Colby and his little friends - The 1984 animated series

November 29, 2021

Colby and his little friends (in the Japanese original: コアラボーイコッキイ Koara bôi Kokki) (in the English version: Adventures of the Little Koala) is a Japanese animated series (anime) produced by Tohokushinsha Film Corporation. It originally aired in Japan on TV Tokyo from October 4, 1984 to March 28, 1985, and then aired in the United States on Nickelodeon (later moved to the Nick Jr. block upon its launch in early 1988) dubbed in English from 1 June 1987 to 2 April 1993. The plot revolved around Roobear Koala (voiced in English by former child actor Steven Bednarski) and his friends and their utopian village in a fictional version of New South Wales, in Australia, known in the Japanese version as Yukari Village, within the shadow of a real rock formation known as the Breadknife.

The English and French versions of the series were produced by the Canadian studio Cinar Films.

It also aired in Greece, Italy, France, the UK, the Arabic-speaking world and other countries, but its biggest hit was by far in the US on Nickelodeon.

Characters

Colby Koala / Roobear Koala / Kockey / Kolby Steven Bednarski / Toshiko Fujita
A young boy and central character and protagonist of the series. Intelligent, adventurous, curious and athletic, he loves surfing, skateboarding and baseball.

Laura Koala / Lala Morgan Hallett / Chisato Nakajima
Robear's younger sister. Although she is a little snotty at times, she is generally good-hearted and is also a strong-willed girl.

"Mom" Koala / Vera / Mrs. Koala Jane Woods / Yoshiko Asai
Robear and Laura's mother. She is a devoted housewife, wife and mother, and an excellent cook, but she also has other talents: ten years before the events of the series, she won the village aerial race, and won a second time in the episode “Mommy Can Fly "(Despite not being an official competitor in the race and only taking the cockpit to save other competitors who were stuck following an accident).

“Papa” Koala / Mel / Mr Koala Walter Massey / Hachirou Ozuma
Robear and Laura's father. He works as a photographer for Miss Lewis magazine. His biggest vice is a tendency to overeat, leading his family to try to put him on a diet and exercise (despite his protests) in the episode "Pope on Stilts".

Betty Koala / Beth Cleo Paskal / Yuriko Yamamoto
Robear's Girl. Generally a good-hearted girl, she can be a little vain at times, and her relationship with Roobear is sometimes tinged with misunderstandings.

Dean Hagopian horse kangaroo
The tallest of the kangaroo brothers.

Walter Canguro AJ Henderson / Naoki Tatsuta
Robear's friend. The gang leader of the kangaroo brothers, he describes himself as an expert boomerang thrower. He and his brothers love nothing more than to make trouble in the village. Pamie and Mingle were the most frequent recipients of their teasing. Walter has an unrequited crush on Betty but (oddly given her temper) he was too shy to tell her how she felt.

Colt Kangaroo Rob Roy
The shortest of the kangaroo brothers.

Timothy Webber / Kyōko Tongū rabbit
Roo-bear's best friend. Floppy is a science enthusiast and budding inventor who also has a strong competitive streak when it comes to sports and other competitions. Always wear a Walkman.

Mimi Rabbit Barbara Pogemiller / Mayumi Shou
Floppy's younger sister.

Pamie Penguin Bronwen Mantel / Noriko Tsukase
A girl who loves to eat (although she became temporarily anorexic in the episode "Balloon Pamie" due to Walter's teasing on her big stomach, which caused her to pass out). She also has an unrequited crush on Roobear and has ambitions to become a nurse someday. Pamie and her brother Nick always wore scarves, even when it was hot, and they had three younger brothers who were triplets.

Nick Penguin Ian Finlay / Yumiko Shibata
Pamie's twin brother. Although he is generally more balanced than his sister and also has a sarcastic streak, he often indulges Pamie's antics even though she knows more. In the episode "Pamie Falls in Love" he devised a plan to cancel Roobear's scheduled picnic date with Betty so that Pamie could have a date with Roobear instead, but the plan ended in disaster for everyone. . He also wore a hat with pom poms in addition to the scarf.

Kiwi Phillip Pretten
A bespectacled kiwi bird boy who served and worked as koala dad, koala mom and miss Lewis, and everyone else's assistant.

Miss Lewis Bronwen Mantel / Fuyumi Shiraishi
A young adult female koala who worked as editor-in-chief for the village magazine and was always on the lookout for stories that might interest her readers. He had a close relationship with Roo-bear and his friends, acting as something of a surrogate teacher, and encouraged them when they decided to start a children's newspaper.

Maki-Maki Richard Dumont
A paranoid and paranoid 32-year-old young adult and adult lizard who served and worked as Miss Lewis's assistant, school assistant, other job assistants, and often acted as town auctioneer: loudly heralding any news of the latest now that he found out, usually before verifying its accuracy, and then often completely wrong. He is also a scary cat.

Weather Richard Dumont and Vlasta Vrána / Kaneto Shiozawa
An enigmatic dingo who was always wrapped in a heavy coat, scarf and hat, even when it was hot, and could predict the weather with great accuracy. Like Miss Lewis, she had a close relationship with Roo-bear and her friends and acted as a kind of mentor and advisor to them.

Mingle Barbara Pogemiller
A mild and sensitive sugar glider and constant companion of Weather, often involved in children's adventures; particularly when his flying / hang gliding skills could come in handy, such as when the kids were learning to fly hang gliding.

Duck-billed platypus Arthur Grosser / Isamu Tanonaka
A platypus who enjoys collecting old junk and making useful things out of it. Children call him "Bill" for short.

Mr. Mayor AJ Henderson
Another adult male koala in the series. As the name suggests, he is the mayor of the village. He wears a dark brown shirt, pants and hat, plus tan shoes, an orange bow tie, and has a mustache.

Dr. Nose Walter Massey
A friend of Papa koala and Roobear, Laura, Floppy, Mimi, Nick and Pamie's school teacher, scientist and botanist. Wear glasses, white shirt, green jacket, black pants, brown shoes and hat. He also has a beard and mustache.

Mr. Curator Michael Rudder
Diana Sonja Ball
A girl visiting her grandfather for whom Floppy and Roobear fall in love and believe they are the goddess of the moon. It appears in the episode "The Moon Goddess".

Production

Colby and his little friends was made while Japan was in the midst of a koala frenzy along with another koala-themed anime titled ふしぎなコアラブリンキー (The Wondrous Koala Blinky), which would later air alongside Little Koala in Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. block. in 1988, as Noozles. According to The Anime Encyclopedia by Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy, the koala frenzy in Japan was sparked by the Tama Zoo in western Tokyo which received their first koala when the Australian government sent six koalas to Japan as a sign of good will, but in reality, Tama Zoo as well as other zoos in Japan got their koalas because Japan craved them, and Little Koala and Noozles were already on the air when the koalas arrived in October 1984

Episodes

"The old clock tower" / "Mingle dives"
"Is time a frog?" / "Lost in a race"
"Ghost ship" / "Pamie in a balloon"
"The king of the castle" / "Hang gliding with Roobear"
"The Mysterious Moa Bird" / "Love That Baby Moa!"
"Snow White and the Seven Koalas" / "Roobear's Invention"
"Dad on stilts" / "Detective Roobear"
"The dinosaur egg" / "Treasure hunt"
"Pamie falls in love" / "The Koala Butterfly"
"The gang of the koala bear" / "Back to nature"
"Roobear saves the day" / "Roobear Chief Editor"
"Monster Scoop" / "The biggest puzzle in the world"
"Who will be the queen of flowers?" / "Circus day"
"Roobear the babysitter" / "Papa makes a cake"
"The Amazing Boomerang" / "The Runaway Hat"
"Conquering Mount Breadknife" / "Saving the Eucalyptus"
"Mommy Can Fly" / "The Secret of the McGillicuddy Vase"
"Heavenly Fireworks" / "Save That Junk"
"The Winner" / "A centenary camera"
"Nurse Pamie" / "Any mail today?"
"The writing on the wall" / "A ride in a spaceship"
"Is Mingle a nuisance?" / "Compensation problems"
"A Whale of a Ride" / "Laura Finds an Egg"
"A broken umbrella" / "Save the butterflies"
"The Moon Goddess" / "The Flying Doctor"
"Eucalyptus Rocket" / "Penguins don't fly"

Technical data

Anime TV series

Gender adventure, comedy
Author Su-jeong Kang
Regia Ki-nam Nam, Ernest Reid
Film script Ken'ichi Ogawa, Kiichi Takayama, Mamoru Kambe, Nanako Watanabe, Naoko Miyake, Riki Matsumoto, Toshiaki Imaizumi, Toshiro Ueno, Tsuyoshi Yatsuki, Yoshiaki Yoshida
character design Kazuyuki Kobayashi, Hidekazu Ohara
Artistic direction Kazuo Okada
Music Kunihiro Kawano
Studio Tokyo Shinsha Film, Top Kraft, TOHO, Cinar Animation
1st TV October 4, 1984 - March 28, 1985
Episodes 26 (complete)
Episode duration 24 min
Italian network Channel 5
1st Italian TV 1988
Italian episodes 26 (complete)
Italian episode length 24 min