Barbapapa

Barbapapa is an animated children's television series that was created by French-American couple, Annette Tison and Talus Taylor, in 1974. The series was adapted from the 1970 book series of the same name. It was produced and animated in the Netherlands by PolyScope BV in season one, and was co-produced by Japanese animation studios KSS and Topcraft in season two.

The series follows the daily life of the extraordinary blob-shaped Barbapapa family, who can morph into other forms but retain their original colors. The Barbapapa family consists of parents Barbapapa and Barbamama and their seven children; the intellectual Barbotine, the coquette Barbabelle, the powerful Barbidur, inventor Barbidul, animal lover Barbidou, artist Barbouille, and musician Barbalala.

In France, it first premiered on ORTF Télévision on October 2, 1974, and ran until the channel shut down on January 5, 1976. Three days later, the series would continue to air on the Les Visiteurs du mercredi block of TF1 until 1997. The series ran for two seasons, 45 episodes in the first, and 55 in the second, totalling 100 episodes. Additional episodes of the show's second season would air in Japan: they were not distributed worldwide.

Voice cast

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Ricet Barrier provides the voices of all characters as the narrator in the first season. The characters all gain individual voices in season 2, with Barrier retaining his role as the narrator.

As well, in the second season, the original language of the season is switched to Japanese. For convenience sake, that version is tackled in its own article.

Broadcast
In France, Barbapapa additionally aired on Antenne 2 from 1987 to 1988, on Canal J in 1993, and on M6 starting on April 20, 2005. The series has also aired on Piwi+ and Télétoon+.

In Canada, the series aired on Ici Radio-Canada Télé, and it was available on online streaming from the network TFO.

International versions

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Spin-offs
In 1999, a  series called バーバパパ 世界をまわる premiered in  on NHK Educational TV, and ran for 50 episodes.

In June 2017, TF1 announced the production of a reboot of the series entitled Barbapapa en famille !, that would later premiere in in November 2019, and would be distributed to many Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. channels the following year.