9 different versions of Heidi

"Heidi is better than Swiss chocolate, and more famous than our banks," once said the actor Bruno Ganz. He'll be starring in the new "Heidi" film as the grandfather, along with Anuk Steffen in her debut role as Heidi. Just like in the first Swiss film adaptation of 1952, filmmaker Alain Gsponer decided to remain faithful to the books written by Johanna Spyri in 1880 and 1881.

In 1937, the musical drama "Heidi" starred the young Shirley Temple. This version was only remotely based on the novel, as the story rather focused on the typical Hollywood scheme opposing good against evil. In the US, the film immediately became a family classic.

The first German-language film version of "Heidi" was produced in Switzerland. Director Luigi Comencini took risks with amateur actress Elsbeth Sigmund in the lead role, but it paid off: his movie became very successful not only in the German-speaking countries, but also in the US, where a clumsily dubbed version was released - which many viewers still consider the very best "Heidi" version.

This American-German co-production was directed by Blake Edwards, who cast his daughter Jennifer Edwards in the lead role. It also starred Oscar winner Maximilian Schell. The 1968 film is famous to this day in the US, as its first broadcast controversially cut off the last 50 seconds of a very tight football game to start precisely at 7 p.m. It became known as the "Heidi Game."

The best-known adaptation of "Heidi" is a Japanese animation series of 1974. Directors Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki traveled around Switzerland for a whole month in order to portray the nature of the Alps as faithfully as possible. To this day, the series is very successful all over the world and has shaped Heidi's image for generations of young viewers.

This series in 26 episodes was a 1978 Swiss-German-Australian production. It was praised for its historical correctness and for offering a faithful adaptation of the original novels, allowing the viewers to discover the Heidi universe created by Johanna Spyri better than in any other version.

In his "Heidi" version of 2001, director Markus Imboden transferred the story of the girl from the Alps into present day: Aunt Dete is a fashion designer, her daughter Clara a Berlin brat thrown out of her boarding school. The goatherd Peter raises money for Heidi's return to her beloved grandfather through crowdfunding. And toward the end of the film, the two of them open up a motel.

Heidi has been successful not only through films, series or comic books, but also as various musical versions. Here Anna Silvia Lilienfeld is dancing as Heidi, next to Marco Fahrland as goatherd Peter during a rehearsal of the musical comedy at the Leipzig Opera. The premiere of the musical based on the Heidi novels took place on October 22, 2004.

In 1880, Swiss author Johanna Spyri published "Heidi's years of learning and travel." The story of the good-hearted orphan girl became an immediate success. The second volume, "Heidi makes use of what she has learned," came out the following year. The books have been translated into more than 50 languages ​​and continue to shape the image of Switzerland as an idyll in the Alps.