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Babar: King of the Elephants

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Babar: King of the Elephants is a 1999 Canadian-French-German animated film directed by Raymond Jafelice and made by Nelvana Limited, Home Made Movies, and TMO-Loonland, in association with The Clifford Ross Company. The film was released in theaters in Canada by Alliance Communications and in the US by HBO Home Video. It is the second film based on Jean de Brunhoff's original book series, following Babar: The Movie.[1] The story chronicles the events of the first four Babar books.[2]

Plot[]

The film opens with various birds in the jungle singing "The Ancient Song of the Elephants". Marabou, a marabou stork, states that the elephants have long forgotten the meaning behind the words of the song over the years; the birds, however, remember as they have been around for the same period of time as the elephants. Marabou provides a brief introduction to the story that is about to unfold, which begins with a historically significant event: the birth of Babar the elephant.[3]

In the Great Forest, Babar lives a happy childhood being cared for by his loving mother and playing with the other young elephants, including his friends Arthur and Celeste. One day while walking alone with Babar, Babar's mother is shot and killed by a hunter, and Babar is forced to flee as the hunter approaches;[1] after days of wandering, he eventually finds his way to an unnamed city in Paris.[4] Babar spends an eventful day exploring the city and engaging in human activities such as eating ice cream for the first time and attempting to order at a restaurant, all the while disturbing traffic and frightening the other citizens. He meets an older woman, Madame, who provides him with money to purchase proper clothing at a nearby store. Following an extensive fitting session, Babar emerges from the store wearing his signature bright green suit, red bow tie, and a bowler hat.[1] Madame invites Babar to live with her, and she raises him as if he is human, educating him on subjects including mathematics, etiquette, and how to drive a car on the roads. Although Babar enjoys his new life, he occasionally thinks back to his childhood in the Great Forest, missing his elephant friends and his deceased mother.[3]

Two years later, while on a walk with Madame, Babar is shocked to discover Arthur and Celeste, who have left the Great Forest in search of him. The three friends spend the day in a fashion reminiscent of Babar's first day in the city, but they are interrupted by Celeste's mother and another adult elephant from the Great Forest, who have been searching for the runaway children; though at first angry at their disappearance, the older elephants are ecstatic to see Babar, whom they had presumed dead. They inform him that the King of the Elephants has died from accidentally eating poisonous mushrooms, even with Cornelius trying to keep things in order the elephants in disarray, and that the rhinoceroses have waged war against the elephants due to Arthur and the other younger elephants playing pranks on them. That evening, Madame and Babar agree that it is time for him to return home.[3] They say good bye and go on their way Madame and Babar missing each other already.

Babar is welcomed back to the Great Forest, where he reunites with his old friend Cornelius and the rest of the elephants. Meanwhile, Lord Rataxes, the leader of the rhinoceroses, mobilizes his forces in preparation for war against the elephants. Babar devises a plan to stop the war: he paints monster faces on the backsides of elephants and has them walk backwards in their approach towards the enemy. The plan succeeds in forcing the rhinoceros troops to retreat in fear, and Babar then has Arthur apologize to the abandoned Rataxes for offending the rhinoceroses, thus restoring peace to the jungle. For his brilliant idea and bravery, Babar is asked to be the new King of the Elephants; he agrees on the condition that Celeste be his Queen, which she accepts.[3]

As King, Babar is keen to introduce Western civilization to the elephants by building a City of the Elephants. He brings in Madame - along with loads of supplies on the backs of camels - to the Great Forest, and together with the rest of the elephants they build huts with thatched roofs for residences, as well as other common city buildings such as a hospital, a theatre, and a courthouse. As they are establishing roles for all of the animal citizens within their new city, Celeste reveals to Babar that she is pregnant; she later gives birth to triplets Flora, Pom, and Alexander. Problems eventually begin to arise in the City of the Elephants, including Madame being bitten by a snake while protecting Zephir and Cornelius being struck unconscious by a fallen beam when his hut catches fire. In hopes of distracting Babar from these events, Celeste plans a picnic for the family, Arthur, and Zephir; her efforts are successful until an unsupervised Alexander stows away in a basket that drifts away in the lake, almost eaten by a crocodile and nearly drowning before he is saved by his parents. That night, Babar's troubles manifest in a nightmare in which he is threatened by a visit from the demon Misfortune and rescued by elephant angels, but he is awoken by Flora the next morning to discover that both Cornelius and Madame are well on their way to recovering from their respective ordeals. The elephants rejoice in the completion of their beautiful new city, for which Babar proposes a new name: Celesteville.[3]

Voice cast[]

Trivia[]

  • This film was closer the stories than the tv show as the stories are very different.
  • Rather than being pronounced "BAH-bar" like in the show and the other movie, Babar's name is pronounced the original way "Buh-BAR" (NOTE: With pronunciation, some syllables are in all-caps because of emphasis.).
  • This movie shows when Flora, Pom, and Alexander are born.
  • Madame gets bitten by a snake in this movie, and then passes out, it's unknown what kind of snake it is (though it resembles a cobra), but it's similar to when Flora gets bitten by a snake in "Witch's Potion."
  • Isabelle is absent from this movie, this might be because she wasn't born yet.
  • Victor is also absent from this movie, it's possible that he's never met Flora, Pom, and Alexander until school.
  • It is stated that this film is a sequel to Babar: The Movie, but this film has a completely different look, feel, and storyline, in fact, this film is based on the book series itself, instead of the TV series. This would explain why Pompadour and Basil are not present in this film.
  • Of all those from the TV series and the other movie, only Elizabeth Hanna, the late Allen Stewart-Coates, and the late Chris Wiggins reprise their roles (as the Old Lady, Rataxes, and Cornelius, respectively).
  • Amos Crawley, the voice of older Arthur in this movie, had previously voiced Alexander in the TV series.
  • Kristin Fairlie (Young Babar), Jennifer Martini (Young Celeste), Amos Crawley (Adult Arthur), Janet-Laine Green (Adult Celeste), and Elizabeth Hanna (Madame) were all previously and later involved in Little Bear (as Little Bear, Emily, Owl, Mother Bear, and Hen, respectively).
  • Kyle Fairlie, the voice of Young Arthur and Alexander in this movie, co-starred with his sister as the voice of Cub (a bear cub like Little Bear) in The Little Bear Movie.
  • Additionally, Cody Jones (the voice of Pom), Kristen Bone (the voice of Flora) and Kyle Fairlie (the voice of Alexander and their maternal uncle as a child) were involved in voicing Bear (first season only), Snail, and Rabbit from Franklin.
    • Not to mention, in Franklin's Magic Christmas, Bone was also the voice of Beatrice and Grandma Jenny Turtle as a child.
  • Kristen Bone and Kyle Fairlie were also involved in Rolie Polie Olie as the voices of Zowie Polie (Bone) and, later in the show, the voices of both Dad as a boy and as Space Boy (both for Kyle Fairlie). Additionally, the late Paul Haddad was also, at one point, the second voice of Gloomius Maximus (replacing veteran American voice actor James Woods).
  • Previously, the late Paul Haddad was the voice of the older Arthur in the original Babar TV series.
  • Kristen Bone would later star with Stephen Ouimitte (the voice of Pompadour) in Maggie and the Ferocious Beast as the the title characters respectively.
  • When a rhino approaches the shade where the other rhinos are resting, he loudly farts making them leave for him having the whole shady spot to himself.
  • The Hunter's face isn't shown after he kills Babar's mother. In fact, the death of Babar's mother is different to how she died in the TV series premiere Babar's First Step.
  • The appearance of the demon, Misfortune, is the original appearance of her being portrayed as a witch-like figure. And the Winged Elephants (the angels who saved Babar in his dream) are more angelic since they were majestically seen defeating the demons, and when they sang their part of the song, their voices were very beautiful. While in the TV series in the episode "The City of Elephants", Misfortune appeared as a demonic red elephant while the Winged Elephants had no speaking roles. They helped the young King Babar defeat Misfortune and flew away.
  • Just like in the tv show, Babar Celeste and Arthur are not cousins, in fact in the film, Arthur and Celeste have two different mothers, just like in the story.

Errors[]

  • There are a few plot holes in the film that are different from the book:
    • When Madame sees Babar happily sitting and talking with Arthur, Celeste, and their mothers, she decides he should go home, in the book when Arthur and Celeste's mothers come to get them, Babar decides to go home with them.
    • Babar becomes king after scaring off the rhinos, in the book he is made king after he returns from the city as Cornelius says that Babar's knowledge of the city could help the elephants.
    • Babar proposes to Celeste when he is crowned king, in the book when Babar returns home he says that he and Celeste became engaged on the way home.
  • Babar comes to the city as a child, but he is displayed the same size as full grown elephant.

Reception[]

Critical response[]

The film has an audience score of 53% and an average rating of 3/5 on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.[5]

References[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Template:Cite journal
  2. ↑ Template:Cite news
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Template:Citation
  4. ↑ Template:Cite journal
  5. ↑ Template:Citation

External links[]

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