Barbapapa

Barbapapa
Details
Country	South Africa
Language	English
Seasons	2
Episodes	45+ (list of episodes)
Release	1990 2001

Barbapapa is one of several English dubs of the show of the same name. It is the fourth English dub of the series overall. The dub was first released onto six VHS sets in South Africa in 1990, distributed by The Video Warehouse. Both seasons were dubbed, with the episodes being released sporadically out of order.

The following lists the names of the VHS sets:

• "The Birth of Barbapapa"
• "The Voyage of Barbapapa"
• "Barbapapa's Family"
• "Barbapapa's Ark"
• "Barbapapa's Musical Comedy"
• "The Party"

Later, the same dub was released onto five DVDs and VHSes by Aniplex (a subsidiary company of Sony Music Entertainment) in 2001 in Japan, in order to teach Japanese children English. These sets also include a Japanese and French audio track. The exact date of which these DVDs and VHSes were released is unknown, however a few sources specify different dates; one of them being January 24, 2001 and another being June 20, 2001. They appear to have been released again on November 23, 2005. This release contains episodes from only the first season.

Not much is known about this dub other than how it appears to have used a limited cast of around 3-4 people. The actors in question also often exchange which characters they play at random episodes. It is theorized to have been dubbed in its initial country of release, South Africa. This dub has been criticized by fans of the show for being "cheapily produced". Nearly all of the songs were not dubbed and were left instrumental, with the exception of the opening theme which was dubbed only in the South African release.

Notes

• This dub, alongside the Centauro dub, are the only two English dubs of the series to tackle season 2. Otherwise, the rest of the English dubs only completed the first season.
  • However, only the first season of this dub was released in Japan.
• Although the dub was released in South Africa in 1990, the ending credits reveal that the copyright was "1988", potentially meaning this was the recording year of the dub.
• The songs were not dubbed, and are instead left in instrumental.
  • This is with the exception of the theme song, which was dubbed only in the South African release, but like the other songs, was left instrumental in the Japanese release.
• Like the first American English dub, the transformation phrase of the Barbapapas isn't applied in this dub, but instead the Barbapapas give situational responses as it happens, such as "Away we go again!" or "Well, what is that?".
• For some reason, Frank's name was localized as Francois, similar to his French name, "François". Cindy's name was kept the same.
• The first Japanese DVD of the series has part of the Canadian English dub on it, at the start of the second episode ("Le feu") where Barbapapa helps to get the leopard back to the zoo. This proves that this dub most likely used the Canadian English dub as a base, despite not using the same script from it.
• The episodes were released heavily out of order, in both South Africa and Japan.
• The 1989 Icelandic dub of the series likely used the South African version of the dub as a base, having a similar structure for its opening theme, abandoning a specific transformation phrase, and featuring the same copyright screen.
  • Likewise, the Roudaki Persian dub uses the Japanese version of the dub as a base.
  • The script of the dub was heavily utilized with the succeeding Centauro dub, which came out in 2006, albeit with numerous differences.

References

v - e - d Dubs Albanian • Amharic • Arabic (Qatar Television • SharingCode) • Basque • Bulgarian • Danish (1974 • 2006) • Dutch • English (BBC • Magno • TVO • The Video Warehouse • Centauro) • Finnish (Yle • Golden Voice • HBO Max) • German • Greek • Hebrew (Channel 1 • Hop!) • Hindi • Hungarian • Icelandic (1980 • 1989) • Italian (Rai 2 • Cine Video Doppiatori • Studio P.V.) • Japanese (TV Tokyo • Aniplex) • Korean • Mandarin (1988 • 2013) • Norwegian (VHS • TV2) • Persian (IRIB • Roudaki) • Polish • Portuguese (Brazil • Portugal) • Serbian • Slovak • Latin American Spanish (1986 • 2003) • European Spanish (TVE • Nickelodeon) • Swedish (SVT • Wendros • HBO Max) • Turkish Voice-overs Russian Songs Voici venir les Barbapapa