Barbapapa is both the title character and the name of the "species" of said character, of a series of children's books written in the 1970s by Annette Tison and Talus Taylor, who resided in Paris, France. The books were originally written in French and were later translated into over 30 languages.
Barbapapa is a pink blob-like creature who can shapeshift. His name comes from the French "Barbe à papa" - literally "Daddy's beard" - the French term for cotton candy or candy floss. He has a wife and kids, who are also shapeshifting blob-like creatures of various colors.
The character was later adapted into an animated series, which was dubbed in English, and here's the information about 4 English dubs.
The first English dub was made in the UK and aired on BBC1 from 1975 until 1978 It was narrated by Michael Flanders, This dub (except the theme song that was performed by Ed Stewart and The London Boy Singers) remains completely lost.
A second English dub was made in the United States. It was commissioned by LBS Communications and produced by Magno Sound and Video and aired in syndication from 1977 until 1983. DVDs with re-encoded VHS recordings of this English dub were at one point sold on iOffer.[3] One of these was bought and its rips were donated by MrLeap in July 2017.
A third English dub was made in Canada and aired on TVOntario from 1977 until 1985 and Knowledge Network from 1985 until 1987. This dub was based off off the UK English dub and used the same British vocals for the theme and other songs, but re-dubbed dialogue with Canadian voice actors. In June 2017, an hour of Barbapapa cartoons from the Canadian English dub was found. Most of them are ones that are on the second VHS/Betamax volume released in the UK, however a couple of the episodes are different. The first volume was later found and donated by MrLeap in January 2021. The Pre-Cert Video website refers to it as the "Americanised version" despite it not being the dub that aired in the US.
A fourth English dub was released in Japan by Aniplex/Sony Music Entertainment on 5 VHS and DVD volumes in 2001. This dub was a straight-to-video dub made to teach Japanese children English. Unlike the previous dubs, all songs (including the intro) remain instrumental. This dub appears to use the Canadian English dub as source material (despite most of the dialogue being different) and part of the first episode still has the Canadian dubbing track. All 5 volumes of this dub were ripped and donated by MrLeap in January 2021. The DVDs also contain Japanese and French language tracks.
A fifth English dub was made in the United States in 2006 by Centauro and released in South Korea on 2 DVD sets, each containing 10 discs. Like the Japanese English dub, it was a straight-to-video dub released to teach Korean kids English. The first 45 episodes have one voice actor for everyone, and the scripts are a mixture of the Canadian English dub, Japanese English dub and some original dialogue. They also dubbed the songs with most of the same lyrics as the UK/Canadian dub. For episodes 46-100, the characters have individual voice actors. These voices were also used for Centauro's dub of the Japanese spin-off series Barbapapa Around the World, which is included on the second DVD set. This DVD set was also bought and ripped by MrLeap in January/February 2021.
External Links[]
- A 1-hour compilation of Barbapapa cartoons (from the Canadian English dub).
- Approx. 2-hr compilation of Barbapapa cartoons (from the Canadian English dub) that was ripped from a 2-disc DVD set bought on iOffer.
- A fansite that featured info on the US dubbed version, including a .wav file of the US English intro.
- A playlist of Barbapapa song clips from the 2006 Centauro dubbing on the official Barbapapa YouTube channel.
- Some information on Barbapapa (Vol. 1) from the Pre-Cert Video website.
- Some information on Barbapapa (Vol. 2) from the Pre-Cert Video website.