×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

News
Nippon Animation Does Mahō Tsukai Haley no Speed Story

posted on by Egan Loo
World Masterpiece Theater studio makes "scientific animation" with wizards

The Anime Innovation Tokyo (AIT) company has announced on Friday that the veteran studio Nippon Animation is collaborating on a planned television anime series called Mahō Tsukai Haley no Speed Story. The director and story creator NAOYA is working with scriptwriter Takeshi Chikakiyo and The Japan Foundation of Public Communication on Science and Technology to create what THINK Corporation executive producer Hiroaki Takeuchi (Kakurenbo, The Animatrix) described as "scientific animation."

AIT summarizes the story of Speed Story as the following:

Haley is a student at the school of wizardry, doing nothing but racing with his friends on flying broomsticks. One day, Haley's teacher unveils one of his latest inventions - magic goggles that measure the speed of moving objects, simply by wearing them. He has Haley and his friends use these googles and compete against each other to decide who will measure the fastest speed of any surrounding animal. Peter, frustrated after losing against Haley, challenges him to another match and the two head toward the human world, taking with them an advanced magic broomstick their teacher had developed. Although this broomstick was incomplete, Haley and Peter succeed in flying around the human world to discover the fastest moving object. Now, what do you suppose this could be…?!

With this planned 26-episode television series for family audiences, the producers hope to connect with children through animation and magic for "an enjoyable learning experience." Nippon Animation is best known for Dog of Flanders, Anne of Green Gables, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Trapp Ikka Monogatari (Von Trapp Family Story), Little Women, and several other television series in the studio's long-running World Masterpiece Theater lineup. Character designer Yoshiharu Satō worked on The Dog of Flanders, Ai Shoujo Pollyanna Monogatari, Anne of Green Gables, and Studio Ghibli's My Neighbor Totoro before working on this new project. Similarly, Speed Story art director Shigeru Morimoto had previously worked on Nippon Animation's Before Green Gables, Tico and Friends, and Trapp Ikka Monogatari.

Mahō Tsukai Haley no Speed Story (previously named Mahō Tsukai Haley: Mahō no no Chikara -The Power of Magic-) is one of four sponsored finalists that AIT is showcasing at Tokyo International Anime Fair this week. AIT is THINK Corporation and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's joint venture that sponsored last year's Cencoroll. Takeuchi said he hoped to have a new trailer for Speed Story by May.

Image © 2009 NAOYA/Haley LLP


discuss this in the forum (13 posts) |
bookmark/share with: short url

News homepage / archives