Babar is a series of popular French children's books first published in 1931, about a young elephant who leaves his jungle, visits a large city where he befriends an elderly lady and learns of human ways. After he returns to his jungle, Babar shares what he's learned about human ways with his fellow elephants, followed by the elephants deciding to construct a city they name Celesteville. Finally, Babar is made king of the elephants.An Animated Series was produced by Nelvana and originally aired between 1989 and 1991 and in 2000. The series was broadcast in 30 languages in over 150 countries, making it one of the largest distributed animated shows up to that point. There have also been two movies, but both came and went at the box office with little fanfare.A new All-CGI Cartoon version, Babar And The Adventures Of Badou, began airing on the Disney Junior block of Disney Channel on Valentine's Day, 2011.
Tropes featured in the Babar animated series include:
0% Approval Rating: Rataxes, in various Rhinoland polls. Despite his tendencies, this often worries Rataxes.
Action Mom: Celeste (and, to a lesser extent, Babar's mother) when the situation calls for it.
Aerith and Bob: Babar and Celeste. Rataxes and his wife, Lady Rataxes, AKA Louise.
An Aesop: You bet. Pretty much used in every episode.
Anthropomorphic Shift: Willingly invoked by the characters themselves. After Babar returned from the city and shared his experiences there, the rest of the elephants (plus other jungle animals) found such human civilization aspects (houses, cars, books, clothes, walking upright, etc.) as highly appealing, and decided to adapt them for themselves, including building the city of Celesteville.
Considering the characters were created back in the 1930's, and Babar's never been all that big in the US, we may safely assume it was accidental.
However, these two specific characters were created specifically for the tv show in 1989, and it's safe to think that Star Wars was big in Canada and France.
Other monkeys or apes appear in certain episodes as well, such as a gorilla princess Babar is supposed to escort at a palace ball in the episode Babar's Choice, and a King Kong-like giant ape in Conga the Terrible.
Hyper Competent Sidekick: Basil, who seems to put in more effort in running Rhinoland than his boss Rataxes.
I Am the Noun: Mademsoille Soretoza in "The Show Must Go On." - "I am the show."
I Miss Mom: Young Babar does this in some of the earlier episodes.
Inevitable Waterfall: Used in "The Land of the Underground" in the final season, when Babar jumps into the rushing river to save one of the mole brothers.
Insecurity System: Rataxes has Basil design and install one of these in the Rhinoland royal pyramid in one episode.
Kill It with Fire: The Hunter attempts to do this to every animal in the forest.
Limited Wardrobe: Most of the cast, though they can often be seen sporting situation-specific costumes in various episodes (raincoats, racing jumpsuits, party costumes, fishing clothes, swimwear). Lampshaded in one episode when Zephyr, temporarily acting as Babar's personal assistant, has all of Babar's trademark green suits sent to the cleaners, resulting in the King of Celestville having to give a public address in his bathrobe.
The Movie: More or less a remake of cartoon series though.
Never Say "Die": Zig Zagged. In early episodes death is discussed and even shown, but after the construction of Celesteville things have become so safe that the worst thing an assassin can be said to have planned for Babar is kidnapping.
Not Allowed to Grow Up: Averted somewhat with Babar and Celeste's youngest daughter, Isabelle, who goes from baby to toddler over the course of the series.
Obstructive Bureaucrat: Pompadour and Basil can both throw literal mountains of paperwork at you on a moments' notice.
Permission to Speak Freely: Babar's subjects occasionally ask this of him. Though Babar is so cool-headed that they could probably just speak their minds without having to ask it.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Babar could very well be the type's exemplar. Cornelius is also a good example.
Re Tool: The final season of the original series featured a major shift in direction, sending Babar and his family on a hot-air balloon through a number of Magical Lands including the Land of Toys and the Land of Mysterious Water, journeying for the great Land of Happiness. To signify this, the opening credits sequence was altered for the only time in the show's history and the opening and closing themes were changed to a remixed version of the theme that had previously been used for the closing credits. This version of the program is technically an Anime - it was made in part by Ellipse Anime and the episodes were written by Japanese writers.
Rhino Rampage: Happens several times in the earlier episodes.
There's also a Rhinoland holiday of the same name.
Whole Episode Flashback: The episodes of the first season or consist entirely of these, with each being introduced through the device of the adult Babar recalling some incident from his childhood to his children as a bedtime story. Later episodes take place entirely in the present, mostly focusing on the kids (Pom, Alexander and Flora}.
With Due Respect: Another phrase that crops up, given the setting
Your Size May Vary: Correlates with the Anthropomorphic Shift. While walking on all fours, the elephants are as big as real elephants should be compared to humans, but after starting to walk on two legs and wear clothes, they become not much bigger than large humans.
Christmas Episode: The book Babar et le Père Noël (Babar and Santa Claus), later made into an animated episode.
Kissing Cousins: In the books, Babar and Celeste were cousins. This aspect was ignored/changed for the TV series' and film, which made them unrelated to one another.
Evil Overlord: Lord Rataxes, which is quite surprising considering his character is more complex in the series. He captures elephants from villages, enslaves them, and ultimately tries to conquer their kingdom. (A last-minute ruse from Babar sends him and his rhinos fleeing—quite literally, from his property.)
"Well, you'll have to excuse me, Your Majesty, BUT I'M OFF TO CRUSH YOUR PUNY KINGDOM TO A PULP!"
Continuity Snarl: Celesteville seems to already be built (and named such) on Babar's first day as king here, unlike the books and original TV series.
Tropes featured in Babar and the Adventures of Badou include:
Adaptational Villainy: Lady Rataxes is a lot more selfish and unlikeable in this series. Conversely, Rataxes himself is depicted as dimmer and less of a threat then in the previous series.
Arc Welding : Planned from the beginning and done well. After several seemingly isolated episodes an obvious story arc begins and elements introduced in previous episodes become vital to it. It culminates in finding a treasure that was metioned in a throwaway line in the first episode.
Fantastic Racism: It's stated several times in the show that "wild" animals such as Sleek absolutely hate "civilized" animals such as Babar.
Furry Confusion: Several characters such as Sleek behave like wild animals (including apparently trying to devour other talking animals), intermixing with the usual civilized Babar cast. While the original animated series featured the occasional non-sentient/wild animal (such as Lady Rataxes' pet warthog), this series seems to put a greater emphasis on such.
Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Ambassador Crocodilius, and his nephew Galash. Averted for his other nephew, Tersh, and the crocodile sailor Captain Darling.
The Mole: Crocodilius. He doesn't even try to hide it. Babar lets him live in the palace, though, because Failure Is the Only Option for his schemes.
Time Skip: The series takes place later in Babar's life, after he's become a grandfather (Badou is his grandson). Oddly, Cornelius, who was already an old man by the time Babar was born in the books' conventional setting, is still alive. Pom is Badou's father and makes semi-regular appearances.
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