Twelve Months (1980 film)

For the 1956 Soviet animated film, see The Twelve Months (1956 film).

Twelve Months
Poster
Directed by	Yugo Serikawa Kimio Yabuki Tetsuo Imazawa
Written by	Kimio Yabuki Ikuko Oyabu Tomoe Takashi
Based on	The story by Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak
Produced by	Chiaki Imada Osamu Tezuka
Cinematography	Ryoichi Toba Yutaka Chikura
Music by	Vladimir Ivanovich Krivtsov
Production companies	Toei Animation Soyuzmultfilm
Distributed by	Toei Company
Release date	March 15, 1980 (Japan)
Running time	65 minutes
Countries	Japan Soviet Union
Language	Japanese / Russian / English

Twelve Months (世界名作童話 森は生きている, Sekai Meisaku Dōwa Mori wa Ikiteiru, Russian: Двенадцать месяцев, Dvenadtsat mesyatsev) is a 1980 animated feature film directed by Yugo Serikawa, Kimio Yabuki and Tetsuo Imazawa, produced by Toei Animation from Japan in partnership with Soyuzmultfilm from the Soviet Union. It was based on the fairy tale of the same name written by Samuil Marshak. The music was composed by Vladimir Ivanovich Krivtsov (Владимир Иванович Кривцов) and performed by the National Leningrad Philharmonic under the direction of A. S. Dmitriev. Famous manga artist Osamu Tezuka served as co-producer and character designer on the film.

Plot synopsis

A spoiled, young queen asks for the impossible during a cold winter and requests for a bouquet of Galanthus, a spring wildflower, for New Year's Day in exchange for a reward of gold. One greedy woman desires to collect the bounty and instead of sending her own daughter, readily sends her young stepdaughter, Anja, to look for the white-blossomed flowers in the deep forest during a night snowstorm despite knowing the task will be impossible. Despite refusing, Anja is cast into the blizzard by her stepmother and in the barren forest, falls unconscious from the freezing cold. Later, she is awoken and is drawn to a light in the distance from a mysterious bonfire, surrounded by spirits whom reveal themselves as the Twelve Months. Learning of her task, the twelve spirits take pity on Anja. They use their powers to temporarily bring spring to allow the flowers to grow and be collected but requests no one is to know how and where she obtained the Galanthus. A grateful Anja returns home with the requested flowers and the bouquet is presented to the Queen by her stepmother and stepsister. However, the dissatisfied queen wishes to see where the flowers grow for herself.

Cast

Character	Original	English
Anja	Shinobu Otake	Corinne Orr
Queen	Ai Kanzaki	Paula Parker
Stepmother	Tokuko Sugiyama	Joan Shepard
Stepmother's daughter	Mariko Mukai	Jenn Thompson
Professor	Ichirō Nagai	Unknown
Prime Minister	Masashi Amenomori
Officer	Daisuke Ryu
January	Kiyoshi Kobayashi
April	Katsuji Mori
Soldier	Masato Yamanouchi	Earl Hammond
Young soldier	Kōji Yakusho	Unknown

Additional Voices

• Original: Hidekatsu Shibata.
• English: Ray Owens, Pierre Cache, and John Belucci.

See also

• List of animated feature films of 1980

External links

• Twelve Months at IMDb
• Sekai Meisaku Douwa at Anime News Network's encyclopedia