Cổ Tích Việt Nam (Vietnamese Folk Stories), a new anime series of 125 episodes on Vietnamese folk stories, will air on the Long An Province Radio & Television next week. The series features popular fairy tales and myths highlighting historic events and famous characters from different periods of the country’s history, such as Thạch Sanh (The Story of Thạch Sanh) and Thánh Gióng (Saint Gióng).— Photo courtesy of the producer

VĨNH LONG — A new anime series of 125 episodes about Vietnamese folk stories will air on the Long An Province Radio & Television next week. 

The series, Cổ Tích Việt Nam (Vietnamese Folk Stories), features popular fairy tales and myths highlighting historic events and famous characters from different periods of the country’s history, such as Thạch Sanh (The Story of Thạch Sanh), Tấm Cám (Tấm and Cám) and Thánh Gióng (Saint Gióng). 

Tấm Cám is a fairy tale best known as the Vietnamese version of Cinderella. It tells the life of an orphan girl named Tấm, who is beautiful, hard-working, and kind to everyone and animals.   

She lives with her stepmother and half-sister Cám who find a way to harm her. After facing challenges, Tấm finally gets married with the King and lives happily ever after.

Thạch Sanh tells the story of an orphan who grows up to be a brave woodcutter and defeats monsters to save a princess.

Thánh Gióng portrays a young hero named Gióng who becomes a giant and rides on an iron horse leading his villagers to fight against northern invaders.

Each episode portrays stories about the culture, lifestyle and characters of the Vietnamese people. 

It includes 3D technology and a soundtrack using folk music. 

“We’re happy to produce these cartoons on Vietnamese tales for audiences, particularly youngsters," said painter and film director Trần Văn Kiệm, one of the show’s producers. 

“Our TV series features the beauty of Vietnamese culture. Our painters tried their best to bring lively pictures to audiences.” 

Kiệm and his staff spent many hours on painting and production to capture the Vietnamese spirit through the film.

“Our producer, VietFilm, and artists hope to offer quality shows with Vietnamese animation, combined with Vietnamese language and characters,” said Kiệm, who works for the France-based anime agency Oggy. 

“Cổ Tích Việt Nam is our dream of bringing Vietnamese culture to animation. Audiences, particularly children and teenagers, will be proud of their country and people after watching.”

Cổ Tích Việt Nam will air at 9pm on the channel THVL 1 every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It is expected to be broadcast on the provincial TV stations of Long An, Tiền Giang and Bình Phước. VNS