Rascal the Raccoon

Rascal the Raccoon is an autobiographical children's book of the American writer Sterling North. It was written in 1963 and describes the experiences Norths with a raccoon.

Action

In May 1918 in Wisconsin of the eleven-year old Sterling North found in the forest together with his friend Oscar and his dog wowser a raccoon baby. The boy has already taken several animals at home, including woodchucks, skunks, a jackdaw, cats and his dog, but Rascal, as he calls the little raccoons, occupies a special place in Sterling's heart.

After nine months of adventure and formative experiences provides Sterling finds that he can not keep forever Rascal, and release him into the wild so he can lead a carefree life.

Awards

The book won the 1964 Newbery Honor and the 1966 Sequoyah Book Award. The German edition was in 1965 awarded the " premium for excellent translation ".

Films

Film

1969 Rascal the Raccoon Disney was filmed. The film was shot with Bill Mumy in the lead role in California and appeared in Germany under the title A cheeky monkey in Maisbeet.

Animated series

The animation studio Nippon Animation produced under the title Araiguma Rasukaru (Japaneseあらいぐま ラスカル) is a 52- episode anime series to the book, which aired from January to December 1977, the Japanese television station Fuji TV. The series is part of the World Masterpiece Theater series, which also includes Heidi and Anne are counted with the red hair. Rascal became a cult figure in Japan and is still very popular.

Hayao Miyazaki, founder of Studio Ghibli and director of Spirited Away, among others, country, worked with several episodes of the anime.

The series was broadcast including in Saudi Arabia, Italy and Germany. In Germany in 2009 the first eight episodes of Studio100 on DVD were released. For spring 2014 Komplettbox of the Universum Film GmbH has announced the 52 episodes.