Customer Reviews

Pippi Longstocking -The TV Series

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

OH MY GOODNESS!!!! the 4 box DVD set was the one I had been looking for!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!
I was swayed a little and confused by the reviews that people left here about the TV Series DVD vs the 4 DVD Pipi Collection so I bought both the 4 DVD set & the TV series DVD to be sure that I was getting what I was looking for.
And also to hopefullyhelp me to leave for you a clearer more helpful review.
When looking for my version of this Pipi memory I also discovered that many people have their own generation version of the Pippi that was theirs.
I was looking for the one from when I was a little youth born in 1975 and grew up on Vancouver Island and enjoyed Pipi most of my life. I wanted to bring back those "oh so dear to my heart" childhood memories of Pipi... and the 4 DVD box set was it.
If you remember watching Pipi as a feature film and the girls name was Annika than the 4 DVD set is for you.
If you remember watching Pipi as a TV Series and the girls name was Anna not Annika then the TV Series DVD is the one for you.
Having grown up with the 4 DVD box set version as my memories
the "TV Series DVD" to me was disappointing but watchable. They did change Annika to Anna and the children were not as joyful in the dubbing, and the dialogue is certainly different. You are watching the same images but, you do get another storyline perspective of Pipi. You do learn different things about Pippi from the TV Series DVD that you would not have otherwise known with the box set, but it's nothing necessary to know, it is not money needed to be spent if it is the Annika version you are looking for...unless you have it to spend and would like to give it a try as well or vice versa to those were actually seeking the TV Series version.
As well, the images are pieced together differently to produce a different story in images as well as dialogue.

Maybe this could help clarify...

One Example:
4 DVD Box set
When Tommy and Annika come to give Pippi the candy box she gives them gifts too. A Harmonica and a ball.

TV Series DVD
Pipi is looking for her bag of gold gives Tommy a pocket knife (which kinda shocked me) and Anna a hair comb, I think it was.

But honestly, for me the TV Series DVD has been viewed once and is collecting dust on my shelf and does not have the same joy to me as the one I grew up with. The 4 box DVD set.

The 4 DVD Boxed set is definately the English dubbed Pipi I remember in all it's Glory!!! to the nostalgic soundtrack scratch (that I guess is what could be what is being misinterpreted as smoking voices in the 4 DVD collection reviews) *shrug* Pipi's big burley papa could have sounded this way, I guess...but, I just thought that it was cuz he was her big strong " Captain of the South Seas" papa *GRIN*

So whichever of these Pippi releases remind "you" of the Pippi that you wanted to be friends with or even BE! Joy to you and YOUR Pipi memories *smile*
Hope this helps! And if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask I will help you if I can.

I was really turned off by the British dubbing. Tommy, Anika, & Pippi all sound alike and they are so drab. The original dubbing may not have been perfect, but gave the episodes a feeling of fun & excitement. They also call Anika "Anna" - I grew up with Pippi and this was a little dissapointing. I gave it 4 stars because the quality is high and perhaps a new generation would find it appealing.

(...) THE NEW DUBBING IN NOT RIGHT!! I LOVE PIPPI AND THE WHOLE CHARM OF IT WAS THE BAD AMERICAN DUBBING!! I WAS SOOO HAPPY TO FIND OUT THEY FINALLY RELEASED ALL THE PIPPI'S ON DVD BUT THEN I HEARD THE NEW DUBBING AND WAS VERY UPSET AND DISAPPOINTED.. I SOLD IT IMMEDIATELY AND LIVE ON WITH MY PIPPI VHS TAPES!! THEY SHOULD HAVE MADE IT SO YOU HAD A CHOICE OF AMERICAN, BRITISH OR SWEDISH.. I MEAN THEY HAD TO HAVE KNOWN THAT TRUE PIPPI FANS WERE GONNA BE UPSET!!

Like other people who have reviewed this Pippi Longstocking DVD I was a child of the 70s who grew up watching the Swedish Pippi Longstocking movies and never knew that they were actually episodes from an old Swedish kiddy show that were strung together for the movies and I loved the idea of watching the TV show versions but like the others I'm very disappointed with the new dubbing. I mean come on, Pippi's friend's name is Annika not Anna. Why in the world did the British makers of this DVD find that they had to change Annika to Anna? Is it hard for British people to pronounce Annika? I think not! I think that just because Anna is one of the most popular names in the UK they felt that Anna would be more acceptable then Annika but I think that was a big mistake and I hope someone decides to put out a new set with better dubbing and will go back to using the correct name of Annika and I like the suggetions of the original Swedish language tracks with English subtitles. It's a shame that this Pippi set is such a disappointment and they should have known that people would notice the difference between Annika and Anna! And as another reviewer said, they should have realize that TRUE Pippi fans would be unhappy! I also agree that they shoudn't have used British slang if they were going to sell this to non-British English speakers. They shouldn't use any slang at all, no British slang, no American slang, etc! Just basic English that everyone can understand!

I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY USED PROPER ENGLISH ACCENTS FOR THE VOICE OF PIPPI LONGSTOCKING! And they didn't even use the same English words in most parts. I was looking forward to my daughter being able to enjoy these movies like I did growing up. I was SO disappointed. Someone in America needs to redo this set and offer English subtitles or put the ORIGINAL dubbing BACK IN. (Don't get me wrong , I have NOTHING against the British. I LOVE Britain. It just doesn't work for Pippi.) I will stick with my grainy disintegrating VHS tapes. All I can say is BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

The Swedish original with subtitles as an option would be the ideal, but this is still great. Finally we can view part of the full TV episodes that they later slaughtered into two full lenght movies in the US. There were 13 30-minute episodes made in total, so we're talking 6 1/2 hrs of Pippi that was cut into two 1 1/2 hrs films!!! This DVD contains 6 episodes. Release the rest as well!!! Great buy and over three hours of FUN. Rejoice!!

The British translators had no interest in making the dvds relatable to non-british english speakers. Pippi says things like, "Cherio", "Jolly Good", and other slang. Simply beastly! She says, "However does one...?" instead of "How can I...?" Her voice sounds to proper for her character, it is difficult sometimes to know who is talking - Anna, Tommy, Pippi? Their voices are too similar, especially when the dubbers speak when no mouths are moving (and I don't mean the narration). Sometimes the character's mouths move and the dubbers say nothing. I would enjoy the original Swedish with subtitles. As for children, they might not understand much of the British dialogue, I know I blanked out on some of it.

The only thing wrong with this is the British dubbing and translation. The accents are fine for the children, but seems a bit to prim and proper for Pippi. A lot of things got anglicised in translation making the whole thing feel more British than Swedish (ex. Annika=Anna, Villa Villekulla=The big house). It is also unfortunate that the theme song was just an instrumental. However, the quality of picture is great and there are some scenes that aren't in the movie version.

It would be great to see a version where you could choose to have it dubbed or in it's original swedish with subtitles

Pippi Longstocking aired as a Swedish TV show in the late 60's. It was a 13 EPISODE series. Each episode was about 26 minutes long putting the total running time at 340 minutes. ALL 13 of these episodes are currently available in Sweden in a collection of SIX DVDs (but only in Scandinavian without English subtitles).

This DVD is ONLY 6 episodes of the full 13 Episode series, so do not be fooled into thinking you are getting the "complete" series in this 160 minute long DVD.

Like many, I have always been bothered by the dubbing in these films, and I have the same problem with this release. However, I have seen the original Swedish language version and that too is dubbed. Like many European films, it does not appear that this show was filmed using ANY natural sound. Since even the orginal Swedish version has awkward dubbing, I would not worry too much about the awkward English dubbing in this release. There simply is no version of this show that features a non-dubbed voice track. Still for the sake of the MANY MANY recently immigrated Swedish-Americans it is an absolute shame that Hen's Tooth did not provide the Swedish language track as an option.

I grew up with Pippi, but not with the American movies of the 70's that everyone seems to be looking for here. I grew up on the 1988 film with Tami Erin! I also read the books over and over.
I've heard great things about this series, especially Inger Nilsson's performance, and I would like to see it. Since the 4 bizarrely chopped and dubbed American versions of this are not part of my nostalgia, I'm skipping those and heading straight to the original 13 episodes! (It seems very wrong to butcher a full television series into 4 movies, changing the dialogue and plot every way you can).

But I see that this DVD only has the 1st 6 episodes? What's a Pippi lover to do?
I will not purchase this dvd, even though I'd like to see it, because I couldn't bear to love it and then only have half of the 13 episodes available to me. Also, I see that there is a lot of criticism of the British dubbing here, and no option to watch it in the original Swedish.

Ideally, I would be able to buy all 13 episodes, with an option for English dubbing, and an option for the original Swedish with subtitles! Until then, I guess I'll have to keep waiting.