2013 saw the retirement of Japan’s now legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki, and with that news died the last possibility that one of his original dreams would come true.

Back in 1971, Miyazaki and his fellow animator Isao Takahata drew up plans for a feature anime adaptation of Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking. In the days long before the duo launched Studio Ghibli – “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind” was 13 years away – Miyazaki and Takahata had to work hard to get approval. The two visited Lindgren’s home country of Sweden to do their research, scouting for locations in places like Visby, where a 1969 TV series of Pippi Longstocking was filmed.

The intended title of the film was “Pippi Longstocking, The Strongest Girl in the World”, and the two animators drew up multiple sketches and watercolor storyboards for the project. They then took these to Lindgren herself to ask for permission to create the film.

Alas, Lindgren didn’t give the future master of Japanese animation the rights to fulfill their dream, and the film was cancelled. Fortunately though, those early sketches were kept by Miyazaki and Takahata, and were recently released by Studio Ghibli on their live journal. Click to see the slideshow, from which fans of Miyazaki’s work will find it easy to imagine just how his career may have begun.