Babar the Elephant
Encyclopedia
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
who first appeared in Histoire de Babar by Jean de Brunhoff
Jean de Brunhoff
Jean de Brunhoff was a French writer and illustrator known for creating the Babar books, the first of which appeared in 1931. He was the fourth and youngest child of Maurice de Brunhoff, a publisher, and his wife Marguerite. He attended Protestant schools, including the prestigious Ecole Alsacienne...
in 1931 and enjoyed immediate success. An English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
version, entitled The Story of Babar, appeared in 1933 in Britain and also in the United States. The book is based on a tale that Brunhoff's wife, Cecile, had invented for their children. It tells of a young elephant called Babar who leaves the jungle
Jungle
A Jungle is an area of land in the tropics overgrown with dense vegetation.The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jangala which referred to uncultivated land. Although the Sanskrit word refers to "dry land", it has been suggested that an Anglo-Indian interpretation led to its...
, visits a big city, and returns to bring the benefits of civilization
Civilization
Civilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally...
to his fellow elephants. Then he comes back and becomes king of the elephant kingdom
Babar's Kingdom
Created by Jean de Brunhoff between 1931 and 1937, Babar's Kingdom, also known in French as Le pays des Éléphants , is a fictional country supposedly in Africa consisting of intelligent elephants, which are usually bipedal and civilized. As its name implies, it is ruled by its first civilized...
. He then has children and teaches them valuable lessons.
Jean de Brunhoff published six more stories before his death in 1937. His son Laurent de Brunhoff
Laurent de Brunhoff
Laurent de Brunhoff is an author and illustrator, known primarily for continuing the Babar series of children's books, created by his father, Jean de Brunhoff....
, also a writer and illustrator, carried on the series from 1946 onwards with Babar et Le Coquin d'Arthur.
An animated TV series
Babar (TV series)
Babar is an animated television series produced in Canada by Nelvana Limited and The Clifford Ross Company. It premiered in 1989 on CBC and HBO, subsequently was rerun on HBO Family and Qubo. The series is based on Jean de Brunhoff's original Babar books, and was Nelvana's first international...
was produced in Canada by Nelvana
Nelvana
Nelvana Limited is a Canadian entertainment company founded in 1971 known for its work in children's animation. It was named by founders Michael Hirsh, Patrick Loubert and Clive A. Smith after a Canadian comic book superheroine created by Adrian Dingle in the 1940s...
Limited and Clifford Ross Company, and originally ran from January 3, 1989 to June 5, 1991 with 65 episodes, plus an additional 13 episodes in 2000. The character has also appeared in a number of films, and the Babar stories have inspired musical works by Francis Poulenc
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
and Raphael Mostel.
Story synopsis
After Babar's mother is shot by a hunter, he flees the jungle and finds his way to an unspecified big city with no particular characteristics where he is befriended by an old lady, who buys him clothes and enrolls him in school. Babar's cousins Celeste and Arthur find him in the big city and help him return to the Elephant realmBabar's Kingdom
Created by Jean de Brunhoff between 1931 and 1937, Babar's Kingdom, also known in French as Le pays des Éléphants , is a fictional country supposedly in Africa consisting of intelligent elephants, which are usually bipedal and civilized. As its name implies, it is ruled by its first civilized...
following the death of the King of the Elephants, who had eaten a poisonous mushroom. A council of elephants approach Babar, saying that as he has "lived among men and learned much", he would be suitable to become the new King. Babar is crowned
Coronation
A coronation is a ceremony marking the formal investiture of a monarch and/or their consort with regal power, usually involving the placement of a crown upon their head and the presentation of other items of regalia...
King of the Elephants, marries his cousin Celeste, and founds the city of Celesteville. Babar, who likes to wear a bright green suit
Suit (clothing)
In clothing, a suit is a set of garments made from the same cloth, consisting of at least a jacket and trousers. Lounge suits are the most common style of Western suit, originating in the United Kingdom as country wear...
, introduces a very French form of Western civilization
Culture of France
The culture of France and of the French people has been shaped by geography, by profound historical events, and by foreign and internal forces and groups. France, and in particular Paris, has played an important role as a center of high culture and of decorative arts since the seventeenth...
to the elephants, and they soon dress in Western
Western culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
attire.
Among Babar's other associates are the monkey
Monkey
A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...
Zephir, the old elephant counsellor
Councillor
A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...
s Cornelius and Pompadour (Pompadour was created for the Babar TV series
Babar (TV series)
Babar is an animated television series produced in Canada by Nelvana Limited and The Clifford Ross Company. It premiered in 1989 on CBC and HBO, subsequently was rerun on HBO Family and Qubo. The series is based on Jean de Brunhoff's original Babar books, and was Nelvana's first international...
), his cousin Arthur, and his children, Pom, Flora, and Alexander. Later, a second daughter, Isabelle, was introduced. The Old Lady comes to live in the Kingdom as an honoured guest. Despite the presence of these counsellors, Babar's rule seems to be totally independent of any elected body, and completely autocratic; however his leadership style seems to be one that works for the overall benefit of his elephant subjects; a form of benevolent dictator.
Besides his Westernizing policies, Babar engages in warfare with the warlike rhinoceros
Rhinoceros
Rhinoceros , also known as rhino, is a group of five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia....
es of a hostile bordering nation, who are led by Lord Rataxes, much later in Babar, and the adventures of Badou, has a grandson named the Prince Babar II (Known as Badou).
Pronunciation
According to Laurent de Brunhoff, Babar's name is pronounced ˈ, although it has been popularly pronounced ˈ. This can be distinguished from BaburBabur
Babur was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of South Asia. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother...
or Babar (ˈ), the first Mughal
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
emperor of medieval India.
Legacy
The series has over 100 licensees worldwide, and the "Babar" brand has a multi-generational following. There are 12 Babar stores in Japan. A global cultural phenomenon, whose fans span generations, Babar stands along side Mickey Mouse as one of the most recognized children's characters in the world. There are now over 30,000 Babar publications in over 17 languages, and over 8 million books have been sold. Laurent de Brunhoff's Babar's Yoga for Elephants is a top seller in the U.S with over 100,000 copies sold to date. The Babar series of books are recommended reading on former First Lady Laura Bush's national reading initiative list. All 78 episodes of the TV seriesBabar (TV series)
Babar is an animated television series produced in Canada by Nelvana Limited and The Clifford Ross Company. It premiered in 1989 on CBC and HBO, subsequently was rerun on HBO Family and Qubo. The series is based on Jean de Brunhoff's original Babar books, and was Nelvana's first international...
are broadcast in 30 languages in over 150 countries, making Babar one of the largest distributed animation shows in history. Babar has been a perennial favorite for years at the White House Easter Egg Roll.
Since 2001 The Babar franchise has been owned by Corus Entertainment
Corus Entertainment
Corus Entertainment Inc. is a publicly traded Canadian media and entertainment conglomerate.Corus is a leading Canadian specialty television and radio producer, with additional assets in pay television, advertising services, television broadcasting, children's book publishing and children's...
's Nelvana in conjunction with the artist, Clifford Ross
Clifford Ross
Clifford Ross is an American visual artist who has worked in multiple media, including sculpture, painting, photography and video. His work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of...
.
Criticism
Some writers, notably Herbert R. KohlHerbert Kohl (education)
Herbert R. Kohl is an educator best known for his advocacy of progressive alternative education and as the author of more than thirty books on education....
and Vivian Paley
Vivian Paley
Vivian Gussin Paley is an American pre-school and kindergarten teacher and early childhood education researcher. Now retired, she taught and did most of her research at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools...
, have argued that, although superficially delightful, the stories are politically and morally offensive and can be seen as a justification for colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
. Others argue that the French civilization described in the early books had already been destroyed by World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and the books were originally an exercise in nostalgia
Nostalgia
The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of , meaning "returning home", a Homeric word, and , meaning "pain, ache"...
for pre-1914 France. Ariel Dorfman
Ariel Dorfman
Vladimiro Ariel Dorfman is an Argentine-Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and human rights activist. A citizen of the United States since 2004, he has been a professor of literature and Latin American Studies at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina since 1985.-Personal...
’s The Empire’s Old Clothes is another highly critical view, in which he concludes, "In imagining the independence of the land of the elephants, Jean de Brunhoff anticipates, more than a decade before history forced Europe to put it into practice, the theory of neocolonialism
Neocolonialism
Neocolonialism is the practice of using capitalism, globalization, and cultural forces to control a country in lieu of direct military or political control...
." Adam Gopnik has a different point of view. In Freeing the Elephants he writes that it "is not an unconscious expression of the French colonial imagination; it is a self-conscious comedy about the French colonial imagination and its close relation to the French domestic imagination. The gist ... is explicit and intelligent: the lure of the city, of civilization, of style and order and bourgeois living is real, for elephants as for humans." He concludes that the satisfaction derived from Babar is based on the knowledge that "while it is a very good thing to be an elephant, still, the life of an elephant is dangerous, wild, and painful. It is therefore a safer thing to be an elephant in a house near a park."
A parody was featured in National Lampoon
National Lampoon
National Lampoon was both a ground-breaking American humor magazine and also a wide range of productions directly associated with that magazine. The magazine ran from 1970 to 1998, and was originally a spinoff of the Harvard Lampoon....
magazine, and reprinted in the National Lampoon The Book of Books
National Lampoon The Book of Books
National Lampoon Book of Books was an American humor book that was published in 1979 in hardcover. It was a spin-off of National Lampoon magazine. It consisted of parodies of best-sellers. The book was edited by Jeff Greenfield, contributors included Gerry Sussman, Danny Abelson, Sean Kelly and...
in 1977. In this version of the story, Babar (acting on the advice of American "advisers") violently supresses a strike by the monkeys working in the kingdom's mines. It ends with Babar and Celeste strung up on meathooks.
Books
Jean de Brunhoff wrote and illustrated seven Babar books; the series was continued by his son, Laurent de BrunhoffLaurent de Brunhoff
Laurent de Brunhoff is an author and illustrator, known primarily for continuing the Babar series of children's books, created by his father, Jean de Brunhoff....
.
Jean de Brunhoff's Babar books, and the titles of the English translations, were:
- Histoire de Babar (1931) — The Story of Babar
- Le Voyage de Babar (1932) — The Travels of Babar, or Babar's Travels
- Le Roi Babar (1933) — Babar the King
- L'ABC de Babar (1934) — A.B.C. of Babar
- Les vacances de Zéphir (1936) — Zephir's Holidays, Zephir's Vacation, or Babar and Zephir
- Babar en famille (1938) — Babar and His Children, or Babar at Home
- Babar et le père Noël (1941) — Babar and Father Christmas
Laurent de Brunhoff's books (selected list):
- Babar et ce coquin d'Arthur (1948) — Babar's Cousin: That Rascal Arthur
- Pique-nique chez Babar (1949) — Babar's Picnic
- Babar dans l'Île aux oiseaux (1952) — Babar's Visit to Bird Island
- Babar au cirque (1952) — Babar and the Circus
- La fête à Celesteville (1954) — Babar's Fair
- Babar et le professeur Girafon (1956) — Babar and the Professor
- Le château de Babar (1961) — Babar's Castle
- Je parle anglais avec Babar (1963) — Babar's English Lessons (published as French Lessons in English)
- Babar Comes to America (1965)
- Je parle allemand avec Babar (1966) — Babar's German Lessons
- Je parle espagnol avec Babar (1966) — Babar's Spanish Lessons
- Babar Loses His Crown (1967)
- Babar Visits another Planet (1972)
- Babar and the Wully-Wully (1975)
- Babar Learns to Cook (1978)
- Babar the Magician (1980)
- Babar's Little Library (1980)
- Babar and the Ghost (1981)
- Babar's Anniversary Album (1982)
- Babar's ABC (1983)
- Babar's Book of Color (1984)
- Babar's Counting Book (1986)
- Babar's Little Girl (1987)
- Babar's Little Circus Star (1988)
- Babar's Busy Year (1989)
- Babar's Rescue (1993)
- Le Musée de Babar (2002) — Babar's Museum
- Babar Goes to School (2003)
- Babar's Museum of Art (2003)
- Babar's Book of Color (2004)
- Babar's Busy Year (2005)
- Babar's World Tour (2005)
- Babar's Yoga for Elephants (2006)
- Babar's USA (2008)
- Babar's Celesteville Games (2011)
English translations of the original Babar books are routinely republished in the UK and in the USA, individually and in collections.
Other English-language titles about Babar include the following:
- Babar Comes to America. New York: Random House, 1965.
- Babar Learns to Cook. New York: Random House, 1967.
- Babar Loses His Crown. New York: Random House, 1967.
- Babar's Games. New York: Random House, 1968.
- Babar's Fair. New York: Random House, 1969.
- Babar Goes Skiing. New York: Random House, 1969.
- Babar's Moon Trip. New York: Random House, 1969.
- Babar's Trunk. New York: Random House, 1969.
- Babar's Birthday Surprise. New York: Random House, 1970
- Babar's Other Trunk. New York: Random House, 1971.
- Babar Visits Another Planet. New York: Random House, 1972.
- Meet Babar and His Family. New York: Random House, 1973.
- Babar's Bookmobile. New York: Random House, 1974.
- Babar and the Wully-Wully. New York: Random House, 1975.
- Babar Saves the Day. New York: Random House, 1976.
- Babar's Mystery. New York: Random House, 1978.
- Babar's Little Library. New York: Random House, 1980
- Babar the Magician. New York: Random House, 1980.
- Babar's Anniversary Album. New York: Random House, 1981.
- Babar's A.B.C. New York: Random House, 1983.
- Babar's Book of Color. New York: Random House, 2009
- Babar and the Ghost. Easy to Read Edition. New York: Random House, 1986.
- Babar's Counting Book. New York: Random House, 1986.
- "Christmas with Babar & Baby Isabelle." Woman's DayWoman's DayWoman's Day is aimed at a female readership, covering such subjects as food, nutrition, fitness, beauty and fashion. The magazine edition is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines....
, 22 December 1987. - Babar's Little Circus Star. New York: Random House, 1988.
- Babar's Busy Year. New York: Random House, 1989.
- Isabelle's New Friend. New York: Random House, 1990.
- Babar and the Succotash Bird. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 2000.
- Babar and Father Christmas. New York: Random House, 2001.
Films and television
- Babar (1960)
- The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant (1968)
- Babar (1969): broadcast in the UK on BBC1 weekdays from 29 September
- Babar Comes to America (1971)
- Babar and Father Christmas (1986)
- BabarBabar (TV series)Babar is an animated television series produced in Canada by Nelvana Limited and The Clifford Ross Company. It premiered in 1989 on CBC and HBO, subsequently was rerun on HBO Family and Qubo. The series is based on Jean de Brunhoff's original Babar books, and was Nelvana's first international...
(1989) - Babar: The MovieBabar: The MovieBabar: The Movie is a 1989 drawn-animated film made by Canada's Nelvana Limited and France's Ellipse Programme, and distributed by New Line Cinema. It is based on the characters of Jean de Brunhoff's eponymous children's books, and was a follow-up to the first season of the HBO TV series...
(1989) - Babar: King of the ElephantsBabar: King of the ElephantsBabar: King of the Elephants is a 1998 animated film made by Nelvana Limited and released in theaters in Canada by Alliance Communications and in the U.S. straight to video by New Line Home Video. Based on Jean de Brunhoff's book series, it is the second Babar movie, following 1989's Babar: The...
(1999) - Babar and the Adventures of BadouBabar and the Adventures of BadouBabar and the Adventures of Badou is a 3D animated TV series that premiered in 2010 based on the characters created by Jean and Laurent de Brunhoff. The series has created new characters to the Babar universe, including Badou, who is Babar's 8-year-old grandson and the central character of the series...
(2010)