Pippi Longstocking/Trivia

• Creator Backlash: Astrid Lindgren hated the idea of having Pippi animated, and claims that she only allowed Nelvana to do an Animated Series because they wouldn't stop bugging her. Clearly, Hayao Miyazaki should have tried harder.
• Fountain of Expies: Pippi has served as the inspiration for a lot of spunky redhaired heroines over the years. One notable modern example is Lisbeth Salander of The Millennium Trilogy, and it's even lampshaded in one of the books.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Melissa Altro, who voices Pippi in the animated series also voices Muffy in Arthur.
• What Could Have Been: At one point in 1971, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata wanted to do an anime adaptation of Pippi, however when they went to get personal permission from the creator, they were denied and the project was canceled. Some samples of Miyazaki's lovely artwork for the project still exist and can be seen here.
  • Then in 1972 Miyazaki and Takahata created another anime called "Panda Kopanda" (in English "Panda! Go Panda!"), and the heroine Mimiko is a spunky, pig-tailed redhead who is an orphan and lives by herself in a house with animals.
  • A lot of the concept art did make it into later pictures though, especially the extensive background work in Visby and Stockholm which became most of the backgrounds for Kiki's Delivery Service. Pippi's braids are resurrected in the pirate queen from Laputa, who has a youthful portrait in her airship cabin looking suspiciously like Pippi...
• Word of Dante: Everybody in Sweden knows that Pippi's horse is named Lilla Gubben. This name never appears in the books, who simply refers to Pippi's horse as "Pippi's horse." The name incidentally means "Little Old Man" and originated in the 1969 TV series -- though even there, Tommy (as the voiceover narrator) explains that the horse doesn't have a real name; "Lilla Gubben" is an affectionate term Pippi uses when talking to him.