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Hayao Miyazaki's Pippi Longstocking Finally Lives in Book Release

In 1971, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata went knocking on author Astrid Lindgren's door in Sweden to get the rights to make an adaptation of her Pippi Longstocking book series. The crew had already drawn up sketches, but upon meeting the team, Lindgren gave a resounding "no," and the project was scrapped.

The production artwork though, was not. It resurfaced on LiveJournal in 2009 and is now collected into a soft-cover book titled maboroshi no 'Nagakutsushita no Pippi' (Illusions of "Pippi Longstocking").

Despite not getting to make their planned animated feature, Pippi's character design would reappear in 1972's Panda! Go, Panda!

[Via Rocket News 24]