Twelve Months (1980 film)

Twelve Months (世界名作童話 森は生きている) 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 unsatisfied queen wishes to see where the flowers grow for herself.

Original cast

 * Anja - Shinobu Otake
 * Queen - Ai Kanzaki
 * Stepmother - Tokuko Sugiyama
 * Stepmother's daughter - Mariko Mukai
 * Professor - Ichirō Nagai
 * Prime Minister - Masashi Amenomori
 * Officer - Daisuke Ryu
 * January - Kiyoshi Kobayashi
 * April - Katsuji Mori
 * Soldier - Masato Yamanouchi
 * Young soldier - Kōji Yakusho
 * Additional voice - Hidekatsu Shibata

Russian Voice Cast

 * Anja - Svetlana Stepchenko
 * Queen - Irina Cartashyova
 * Stepmother - Anatoliy Barantsev
 * Stepmother's daughter - Klara Rumyanova
 * Professor - Igor Taradaykin
 * January - Boris Novikov
 * April - Alexander Vigdorov
 * February - Vsevolod Abdulov
 * March - Sergei Yursky
 * May - Yuriy Menshagin
 * June - Mikhail Kononov
 * July - Alexander Voevodin
 * August - Evgeniy Revenko
 * September - Yuriy Malyarov
 * October - Dmitriy Polonskiy
 * November - Igor Yasulovich
 * December - Yuri Sarantsev

English Voice Cast

 * Earl Hammond
 * Joan Shepard
 * Ray Owens
 * Pierre Cache
 * Jenn Thompson
 * Paula Parker
 * John Bellucci
 * Anja - Corinne Orr