The official website for Gekijōban Sylvanian Families: Freya Kara no Okurimono (Sylvanian Families the Movie: A Gift From Freya), the first anime film for Epoch‘s Sylvanian Families toy line, began streaming the full trailer for the film on Tuesday. The trailer reveals and previews the films’ theme song “SweetSweet” by pop duo Puffy (PuffyAmiYumi).
“SweetSweet” is the Puffy duo’s first song collaboration with musician and producer Tamio Okuda in 13 years since their “R.G.W.” song in 2010. Okuda wrote many of the duo’s previous songs in the 90s 2000s. The duo have performed various anime theme songs, including for SD Gundam Force, Hataraki Man, Oh! Edo Rocket, Genji Monogatari Sennenki, Chibi Maruko-chan, Naruto Shippūden: The Will of Fire, Bunny Drop, and Shimajirō no Wow!. The American cartoon Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, which ran from 2004 to 2006, was based on the musical lives of the duo. Puffy performed the theme song for that show as well as for Cartoon Network‘s Teen Titans animated series (although they did not voice-act in either).
© Epoch
The CG film answers the question of what is the secret that makes the Sylvanian village a wonderful place. In the story, the rabbit girl Freya is trying to make everyone happy, with her mom’s birthday and the Sylvanian village’s annual star festival serving as the backdrop.
The film will open on November 23.
The cast for the film includes:
- Yuina Kuroshima as Freya
- Mayu Matsuoka as Stella, Freya’s older sister
- Nonoka Murakata as Creme, Freya’s younger sister
- Yū Aoi as Terry, Freya’s mother
- Satoshi Hino as Frazier, Freya’s father
- DAIGO as Blues, a Husky
- Inori Minase as Lyla, Freya’s Persian cat friend
- Akeno Watanabe as Cocoa, Freya’s little brother
- Kaede Hondo as Ralph, a boy squirrel
- Misa Watanabe as the Narrator
Kazuya Konaka (Rayca, 2003 Astro Boy) is directing the film, with Hirotoshi Kobayashi (2003 Astro Boy, Dr. Pinoko no Mori no Bōken, Atagoal wa Neko no Mori) penning the script. Jun Ichikawa (The Morose Mononokean II, True Cooking Master Boy, Seven Days War) is composing the music. Frebari is producing the film.
The toy line inspired a new television anime that premiered on Tokyo MX and Sun TV in October 2022. The new cast members for that anime included Aya Yamane as Freya Chocolate, Saya Tanaka as Lyla Persian, Madoka Murakami as Ralph Walnut, Eriko Kadokura as Melinda Cakebread, and Misaki Watada as Creme Chocolate. LandQ studios is animating the series. The franchise also has a new, full 3DCG anime titled Sylvanian Families Freya no Go for Dream! (Sylvanian Families: Freya’s Go For Dream!), which premiered on Tokyo MX on July 6.
Shogakukan Music & Digital Entertainment animated the franchise‘s 2017 anime series, which received a second and third season in 2018 and 2019.
Japanese company Epoch created the original toy line in 1985. The franchise inspired a 1987 American animated series, as well as 1998 British stop-motion animated series. The franchise also inspired a three-episode Japanese CG anime video series in 2007. In the United States, the franchise is also known as Calico Critters.
Sources: Gekijōban Sylvanian Families: Freya Kara no Okurimono anime film’s website, Comic Natalie
