Babar is an animated television series produced in Canada by Nelvana and The Clifford Ross Company, based on a series of French children books entitled "Babar the Elephant" by Jean de Brunhoff. It premiered on April 2, 1989 on CBC in Canada and HBO in the United States, and ran for 5 seasons until its last episode on June 5, 1991, also releasing a movie in 1989. The series rerun on HBO until it moved to HBO Family in 1999, but it remained on the main channel for a few more months. It continued to air on Jam until April 2004.
After his mother gets slaughtered, young Babar flees to a city where he gets adopted by "The Old Lady" and is taught how to live human life. He manages to drive out the hunter and is crowned as a king of elephants. Babar builds Celesteville, where the series takes place, and in the present, now lives with his new family with a queen and three kids, plus other residents in his royal palace. Babar tells his children stories and experiences in his past that have taught him life lessons.
Characters[]
Babar (voiced by Gordon Pinsent and Gavin Magrath for his younger self) - The protagonist of the series and king of Celesteville. Due to his childhood he is very protective with his family and kingdom.
Celeste (voiced by Dawn Greenhalgh and Tara Charendoff for her younger self) - The queen of Celesteville who like Babar, had many great adventures.
The children - The four children of the Babar's royal family: Pom (voiced by Bobby Becken in seasons 1-2, and Benjamin Barrett in seasons 3-5), Flora (voiced by Lisa Yamanaka in seasons 1-2, and Lea-Helen Weir in seasons 3-5), Alexander (voiced by Amos Crawley in seasons 1-2, and Stuart Stone in seasons 3-5), and the youngest, Isabelle (voiced by Lisa Yamanaka).
Arthur (voiced by Paul Haddad) - Babar's brother-in-law, therefore being the uncle for the children. He can often create mischief, as he likes jokes and stunts.
The Old Lady (voiced by Elizabeth Hanna) - The only human in Celesteville who adopted Babar and now lives in Celesteville with the elephants. She is most often referred to as Madame.
Zephir (voiced by Jeff Pustil) - A monkey who is friends with Babar. When he was younger he loved playing pranks and being annoying to the residents in the palace, but soon stopped after Babar pranked him. However, he still teams up with Arthur. Nevertheless, Zephir has a job at a malt shop.
Cornelius and Pompadour (voiced by Chris Wiggins and Stephen Ouimette respectively) - Two are very important workers in Babar's palace, as they do paperwork and scheduling for the king. In Babar's younger days, the two took care of him.
Lord Rataxes (voiced by Allen Stewart-Coates) - A rhino who is king of his own kingdom. Rataxes is sometimes depicted as an antagonist, but most times he is a neutral figure and sometimes even teams up with Babar. He has a wife named Lady Rataxes and assistant Basil.
After the show finished its 7-year run on HBO Family, it later reran on Qubo beginning with its respective launches in both September 2006 (as a series of programming blocks on NBC, Ion, and Telemundo respectively) and January 2007 (as its own separate 24/7 channel). The series ran on the 24/7 Qubo Channel all the way to the end of the Qubo brand in February 2021, as well as on both the NBC and Telemundo blocks until June 2012, and on the Ion block until the end of 2014. Arguably, Babar is better associated with Qubo, as many have seen the show from there.
Before this series, Babar had two animated specials from 1968 (The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant), and 1971 (Babar Comes to America).
In 2010, a computer-animated series named Babar and the Adventures of Badou began airing on Disney Junior. That show aired for three seasons between 2010 and 2015. It later reran on the 24/7 Qubo Channel between December 2019 to the end of the Qubo brand in February 2021.
Nearly nine years after the original show ended, it returned with a sixth season (consisting of 13 episodes) which used digital ink and paint. However, it is mostly suggested to be separate from the original series. In any case, the sixth season did air on Qubo.
The show was the first thing to air on the re-imagined HBO Family on February 1, 1999, as 6:00am is depicted as a new broadcasting day. Going by real time, the first thing that aired that day was Buddy (1997) near 1:00am, as The Shrunken City wove in the first hour of the day from 11:30pm.
Season 3 is the only season to have been released once in a year (1990).
