Dancers, singers, princesses, today’s cartoons are full of beautiful little girls, fashionably dressed and telling happy stories, but the cartoons of the 1980s were very different from those that are broadcast today .
Disasters , kidnappings, children raised in an orphanage and many other misfortunes for the little protagonists who should have cheered up the afternoons in front of the TV in the company of Bim Bum Bam. Despite the terrible misadventures, in the Japanese cartoons of the time , one could still glimpse a faint hope and that, sooner or later, happiness would return.
Little Heidi treated badly by Miss Rottenmeier , Lady Oscar who had to pretend to be a man to please her father, Candy Candy to whom her beloved Anthony dies , are just some of the most melancholy of that period. Despite the sadness of these stories, a bit of nostalgia for those first cartoons is undeniable and therefore it is right to remember them all.
10) Heidi
The protagonist of this sweet and heartbreaking cartoon broadcast practically in the early Eighties in Italy, in 1978 , is little Heidi . A tender little girl orphan of both parents is taken up for adoption by her grandfather , a tough man but with a very tender soul. Heidi lives many happy years in the mountains of her and her beloved goats, until her aunt Dete takes her to Frankfurt to force her to be Clara ‘s lady – in- waiting ., a very rich and beautiful girl but forced to live in a wheelchair. In this house the little girl will have very hard times due to the treatment reserved to her by Miss Rottenmeier, the very bad housekeeper of the house.
9) Candy Candy
Candy is abandoned with Annie at the orphanage . The girls are inseparable until the Brighton decide to adopt Annie, leaving Candy alone with her Klin raccoon. Candy is later adopted by the Legan family , but the brothers Iriza and Neal make her life difficult . In the course of her misadventures he falls in love with Anthony . But the boy dies and only her friends remain: the brothers Archie and Stear. Candy falls in love again , this time with Terence. The young man who escaped from boarding school to become an actor meets Susanna who, in love with him, attempts suicide when she realizes that the boy loves Candy. She discovers everything and to avoid the tragedy she leaves Terence forever .
8) Anna with red hair
The protagonist is a very unfortunate little girl since birth because she is orphaned at only 3 months and her first adoptive father dies when she is 8 years old by being overwhelmed by a train. Anna is adopted a second time but this father also later dies . For this reason, the young woman spends a few years in an orphanage, until the third family arrives and adopts her. Finally it seems clear but a bad heart attack hits the third father who dies and her mother falls illseriously. Sad and disheartened Anna lets go of her ambitions and decides to look after her mother. This cartoon aired in Italy in 1980 .
7) Pollyanna
Pollyanna is a cartoon about an orphan . In fact, after her mother’s death she also loses her father and is forced to go and live with Aunt Polly . Here the little one will experience only a few happy moments, because the adored aunt will be run over and will lose the use of her legs. Only later, thanks to the help of a doctor, Polly will be able to get back on her feet and fall in love with the doctor. Bad luck awaits the women again, because the aunt ‘s boyfriend will also lose his life in an accident and the women will be alone again.
6) Lady Oscar
Oscar is a girl who has had to live almost all her life hiding her real sex , because her father could not accept that he had a woman as heir. For this reason he raises the little girl as a man and calls her with a masculine name . Lady Oscar while finding her true love is unable to end her life in a happy way. In fact, she fell ill with consumption as a young man and died during the assault on the Bastille hit by some bullets . The cartoon has been broadcast in Italy since 1982 .
5) Hello Spank
The cartoon that aired in 1982 stars Aika , a fourteen-year-old who has just lost her father who disappeared in a boat. The young woman moves to her uncle in a small seaside town, but in addition to the loss of her father, she also has to face that of her Puppy : her sweet dog. Noticing the sadness of her niece, her uncle gives her Spank as a present . A sweet little dog who, like his new mistress, has lost his ownerat sea. The two will keep each other company from the beginning and it will be Spank who will give the young girl a smile again.
4) Remi
Remi , the protagonist of the 1980 cartoon , was born into a rich family but, kidnapped as a baby by his uncle who wants his inheritance, grows up in a modest family . This falls out of favor and the little one is entrusted to Mr. Vitali who makes him work as a traveling artist . After the death of the latter, the boy is adopted a second time , but the new family also falls out of favor.
3) The Tiger Man
Naoto is an orphan who, after a visit to the zoo, decides to become strong as a tiger. Along the way he meets the secret agent of the Tigers’ Den who practices the wrestlers . For 10 years he trained to fight in famous rings sharing the proceeds with the association. However, Naoto betrays this rule to help the orphanage where he grew up and the Tiger’s Den tries to kill him in every way. The cartoon aired in our country in 1982 .
2) Georgie
Georgie is an orphan who is adopted by a family with two brothers. Her adoptive father dies immediately and the child is badly tolerated by her adoptive mother . But, Georgie and her beautiful of her and both of her stepbrothers fall in love with her and this will cause quite a few problems in the family. Pero Georgie is already in love with a boy who in turn is engaged. In Italy the cartoon was aired in 1984 .
1) Lovely Sara
The young Sara comes from a rich family and to study she stays in a very prestigious and expensive college. But she, after the death of her father , she becomes poor and in order to survive she has to serve at the boarding school. She will be having no inheritance and forced to be a scullery maid where she used to study. This heartbreaking cartoon aired in 1986 .
