Help tracking down old French cartoons?
August 5, 2004 2:20 PM Subscribe
A couple of friends of mine were recently discussing some old French cartoons and would love any help tracking them down you might be able to provide. Even names, general info, etc. would be appreciated. [More Inside]
B. and i somehow managed to remember these bizarro surreal french children's cartoons we saw as young folks. we both remember fantastic planet scaring the shit out of us (as most kids who seek out weird movies do). but here are some lesser-known ones that i need help finding stuff out about:
1. mysterious cities of gold. this was a television series, and the only one i can find stuff about on the internet. it was about mayans & incas & el dorado, and the main kid rides a golden condor. he is friends with a mayan and an african/carribbean kid. i remember something about a corn god or something, too. did you ever see this? i think it was a japanese/french co-production.
2. some short called somethign like the dream circus, or arcadia's dream circus, or the midnight circus. in this, a blue faceless lady in a bubble takes all these sleeping children (who are from around the world: eskimo kid, african kid, brazilian, american, russian, etc.) in bubbles to her magical circus tent. the audience is waiting, but there
are no performers. the children help the faceless lady (we think she was arcadia) find performers around the world: pierrot and columbine in france, dancing bear in russia, lady with a diving horse in the wild west(and a sharpshooter?), seal in alaska or antartica, lion & tiger in africa... they travel around in these bubbles. at the end,
the cirucs performs. i think there was no dialogue-- just bits of music & minmal sounds. very peaceful & surreal.
3. this totally weird show (a series? a one-shot? we're not sure) where this group of aliens goes to earth to find ancient civilization people. the aliens are weird little blue tubby-bellied elephant guys, an elephant-fairy hybrid girl with blond curls, a magician/knight looking guy wearing a cape & with some sort of device that can change into various useful weapons, and his son (i think). i think they also all have little wings. they have to go to various tombs in atlantis, egypt, abyssinia, and other places, and wake up a dead ruler and bring them back to the ship. the ship is simple, with a big head on the top or side (we can't recall). the head guides the ship around, and the ship can shrink and follow the travelers on earth. they get the ancietn people to work together to defeat this evil volcano/meteor god who has fucked up their home planet. there is also an elephant guy who has a weird pompadour hairdo, and an elepahnt that is a voodoo guy (top hat, necklace of skulls, and a stick thingy). they communicate telepathically. you see images in thought bubbles. they create force fields around the tombs they have to enter. it's totlaly weird and cool. we think it was called forgotten worlds or something like that.
4. these might have come under the same title, of pierrot's stories, or something like that. the opening is pierrot, the clown, juggling, and the words pierrot's stories appear on a freezeframe.
B. and i somehow managed to remember these bizarro surreal french children's cartoons we saw as young folks. we both remember fantastic planet scaring the shit out of us (as most kids who seek out weird movies do). but here are some lesser-known ones that i need help finding stuff out about:
1. mysterious cities of gold. this was a television series, and the only one i can find stuff about on the internet. it was about mayans & incas & el dorado, and the main kid rides a golden condor. he is friends with a mayan and an african/carribbean kid. i remember something about a corn god or something, too. did you ever see this? i think it was a japanese/french co-production.
2. some short called somethign like the dream circus, or arcadia's dream circus, or the midnight circus. in this, a blue faceless lady in a bubble takes all these sleeping children (who are from around the world: eskimo kid, african kid, brazilian, american, russian, etc.) in bubbles to her magical circus tent. the audience is waiting, but there
are no performers. the children help the faceless lady (we think she was arcadia) find performers around the world: pierrot and columbine in france, dancing bear in russia, lady with a diving horse in the wild west(and a sharpshooter?), seal in alaska or antartica, lion & tiger in africa... they travel around in these bubbles. at the end,
the cirucs performs. i think there was no dialogue-- just bits of music & minmal sounds. very peaceful & surreal.
3. this totally weird show (a series? a one-shot? we're not sure) where this group of aliens goes to earth to find ancient civilization people. the aliens are weird little blue tubby-bellied elephant guys, an elephant-fairy hybrid girl with blond curls, a magician/knight looking guy wearing a cape & with some sort of device that can change into various useful weapons, and his son (i think). i think they also all have little wings. they have to go to various tombs in atlantis, egypt, abyssinia, and other places, and wake up a dead ruler and bring them back to the ship. the ship is simple, with a big head on the top or side (we can't recall). the head guides the ship around, and the ship can shrink and follow the travelers on earth. they get the ancietn people to work together to defeat this evil volcano/meteor god who has fucked up their home planet. there is also an elephant guy who has a weird pompadour hairdo, and an elepahnt that is a voodoo guy (top hat, necklace of skulls, and a stick thingy). they communicate telepathically. you see images in thought bubbles. they create force fields around the tombs they have to enter. it's totlaly weird and cool. we think it was called forgotten worlds or something like that.
4. these might have come under the same title, of pierrot's stories, or something like that. the opening is pierrot, the clown, juggling, and the words pierrot's stories appear on a freezeframe.
Oh, now that I read your question closer, by "track them down" do you mean actually obtaining copies, not just info? Here're some sites with links to the episodes for #1.
posted by GeekAnimator at 2:56 PM on August 5, 2004
posted by GeekAnimator at 2:56 PM on August 5, 2004
French region 2 DVDs are out for Mysterious Cities of Gold; they're available on Amazon.fr if you don't mind navigating all the French.
I'm considering doing fansubs of these; my boyfriend and I are big fans. Send me an e-mail at my profile address if you want info on these whenever I get around to actually acting on this. It might be six months or so.
By the way, it's based on a Scott O'Dell novel called "The King's Fifth," still in print, if you don't want to go to the trouble of tracking down the episodes.
I have no idea about the others.
posted by Jeanne at 3:03 PM on August 5, 2004
I'm considering doing fansubs of these; my boyfriend and I are big fans. Send me an e-mail at my profile address if you want info on these whenever I get around to actually acting on this. It might be six months or so.
By the way, it's based on a Scott O'Dell novel called "The King's Fifth," still in print, if you don't want to go to the trouble of tracking down the episodes.
I have no idea about the others.
posted by Jeanne at 3:03 PM on August 5, 2004
Mysterious Cities of Gold, commonly referred to as MCoG online. I was a big fan, and happen to have the whole series (40 episodes were produced) downloaded. It's about 2.5gb in total, but my email's in my profile if you want to sort something out.
By the way, it's based on a Scott O'Dell novel called "The King's Fifth," still in print, if you don't want to go to the trouble of tracking down the episodes.
The cartoon series is so loosely based on the books (there was a whole series including The King's Fifth) that, following some poking around I did a while ago, it doesn't seem worth investigating them, they're that disperate from the series.
posted by armoured-ant at 3:06 AM on August 6, 2004
By the way, it's based on a Scott O'Dell novel called "The King's Fifth," still in print, if you don't want to go to the trouble of tracking down the episodes.
The cartoon series is so loosely based on the books (there was a whole series including The King's Fifth) that, following some poking around I did a while ago, it doesn't seem worth investigating them, they're that disperate from the series.
posted by armoured-ant at 3:06 AM on August 6, 2004
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by GeekAnimator at 2:39 PM on August 5, 2004