Heidi: Girl of the Alps (Season 1)

Directed by Isao Takahata a decade before he co-founded Studio Ghibli with Hayao Miyazaki — who handled the episode layouts here — Heidi: Girl of the Alps (アルプスの少女ハイジ, 1974) is available to watch online on iFILM, adapted from Johanna Spyri's 1881 Swiss novel across fifty-two episodes.

After her parents die, Heidi is sent to live with her grandfather high in the Alps. He is known as a cold recluse, but the girl finds a way through. When she is uprooted to a wealthy Frankfurt household to companion a wheelchair-bound girl named Clara, the adjustment is harder — she misses the mountains, the shepherd boy Peter, and the grandfather she had only just reached. Takahata built the series with almost no antagonists and no chases, just small people learning to trust each other. Stream every episode of Heidi: Girl of the Alps (1974) online on iFILM.