Barbapapa: One Big Happy Family! (French: Barbapapa en famille !, lit. "Barbapapa with family!") is a French musical animated children's television series. The series serves as a reboot of the original Barbapapa television series based on the books of the same name by French-American couple Annette Tison and Talus Taylor. The series is a production of Normaal Animation, with the participation of TF1, Nickelodeon, Télé-Québec and RTS.
The show was first announced in 2018 via a Nickelodeon press release, and began broadcasting in its native France beginning November 10, 2019 on TF1, as part of the TFOU programming block for children. On June 9, 2021, a compilation film consisting of previous episodes called Les Barbapapa se mettent au vert ("The Barbapapas Go Green") was released in French theaters. The second season premiered on November 5, 2023.
It deviates from the original series and its sequel, Barbapapa Around the World's five-minute episode format by extending the length of each episode to eleven minutes, which allows for more involved episode plots with more storytelling.
Contents
Premise
Barbapapa: One Big Happy Family! focuses on the daily lives of the members of the Barbapapa family (Barbapapa, Barbamama, and their seven children; Barbabravo, Barbalib, Barbazoo, Barbalala, Barbabright, Barbabelle and Barbabeau), a group of shapeshifting blobs. Most of the episodes involve the family getting themselves into extraordinary and often humorous situations, such as building a rocket to Mars or the children trying to hide a pet elephant they found in the wild from their parents.
Each episode features a teachable moral that the characters learn from while on their adventures.
Cast
Original French dub
Bruno Magnes — Barbapapa
Nathalie Karsenti — Barbamama
Lucille Boudonnat — Barbalib
Adeline Chetail — Barbabelle
Youna Noiret — Barbabravo
Fily Keita — Barbabright
Kaycie Chase — Barbazoo
Marie Facundo — Barbabeau
Emmylou Homs — Barbalala
Bernard Alane — Narrator, Mr. Strict, others
Jérémy Prévost — Roy
Nathalie Homs
Fred Colas
Nicolas Justamon
English dub
Unlike the original French version, which uses adult voice actresses for the voices of the Barbababies, child actors perform their voices. The dub was produced in the United Kingdom by Jungle Studios in British English.
Barbapapa (voiced by Oliver Britten) – A pink shapeshifting blob-shaped creature who is the father of the Barbababies.
Barbamama (voiced by Harriet Carmichael) — A black shapeshifting blob-shaped creature who is the mother of the Barbababies.
Barbalib (voiced by Scarlett Keeble) — An orange Barbababie who loves to read books and is very smart.
Barbabelle (voiced by Molly O'Mahony) — A purple Barbababie who loves fashion.
Barbabravo (voiced by Felix Warren (season 1), Brodie Edwards (season 2)) — A red Barbababie who is a sports fan and loves to keep fit.
Barbabright (voiced by William Barber (season 1), Charlie McGonagle (season 2)) — A blue Barbababie who loves science and coming up with new inventions.
Barbazoo (voiced by Teddy West (season 1), Zane Siddiqui (season 2)) — A yellow Barbababie who is a nature enthusiast and enjoys taking care of animals.
Barbabeau (voiced by Bruno Ben Tovim (season 1), Max Lester (season 2)) — A black and furry Barbababie who loves art, including drawing and painting.
Barbalala (voiced by Ynez Williams) — A green Barbababie who is a musician and loves to play various instruments.
The voice actor for Barbabravo was omitted in error from the credits in the original release of the English dub. The voice actor for the narrator (whose voice is also changed in season 2) is uncredited.
Episodes
Broadcast
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Barbapapa franchise as a whole, the series was released worldwide on Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. channels in over 100 territories throughout late 2020 and early 2021. This allowed for the series to be dubbed into a wide variety of languages, including some which the original Barbapapa series and Around the World have never been dubbed into before. The first countries to premiere the series outside of France were Italy, Germany and Austria.
The English dub was produced in the United Kingdom, but the series did not air on British television until July 10, 2021. The English dub also airs in Australia and New Zealand, as well as via secondary audio tracks in Italy, Germany, Austria and on Nick Jr.'s Global feed.
Yle TV2 in Finland premiered the series on January 1, 2021 as part of the Pikku Kakkonen programming block for children, making it the first non-Nickelodeon channel outside of the French-speaking world to air the series.