Was Anne of Green Gables ever dubbed into English? I Miss Bionix examines various issues surrounding the 1979 World Masterpiece Theater production, including the discovery of episodes that were dubbed for Western markets. What happened? Who were the intended countries for this version? And how is it possible that this fantastic series was never released in North America?
This article explores several issues, including the very complicated issue of international copyrights. These Anne episodes appear to be owned by Belgian/German company Studio 100, who were responsible for the recent CGI remakes of Heidi and Maya the Bee. In 2008, the company bought Germany's EM Entertainment, which included a number of classic World Masterpiece Theater series, including Heidi, Maya and Anne. Previously, EM acquired the catalog from KirchGroup, who may have been the original broadcast distributors in the 1980s.
If you're wondering why it's so difficult to obtain the rights to many classic anime movies and TV series, this is a perfect illustration. Any North American distributor would have to navigate through several companies in Japan and Europe, each party demanding a hefty paycheck and attaching strict conditions. And without a possibility for TV or cable broadcast, the costs would be far too prohibitive for most indie distributors.
The English Anne episodes are currently available on YouTube, minus one episode. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to watch, as I'm not in the proper country. D'oh.
Here is a short preview of the English-language dub of Anne. It was produced in South Africa, who were responsible for many European anime dubs in the 1980s. Sounds very good.
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