The 1995 Italian Dub of Little Lulu - From Lost Media to Found Media

 

The Spanish and Arabic dubs of the Little Lulu anime have been available online for a long time, but not officially. The problem is that the overall video and audio quality isn’t exactly the best. The Spanish dub is stuck at VHS standards while the Arabic dub consists of television broadcast rips that usually have an embossed channel logo.

However, this doesn’t stop people from watching the show. For Spanish audiences, home media releases are difficult to come by while nothing of the means exists for Arabic audiences. Streaming is out of the question, too. YouTube is practically the only option to watch episodes from this anime, which is better than nothing. 

Italian audiences were also fortunate enough to receive not one, but two dubs of the Little Lulu anime. The first dub came out in 1981, which was initially sold to the Italian market by Agrama Film Enterprises, a precursor to Harmony Gold.

A cover of the Spanish theme song was used, being sung by the I Sorrisi group. Ever since its initial broadcast, the 1981 dub has been doomed as lost media. Only a low-quality clip of the original intro exists and nothing more.

Around the same time, a compilation film titled, “The Incredible Adventures of Little Lulu” was released in Italian theaters, lousily stringing a couple of episodes from the series to fill in a 90-minute runtime. Years later, it was released on DVD in 2010 and on YouTube in 2020.

The second dub is presumed to have been released in 1995, being produced by SD Cinematografica.

Besides a list of voice actors and staff credits, there is little to no information about this dub either. Not even the company’s own website or catalog contains anything of its existence. 

While I considered both dubs to be lost media for a while, things changed when YouTube user Emozioni Ritrovate uploaded a short video that advertised a complete DVD set of the 1995 series. The video was uploaded on March 1, 2020: around the same time when the COVID-19 pandemic reached impact on a global scale. I was somewhat hesitant and skeptical about the sale itself, until heightened interest inspired me to research more about this particular dub in early 2021.

One of the earliest things that I found predates Ritrovate’s video, which was a July 2019 Facebook post that included screenshots of the 1995 opening/closing, along with a single photo of Episode 5.

Even earlier than that, there was apparently a 5-DVD bootleg set that was being sold on an Italian website called Vivastreet in 2017. By reading the description, the seller mentions that the set was done by “fans and amateurs” (rough translation). Whoever these fans and amateurs are, it seems like the 1995 Italian dub has been privately circulating under the rug for the past few years. 

Nevertheless, I’ve finally decided to buy the whole series from Emozioni Ritrovate. All 26 episodes that were included are in true standard definition. The overall resolution is superb and the colors are shown in its original form (most of the time). The original VHS rips of the ZIV dub usually suffer from a slight color tint. The Harmony Gold episodes come from a non-commercial tape. This is a significant visual upgrade, which can be summed up as a day and night comparison.

ZIV International vs. 1995 Italian Dub

Harmony Gold vs. 1995 Italian Dub

According to Ritrovate, the 1995 dub was retrieved from a local TV station, where some of the masters were a bit ruined. This sorta explains why some of the episodes aren’t in their best shape, such as the slight pinkish tone of episode 3 and the minor damage seen in episode 21.

Episode 3 (Top) and Episode 21 (Bottom)

With this newly acquired dub, all 8 English-dubbed episodes, along with the first Spanish episode, will have improved video quality. It has taken some work to sync up the audio over the course of a few weeks, but it was definitely worth it in the end. The first two English-dubbed episodes still have terrible audio, but if any tape on Ebay comes up for a reasonable price, I may be able to improve it in the future. 

After those episodes are uploaded, following these upcoming weeks, I will be releasing the entirety of the 1995 Italian dub up on YouTube and on the Internet Archive. One of my main objectives for “Project Lulu” will be accomplished, which leaves the remaining goal left unfinished: to subtitle the remaining 18 episodes for English audiences. As I’ve said before, I hope that someone out there will be willing to volunteer and help out. If you are interested in translating episodes of this series, please take a look at Project Lulu over at my website or email me at chozinfellers78@gmail.com. 

For my Italian-speaking readers, I hope that you will all enjoy this series as it comes out in the following weeks. Ciao ciao!

UPDATE:

All 26 episodes of the 2nd Italian dub can be watched on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_jQ0kD9St8&list=PL9GX2EW0TG1laAqWn_59s7KgGBLJqFRhB

All available episodes to watch in ENGLISH (Currently in-progress as of 2023):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS0NDglDwfY