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Hamtaro: Adventures in Ham-Ham Land
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Movie №
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1
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Original airdate
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December 15, 2001
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Hamtaro: Adventures in Ham-Ham Land (とっとこハム太郎 ハムハムランド大冒険) is the first of the four Hamtaro movies. It debuted in theaters on December 15th, 2001 in Japan; the film was never officially released in English.
Plot Summary[]
After a wish from Hamtaro to be able to talk to his owner Laura Haruna, the Ham-Hams travel to Ham-Ham Land to search for a magical sunflower seed to make it happen. But, if they can't get the sunflower seed and return home in time, then they'll be stuck in Ham-Ham Land forever! And there's an evil wizard bent on stopping them!
History[]
Release[]
In Japan, Hamtaro: Adventures in Ham-Ham Land was released on a double-bill ticket with Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. To promote the film, theaters would give out Godziham-kun figures (the initial wave of red, green, and blue) at the majority of screenings. Some earlier (?) movie showings gave out Hamtaro keychain plushes instead of the Godzihams. Hamtaro: Adventures in Ham-Ham Land was a commercial success; alongside Godzilla, it was considered the third highest-grossing film of 2002 in Japan[1] (due to its mid-December release, it was not catalogued in 2001).
Early and Unused Concepts[]
Numerous internal design documents and model sheets from Hamtaro: Adventures in Ham-Ham Land were acquired by Ham-Ham Paradise in 2020 (and subsequently published online).[2] There are several notable aspects shown in these documents that are not reflected in the final film, or the Hamtaro series in general.
Many hamsters - effectively an early version of the Gozaimachu! Vol.2 line-up - appear in the documents; many of which are in a very rough form. These include characters who ended up debuting much later in the anime series (such as Bear, Broski, and Mole), as well as characters who never had a proper anime debut (such as Haisha, Dumpling, and Ken). Some hamsters even have early names instead of their final ones; this includes Stucky and Papa-Ham, who are referred to as "Tunnel-kun" and "Chichi Ham", respectively. The hamsters shown in the documents were most likely unused so they could have unique introductions (in televised episodes) later on, though this is unconfirmed.
In addition, there are numerous early (or otherwise scrapped) designs for characters, locations, and props. It appears that "Ham-Ham Land" was originally intended to be similar to its incarnation in the Gozaimachu! manga series and the Hamtaro Official Trading Cards; in which, it was more of a peaceful town across grassy plains, as opposed to the movie's amusement park-like setting. Furthermore, there are three unique, unused designs for Devil-Ham in the reference sheets, alongside his final design.
International Releases[]
There were several releases of the movie in different languages; the majority of them were only released on DVD or broadcasted on television, with most other countries not receiving a full theatrical release.
Dubbed[]
- Japanese
- Mandarin Chinese
- Cantonese
- Italian (shown on Hiro in 2010)
- Arabic
- Thai
- Finnish
- Korean
A French DVD release was announced around 2007 (alongside Hamtaro: The Captive Princess), but was seemingly never released. It is unknown if the dub itself was ever produced.
Most, if not all, released dubs leave the Mini Hams' song(s) untranslated from Japanese, though some other songs are properly dubbed.
Subtitled[]
There are several unlicensed DVDs with English subtitles. This includes the "Hamtaro Ham-Ham Heartbreak - Theatrical Version I" (哈姆太郎剧场版I) double-disc set: a strangely hacked version of an official Top Insight DVD release, which adds the option to display English subtitles. However, these subtitles are very poorly-translated; referring to Hamtaro as "Harm Talo", among other extensive errors.
Trivia[]
- In one scene, Penelope's blanket and Panda's ears are incorrectly colored.
- In Japan, this movie was released between episode 76 (Laura and the Seven Hamsters) and episode 77 (A Wonderful Santa Claus!).
- While an official English release of the movie did not occur, proper English posters and summaries were produced for international markets by TMS Entertainment.[3]
- Additionally, English title and credits sequences for the film were produced (likely for overseas distribution); however, these sequences were only used in the Finnish dub.
Gallery[]
- Main article: Hamtaro: Adventures in Ham-Ham Land/Gallery