History WesternAnimation / IlEtaitUneFois

It was created by Albert Barillé and released by Procidis, and Music/MichelLegrand composed the scores for all of the series. Each series revolved around some main subject, intended to educate the young viewers about history, biology or science using [[UniversalAdaptorCast the same bunch of characters, no matter the time period or context]].

!! The eight different series:

* ''Il était une fois... notre Terre'' (2008) (''Once Upon a Time... Planet Earth''). The eighth and final series, about environmental issues.

* AnAesop: The last episode, summarizing human history, and then takes a critical stance to the topics of pollution and war. The aesop in question gives humanity a choice: survival, or total destruction within a limited timeframe (in this episode, from "now" till 2150). The end of the episode puts those words in the mouth of Pierre, lecturing the next generation: "The choice is yours." A pretty common aesop in the seventies and beyond.

* OnlySaneMan: The few senators of Cassiopeia, who include a long-beard equivalent of Maestro, described as liberals, and are against General Pest's militaristic antics wanting to come back to the Confederation, are worried about the alliance with the Great Computer, and finally are against going to war with Omega even asking Pest to join forces with them against [[spoiler: The Great Computer's fleet when it sends an unconditional surrender message to Cassiopeia]].

* PlanetOfHats: In several episodes the protagonists travel to planets that turn around this trope such as a planet inhabited by the Greek Gods (episode "The Planet Mytho"), other by Incas (episode "The Incas"), and other by prehistoric humans -- oddly enough, this one is in the Andromeda Galaxy -- in "The Cro-Magnons".

* TooDumbToLive: Psi in the episode "The Rings of Saturn". Her ship is chased by Humanoid fighters into the ([[AsteroidThicket dense as hell]]) Solar System's asteroid belt. After playing cat-and-mouse with them hiding among space rocks she decides to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere enter hyperspace]] within the belt, ignoring Metro's warnings of that being a ''very'' bad idea. Of course she crashes into an asteroid. [[spoiler:After that, with the ship destroyed and Metro out of commission, and while near death she telepatically communicates with Peter and is rescued by him]].

* OnlySaneMan: The few senators of Cassiopeia, who include a long-beard equivalent of Maestro, and are against General Pest's militaristic antics wanting to come back to the Confederation, are worried about the alliance with the Great Computer, and finally are against going to war with Omega even asking Pest to join forces with them against [[spoiler: The Great Computer's fleet when it sends an unconditional surrender message to Cassiopeia]].

* OffModel: Pierrot's YouthfulFreckles tend to appear and disappear depending on the scene.

* PteroSoarer: In "In the Land of the Dinosaurs", the protagonists get attacked by oversized ''Rhamphorhynchus''.

* RecycledInSpace: Cassiopeia, [[{{Expy}} clearly based on the Romulans]] from ''Franchise/StarTrek'' down to their looks, is the Roman Republic with space technology, [[CrystalSpiresandTogas Crystal Spires and Togas]], and aliens instead of humans. They have a bit on inspiration on the Nazis, too, their military carrying arm bandages that evokes Nazi ones.

* {{Slapstick}}: A lot of humor is based off of AmusingInjuries.
* SpiritualSuccessor: In the United States, we have the decidedly DenserAndWackier ''WesternAnimation/{{Histeria}}''.

* LimitedAnimation: Made during UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfAnimation and it often shows. Particularly ''Il était une fois... l'Homme'' suffers from stiff animation, not always matching up with the soundtrack and characters making weird facial expressions and poses.

* MuggedForDisguise: The good guys lure an evil officer to a trap, they capture him, don his armor and leave him bound and gagged while posing has him.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: The episode "In the Land of the Dinosaurs" has our heroes visiting a [[PlanetofHats planet populated by those animals]]. They're presented, however, as the [[ScienceMarchesOn old pre-Dinosaur Renaissance]] ones with water-based sauropods or theropods walking upright.

* StockDinosaurs: ''Archaeopteryx'', ''Stegosaurus'', ''Allosaurus'', ''Brontosaurus'', ''Diplodocus'', ''Brachiosaurus'', ''Pteranodon'', ''Elasmosaurus'', ''Tylosaurus'', ''Edmontosaurus'' (called Anatosaurus and is incorrectly depicted with a crest), ''Triceratops'', ''Tyrannosaurus rex'', ''Smilodon'', ''Deinotherium'', and ''Mammuthus'' all appear in the first episode. The second episode adds in ''Coelodonta'' and cave bears.

* StockDinosaurs: ''Rhamphorhynchus'', ''Allosaurus'' (wrongfully [[TRexpy looking like]] a ''Tyrannosaurus rex''), ''Deinonychus'' (also wrongfully looking like a ''T. rex''), ''Brontosaurus'', ''Archaeopteryx'', ''Megalosaurus'', ''Stegosaurus'', ''Elasmosaurus'', and ''Tylosaurus'' appear in "In the Land of the Dinosaurs".

* RapunzelHair: Psi's hair comes down to her hips. Maestro's beard to his feet.

* StunGuns: Paralyzing guns are standard sidearms for the Space Police, although they have deadlier {{Ray Gun}}s too. Interestingly enough, the protagonists use the paralyzers against living targets; against non-living ones such as robots they use the lethal guns. As seen in "In the Land of the Dinosaurs", though, the paralyzers aren't terribly efficient against large predators, only affecting them for a few seconds.

* ''Il était une fois... l'Homme'' (1978) (''Once Upon a Time... Man''). The first series. Explaining human history from the creation of the universe until UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. In the final episode, it branches slightly as part of future predictions concerning pollution and warfare, by presenting an optimistic path.

It was created by Albert Barillé and released by Procidis. Each series revolved around some main subject, intended to educate the young viewers about history, biology or science using [[UniversalAdaptorCast the same bunch of characters, no matter the time period or context]].