The Adventures of Don Coyote and Sancho Panda is a 1989 cartoon produced and animated by Hanna-Barbera as part of its defunct cartoon programming block The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera.
Taking direct inspiration from the 17th-century classic novel about a delusional Spanish nobleman who fancies himself a medieval knight and wishes to live a life bound by an honorable code, the main character is an anthropomorphic coyote who drags his dear panda friend Sancho throughout the countryside, seeking to gain fame as a valiant knight who can best any monster and save beautiful princesses.
The show ran from 1990 (1989 in Italy) and lasted until 1991, with 26 episodes.
Tropes in this work include:
- Anthropomorphic Animal Adaptation: The series took the two leads and turned them into the pun-based animals.
- Belly Dancer: Featured in "Who’s Got the Genie" and "A Knight in Arabia"
- Cloudcuckoolander: Don Coyote's main attribute is being easily swept away by his overactive imagination and pretending reality is nothing but playing knight with everyone around him.
- Deadpan Snarker: Sancho Panda, Rosinante and Dapple all go along with Don Coyote's ridiculous plans, but they'll always have something to say.
- Foil: Unsurprisingly, the titular characters closely followed the theme of the Cervantes work. The ever-hallucinating Don was the cloudcuckoolander who never met a damsel he didn't have the urge to save or a dragon he didn't have the urge to slay. Sancho remained his loyal, albeit cynical, voice of reason.
- Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Sancho Panda is fully clothed.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Don Coyote only wears boots and plate on his chest and up.
- Literal-Minded: Don Coyote was often misunderstanding what he was told. For example, he'll get offended by accusations of trespassing, stating that he’s “passed no tresses”.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: This was Don Coyote's schtick in a nutshell. 9 times out of 10, the problems he encountered were caused by himself whilst trying to stop an imaginary emergency.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Lampshaded in Don Coyote Meets Robin Hood. The Merry Men, Little John, Friar Tuck and Will Scarlet, all belt out a jolly "Ho, ho, ho, ho!". Don and Sancho join them, until Don recoils at the idea of associating with "a criminal". He incapacitates the Merry Men and trusses up Robin to take him to the police. Little John laughs, but is quickly reprimanded by Friar Tuck, who says "This is no time for merriment!"
