The Swiss Family Robinson: Flone of the Mysterious Island

is an anime series produced by Nippon Animation. It was originally broadcast on Fuji TV in 1981 and possibly re-broadcast in 2015 on Tokyo MX.

The story is loosely based on the 1812 novel Swiss Family Robinson by Swiss author Johann David Wyss. As such it exhibits the same geographically impossible array flora and fauna.

The character of Flone is not present in the original novel, in which the Robinson family consists of only a father, a mother, and four sons (no daughters). Fione was likely introduced by Nippon Animation as a new character for the anime version to attract more girls as viewers. Also in the anime version, the oldest of the Robinson children, Fritz, is named "Franz" (though his name is changed back to Fritz in the English dub), and the character of Jack is a three-year-old rather than a ten-year-old.

Very popular in Europe, this anime is one of the few World Masterpiece Theater series to have been dubbed into the English language for the American market. An English dub by PMT, Ltd, titled simply Swiss Family Robinson, aired on The Family Channel cable network in the U.S. in 1989. This dub renames Flone "Becca" as well as her older brother Franz "Fritz". It can currently be seen on the Smile of a Child network and Amazon Prime video. In addition, an Arabic dub was made for the Arab World which can also be seen on NETFLIX named “The Swiss Family Robinson”.

Plot
The Robinson family consists of the patriarch Ernest Robinson, a doctor by profession, Anna Robinson, the matriarch who is a housewife grew up and belong to a farmer family, the oldest son Franz who aspires to be a musician, the middle child Flone, a tomboy, and the youngest son, Jack. The family receive a letter from Dr Robinson's English friend in Australia, Dr Elliot, who wishes for Dr Robinson to treat people in Australia due to the lack of doctors. This is an issue for the children, as the family will be permanently settled in Australia. Franz disagrees since he realizes there is no way he would be able to study music in Australia due to lack of appropriate music institutes. Flone is initially excited since she wants to play with kangaroos, however soon she realises their family maid Marie would not be able to make it since she is taking care of her ill auntie. As a compromise, the family decide to have their relatives over, to take care of Franz while the rest of the family move to Australia. On the day of the voyage, though, Franz changes his mind at the last moment and jumps onto the ship.

At the Blackburn Rock ship, Franz met a girl named Emily who he befriends. The rest of the family interact with various people on the ship, such as the time when Dr Robinson has to assist a pregnant woman give birth. One night, on the day of Christmas presentation, a storm rages on the ship for five days. Dr Robinson and his family are not able to make it into the lifeboat as they were busy trying to tend to the injured. The captain ties Franz onto a log of wood which saves him from drowning, and the rest of the family prepare a makeshift raft to make their way into an uninhabited island before the ship sank. They arrive at an uninhabited island, (in 155°East Longitude and 10° South Latitude based on estimation of Mr. Morton) where they found the body of the ship captain of Blackburn Rock on the shore. On the captain's burial, they found the Blackburn Rock ship sinking with animals within.

They set up camp at the shore of the beach but are soon forced to relocate and make a house on a treetop due to the presence of jackals/striped wolves. They have John the dog who was the pet of the captain, and they befriend a petit baby cuscus and they name it Mercer. They also rescue some chickens and donkey from the ship and goats living solitarily at the island. Dr Robinson and Franz spend most of the day exploring and doing carpentry work, while Anna prepares food and does farming. One time, they saw a ship coming and try to fire a rifle to signal it, but they fail to catch its attention. They spend their days mostly surviving and building boats/ships and doing household chores and for the children, studying. Once heavy rain and wind set, they set out to find a water-proof home, and they come across a cave. They found a skeleton in the cave with a diary near it, as they read they realise the man, whose name was Eric Bates, never made it off the island and died, presumably from malaria. They give him a proper burial. As Flone explores the cave and fetching water, she sees a silhouette of a boy running but the family assume that it is a wild animal although they, especially Flone have a hunch that there are other people living in the island. The next day, Flone finds a boy stealing melon from their garden. The boy, whose name is TomTom, an orphan Australian Aborigine who survives in the sunken boat. They find that he lives with an injured ship captain, Mr Morton. Anna is initially repelled by him due to his rude nature and after he tried to get Jack to smoke an improvised leave cigarette, but soon warms up to him after she read a letter founded by Ernest on the canoe requesting for possible ship to rescue the Robinson family and after realising he had good intentions at heart. Like Ana, Franz as well does not like Mr. Morton. TomTom initially refuses to interact with the Robinson family as his family was subjected to slavery at the hands of Europeans but warms up to Flone and the rest of the family soon. One day, Tamtam with Mr. Morton went to the treehouse with the ostrich that they caught, Mr. Morton slapped the ostrich to run so that Robinsons siblings will be able to leave the house to catch the running ostrich. While Franz, Flone, Jack and Tamtam are chasing the ostrich. Mr. Morton climbed the tree and enter the treehouse and stole a rifle, magnifying lens and some of Robinson's family accessories. That night, He left Tamtam without a word sleeping on the cave. The next day, Tamtam went on the Robinson family to see if Mr. Morton was with them, The whole day, He spent each hour on the shore hoping Mr. Morton will return. That night, while Robinson family is sleeping, Tamtam left the Robinsons and return to cave and Ana notice that Tamtam gone that morning. Flone while looking for Tamtam entered to the cave and notice that the underground water was warm. While Tamtam was with Robinson's family, the animals on the island began to behave strange. That night, while the Robinson family is sleeping, an earthquake occur twice. On his return at the island, Mr Morton asks the family to build another ship as soon as possible, to leave and find their way to Australia after they find out the island is actually a volcanic island which may erupt soon, further there were frequent earthquakes. After staying on the island for over a year, they finally leave to Australia on the boat they built with. The voyage takes much longer than expected but they finally make it, barely alive. They landed at the north of Sydney in winter and travelled by train to Melbourne. The family is greeted by Dr Elliot who provides them with a nice house to stay in, while TomTom stays with the Robinsons until Mr Morton finds another ship. They find out that Emily made it alive and was training to be a nurse, hence after a short reunion, she decides to leave for England to study medicine and become a nurse for three years. It happens to be the same ship Mr Morton and TomTom were sailing in. The Robinson family say their goodbyes and the anime ends.

Official

 * Official Nippon Animation page

Other Sources

 * Swiss Family Robinson page at Disney Wiki
 * The Swiss Family Robinson: Flone of the Mysterious Island page at the World Masterpiece Theater Wiki
 * Swiss Family Robinson page at Disney Wiki
 * The Swiss Family Robinson: Flone of the Mysterious Island page at the World Masterpiece Theater Wiki
 * The Swiss Family Robinson: Flone of the Mysterious Island page at the World Masterpiece Theater Wiki