Heidi, the girl of the Alps

By Renée Fredes and Patricia De La LLera

“Grandpa, tell me why I’m so happy.” Everybody who remembers this phrase can go back to childhood with a feeling of happiness. If you are very young, perhaps you don’t know the TV show Heidi where this phrase is taken from. This TV show is based on the novel Heidi, which is the most popular piece of Swiss literature for children, written by Johanna Spyri in 1879. Heidi, the girl of the Alps is the complete name of the most successful cartoon that captivated the heart of many generations in the late 70`s.

Heidi is a five-year-old orphan girl who lives with her grandpa in a small cottage near the Alps, far from the village. She is very intelligent and sensitive, and together with her friend Peter, who is a shepherd boy, she lives the most beautiful adventures where human values are highlighted.

The TV show Heidi is made up of fifty two episodes, which consist of different simple stories about an innocent world that gives Heidi a feeling of freedom and love for nature. Despite the fact that in general TV cartoons show technology and encourage children to consumerism, throughout Heidi’s story we can learn that happiness can be made up of non-material things.

Nowadays children spend a lot of time playing expensive indoor games and watching cartoons where technology is always present. They can see that the main characters are heroes using high technology as an ally to reach their objectives and their happiness.

The ideas that underlie the TV show Heidi are friendship and love for nature, which give children the best tools to build a happy life. The different episodes highlight the importance of playing outdoors, where materialism is not a problem, because children have at hand all they need to enjoy a good time outside.

An important thing to have in mind is that children don’t need so much technology to grow happy. Heidi gives us a good lesson about human values because she shows us happiness in the uncontaminated childhood that she lives. It is an example for our children and it is the key of Heidi’s cartoon popularity, which is still alive nowadays.