's comedy films 1990s children's fantasy films Animated films based on children's books Films adapted into television shows Films based on Pippi Longstocking Nelvana films 1997 comedy films 1990s children's animated films 1990s English-language films Films directed by Michael Schaack 1990s Canadian films 1990s German films 1990s Swedish films