The Final Episode #96: Babar (1989 - 1992)

 

Earlier in this blog's history I had sassed French things saying they were bad and unfunny. I will not take back those opinions because those two shows were bad and unfunny. I will however discuss something made by those wild wine drinkers of Paree. I just think it's fair to show the good things along with the bad from these countries. Babar is a very good French thing. I don't think I read any of the books but I was a fan of the cartoon series from the 1990s. Which is why I'm talking about it today on my blog. This show has been in my head to do since the dang beginning really. So let's get it out of there and discuss The Final Episode of Babar.

So what is Babar you might be asking? Well Babar is a series of children's books that started in 1931. 90 damn years of Elephant Fun! Babar was King of the Elephants and did Kingly things that taught children lessons. I say this because I've never read a Babar book. Babar was created by Jean de Brunhoff, based off a story his wife Celeste would tell their children. I did not know this until today but Peter Ustoniv narrated a Babar cartoon made by the guys who would make every Peanuts cartoon. This is no joke, blowing my fucking mind. I do not know what to do with this information except make sure everyone knows about it. 

So the cartoon I watched as a kid played out like this. Babar was the king of the Elephants in uh Celesteton or something. I know he named the entire city around his wife. I doubt it was Celesteton. I should look these things up but I never do. Babar had several kids, two boys and two girls. He lives in a palace with Cornelius and Pompadour. Cornelius was an old ass elephant who would forget everything and Pompadour was flamboyant. which between 1959 and 2015 meant gay as hell. I love both of these characters and think they were incredibly fun to watch. Babar is a progressive king. I respect that. There was also Lord Rataxas who might be my favorite character. A Rhino king that would sometimes go up against Babar. He and his little pal Basil are the best.

So who created the cartoon huh? It was Nelvana. I'm sure I talked about them before so I will give you a quick run down. They were a animation studio from Canada that did all kinds of cartoons from the 1980s. They did the second Care Bears cartoon. The My Pet Monster cartoon. The Adventures of Tintin. RUPERT! Yeah you'll see me talking about these guys again and again because they made some awesome stuff that I was a big fan of. So expect more of them. Anyway other companies worked on the cartoon but I don't care enough about them to post about them. Some guy named Clifford Ross worked on it. I don't know if he's a big deal or what. He looks like he thinks hes too cool for the room via his Wikipedia article and I don't like that attitude. 

So this is where I talk about watching the show as a kid paragraph. Well, If I recall correctly Babar would come on either before or after Rupert. They would bridge the shows from the morning (mostly for very small children) and the mature intelligent fare that the Zone (a program block on YTV hosted by PJ Phil. THE coolest guy in the world. It would show the 1960s Batman show! It was great!). Those two shows weren't totally for young kids or older kids. It was something that tried to get all eyes on it. I also believe it would show on Sundays too but YTV Sunday's schedule was weird and random. It was not the best day of the week for YTV. I was a fan of this show. I enjoyed watching it, yet I wouldn't be sad if I missed an episode but It wasn't a show I forced myself to watch. It was I guess a B-Tier show of my childhood. Not the best but still pretty darn good. I would say that about this Final Episode. Not the best but still pretty darn good.

Anyway I think it's time to talk about The Final Episode which is called Mango Madness. We start this episode off with Flora being ignored by everyone. Her brother is too sleepy to say anything. Cornelius can't find his glasses. Pompadour talking about wanting to eat all the Mangos he can. Pompadour is so into mangos. No one is listening or paying attention to Flora. It annoys the hell out of her so she gets everyone angry by telling fibs. She tells Pompadour that Cornelius put the mangos from Rhinoland into the cabinet up high causing him to go look for them. She tells Cornelius that Pompadour s tole his glasses to teach him about being forgetful (he IS an elephant they never forget!) and tells her brother Alexander that he only has 5 minutes to get ready for school even though it's Saturday. Oh man, Flora's a jerk.

Anyway this gets her sent to her room and a discussion about telling the truth by her father. She also wants to go on a drive with him but it doesn't work out. We then go to Cornelius and Pompadour telling Babar about the mango shipment from Rhinoland and how Rataxas wants to do the fruit party this year. Yes they have something called a fruit party. What a wild place Celesteton is. Cornelius goes on about tradition this and that but Babar is all like "Eh if it gets us the mangos I'll let Rataxas through the fruit party. Rataxas has all kinds of goofy costumes worked up. He's wearing one of like raspberries and a pineapple for a head? Personally if I had to go to a fruit festival party I would literally dress up like that because its hilarious so good on Rataxas. Basil is dressed up as a banana! Bananas are the funniest fruit.

Rataxas believes these costumes are VERY SERIOUS so he doesn't want anyone calling them silly. Basil even has to say they are great as the banana peel top keeps coming down on his eyes making it very hard to drive. We then get a scene where Flora pretty much tells everyone the truth. You know the truth they don't want to hear. Like how Victor took Pom to the baseball game last week because Alexander gets on his nerves sometimes and how Pompadour thinks Cornelius is getting old and forgetful. Oh and says to her mother "Is that a new dress, it's nice but Father says blue makes you look heavy!" I laughed at that part.  

This brings in another discussion between Babar and his daughter. He's trying to get out that sometimes the truth can hurt peoples feelings and you should try to realize that and not blurt out "YEAH YOUR FRIEND DOESNT LIKE YOU SHITHEAD" or other things like that. He does not do the best job and you know what ends up happening. Yep, during the signing of the fruit accord where the mangos will be delivered (there's a scene where Rataxas and Basil show up and Pompadour is shitting and pissing and jizzing himself over the thought of a mango. I did not expect that to be in this children's show but they had to show he really enjoys mangos.) Everyone is trying to say the costumes are very serious and cool but Flora comes in and is like "LOL YOU DOPEY FUCK THESE COSTUMES ARE HILARIOUSLY GOOFY" except a lot nicer than that. They couldn't say fuck after the Pompadour shitting and jizzing himself scene.

Anyway this causes everyone to be mad at Flora who hides in the car and finally gets that drive with her father. They are going to try to settle things with Rataxas. Rataxas pretends not to be home and Babar is all like "Bitch please I can hear him" when Basil says he's not there. Flora goes in anyway and Rataxas believes she's being sent there by her father, but she wants to genuinely apologize for hurting his feelings and Rataxas is like "IM A MANLY RHINO MAN I HAVE NO FEELINGS" and gets angry at her which causes her to start crying. He then feels bad and makes a balloon elephant figure out of his gloves. She then says when she said his costumes were silly she thought it was a good thing and how they would have a great fun party because she then whispers something to him and he laughs which causes him to let the fruit festival party go on. Isn't a festival already a party?

Anyway the episode ends with everyone having a great time at the Fruit Festival Party. Everyone is dressed in goofy costumes and bobbing for mangos. Pompadour has to wear a diaper because of the last incident but is still allowed to participate. We finally find out what Flora said to Rataxas, it was that the children found the old parties to be boring and stuffy which causes Cornelius to shit himself. A lot of feces in this Final Episode. 

FINAL VERDICT: It's another case of "Good episode but not Good Final Episode" still I believe it does a good job of teaching kids about the truth and all that. I also didn't know where to post this in the article but Gordon Pinset is from Newfoundland and also voiced Babar. If you thought I wasn't going to give one of the two famous Newfoundlanders their due (the other being Shannon Tweed. Yes I'll review one of her movies sooner or later) you'd be nuts. Yep there's two famous Newfoundlanders out there that's more than Idaho can say for itself. Take that Chris Bongowongodongowitz!