Princess Sara

Princess Sara
, also spelled as Princess Sarah for disambiguation purposes, is a Japanese anime television series based on the 1905 children's novel A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It aired from January to December 1985, as part of Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater. The series follows Sara Crewe, a young girl student of an all-girls boarding school who later becomes orphaned and is forced to work as a servant.
The anime series was remade into a Filipino live-action film adaptation, released in 1995. A Filipino television drama adaptation also aired in 2007. It was also dubbed in other languages including Arabic under the title (سالي, Sally) and was a huge success in the Arab World and widely popular, spanning reruns in the 1990s and early 2000s and was subsequently added to Netflix Middle East on November 19, 2020.
Plot
In 1885, Captain Ralph Crewe, a wealthy English widower living in British-ruled India, enrolls his ten-year-old daughter Sara Crewe at the Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies in London. She excels in her studies and is loved deeply by her classmates and friends, but earns the hatred of class representative Lavinia Herbert and the grudge of the headmistress Miss Minchin. On the day of her eleventh birthday, Sara learns of her father's death and bankruptcy from an infuriated Miss Minchin, who decides to hire the orphaned girl as an unpaid maid in the school. Miss Minchin and Lavinia attempts to make Sara's life miserable and break her spirit, but with the help of her friends, Sara tries to endure all the hardships with her kindness and imagination.
Characters
The main protagonist of the series and a student of Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies, who is the daughter of Ralph Crewe. Sara is a kind-hearted, compassionate, brave, optimistic, imaginative, and intelligent girl who aspires to be a lady.
Sara's loving and devoted father.
The strict, cruel headmistress of Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies, and Amelia's older sister.
Miss Minchin's kind but meek younger sister, who is a school teacher in Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies.
The oldest student of Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies and Sara's rival, who is bitterly jealous of her wealth and popularity. Lavinia is prideful, sadistic, cynical, and very manipulative.
A scullery maid in Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies and Sara's closest best friend, who lives in the attic of the school. Becky is an optimistic, clumsy, and hardworking girl who comes from the town of Ashfield.
A street-smart boy and Sara's loyal best friend, who greatly admires her. Cheerful and hardworking, Peter is good at driving a carriage and is also seen working at a market. and He is also considered as a love interest to Sara.
A student of Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies and Sara's schoolmate and best friend. Ermengarde is a plump girl who is slow at learning. She is also a victim of Lavinia's bullying.
The youngest student of Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies and Sara's schoolmate and daughter-figure. Lottie is a four-year-old girl who is prone to tantrums.
and
Two students of Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies who are Lavinia's closest schoolmates.
A resident maid of Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies and James' wife.
A resident cook of Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies and Molly's husband.
A maid in Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies who is serving for Sara.
A French teacher at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies.
A kind old man who lives in another house next to Miss Minchin's seminary. Mr. Carrisford is Ralph Crewe's best friend.
An Indian lascar serving for Mr. Carrisford. Ram Dass has a pet monkey called .
Mr. Carrisford's solicitor and confidant.
Mr. Carmichael's polite, generous son.
Mr. Carmichael's daughter and Donald's sister.
Other characters
A solicitor who is invested into Ralph Crewe's business.
Lavinia's father.
Lavinia's mother.
An orphaned street child who meets Sara outside the bakery.
Becky's younger brother.
Becky's younger sister.
Peter's friend.
An alcoholic doctor.
A kind-hearted priest in a church in the city.
A soldier from London who helps Sara pick up the potatoes during a rainy day.
Media
Anime
Princess Sara, directed by Fumio Kurokawa and produced by Nippon Animation, being the eleventh entry in the World Masterpiece Theater, premiered in Japan on January 6, 1985, and concluded on December 29, 1985, after 46 episodes on Fuji TV. Shunji Saida is the character designer for the anime series. The musical score is composed by Yasuo Higuchi. The series features two pieces of theme music, both performed by Satoko Shimonari: the opening theme is , and the ending theme is . The Filipino dub of the series aired in the Philippines in the early 1990s, on ABS-CBN.
It was also aired on Animax, who later broadcast the series across its respective networks worldwide, including its English language networks in South Asia and Southeast Asia, dubbing and translating the series into English under the title Princess Sarah. Animax's version was the series' only English translation, and the series has yet to be commercially released in the United States.
The series has been also selected as one of the best 100 Japanese anime series of all time by the viewers of TV Asahi.
Film
The success and popularity of the anime series in the Philippines inspired a live-action film adaptation. Sarah... Ang Munting Prinsesa (lit. "Sarah, The Little Princess"), produced by Star Cinema and directed by Romy Suzara, was released on June 7, 1995. The film stars Camille Prats as Sarah Crewe. In the mid-2010s, the film was digitally restored and remastered by the ABS-CBN Film Restoration Project, which to date are restoring old damaged classic Filipino movies to a high-definition format.
Television drama
A Filipino television drama adaptation of the series, produced by ABS-CBN, aired from November 12 to December 21, 2007 on the Primetime Bida block. The series stars Sharlene San Pedro as Sarah Crewe. The story is loosely based on the anime series and took further creative liberties from the original source material, with fantasy elements being introduced in the story.
International titles
小公女セーラ (Japanese Title)
Die kleine Prinzessin Sara (German Title)
La Princesa Sara (Spanish Title)
Little Princess (English Title)
Sara Lovely Sara (Italian Title)
Mała księżniczka Sara (Polish Title)
Princess Sara (English Title)
Princesse Sarah (French Title)
Sali سالي (Arabic and Central Kurdish Title)
Sarah, Ang Munting Prinsesa (Tagalog Title)
Küçük Prenses (Turkish Title)
سارا کرو (Farsi Title)
莎拉公主 (Chinese Title)
소공녀 세라 Sogongnyeo Serra (Korean Title)
References
Further reading
See page 30.
See pp. 475–476, 932.
See page 201.
External links
Nippon Animation's official website for Princess Sara
Animax's official website for Princess Sara
Princess Sara English page
The Princess Sara museum (in Japanese)
1985 anime television series debuts
1985 Japanese television series endings
World Masterpiece Theater series
Drama anime and manga
Sara
Animated television series about orphans
Anime and manga set in the United Kingdom
Fiction set in 1885
Fictional orphans
Historical anime and manga
Orphan characters in anime and manga
Child characters in anime and manga
School life in anime and manga
Television series about bullying
Television series about princesses
Television series set in the 1880s
Television shows based on American novels
Television shows based on British novels
Television shows set in England
Television shows set in London
Works about school bullying