That (style) looks incredibly familiar.... Lemme ask around and get back to ya :X

EDIT: AHA!
“The Princess and the Swineherd,” illustrated by Heinrich Lefler

As for inspiration:

Ever heard of John Bauer and Kay Nielsen?


Kunihiko Ikuhara (Utena and Sailor Moon)'s biggest inspiration Kanashimi no Belladonna (NSFW :X)


Other animation: Bakshi's Heavy Traffic, Satoshi Kon's Tokyo Godfathers, Mind Game, omg some much more hahaha. I wish there was a movie version of last.fm :P