"Strega Nona" is a short animated film from 1977, based on the children's book by Tomie DePaola. It was directed by Gene Deitch, and produced by Weston Woods Studios.
Basic plot: Strega Nona is a female witch doctor who is known all over Calabria (Southern Italy) where the story takes place. She has for a long time helped many villagers with their troubles, including curing headaches and helping women to find their husbands to name a few.
A young man named Big Anthony secretly watches as Strega Nona uses her magic to produce lots of cooked pasta. When Strega Nona one day leaves her residence under the young man's care, Big Anthony decides to try the same: To produce a lot of pasta...
This was one of the Weston Woods animated shorts I saw as a little boy. Now, when I think about it, this short film had some nice and funny drawings, and a very easy storytelling which any children should be able to follow. This film happened to follow the book very closely.
I remember this short film, mainly because the local library where I'm working used to have this film on a very old VHS. This VHS, which was released in Norway by Nord Video during the very early 80s, also had three other shorts being: "Googles" (1974), "The Three Robbers" (1972) and "Changes, Changes" (1972). Such a nice but funny childhood memory I'll never be able to forget...
Because of this film following the book closely, and this film being most of all one of my childhood memories withing the world of short animated films, I would like to give this a rating of 7/10.
