D'Artacan - The 1981 animated series

D'Artacan (D'Artacan y los tres mosqueperros - Wanwan sanjushi) is a Spanish and Japanese animated television series for children, an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's 1844 classic novel D'Artacán and The Three Musketeers. The series was produced by Spanish studio BRB Internacional with animation from Japanese studio Nippon Animation, which first aired on MBS in Japan in 1981-82.

Most of the characters in the series are anthropomorphic dogs, hence the title of the cartoon; although there are some exceptions, most notably D'Artacán's two aides Pip the mouse and Planchet the bear, among many others.

In 1985, BRB Internacional released a TV movie based on the series entitled D'Artacán: Special. In 1989 a sequel series entitled The Return of D'Artacán was produced with Televisión Española and Thames Television. In 1995, they released a television film based on the sequel series entitled D'Artacán: All for One and One for All. In 2021, Apolo Films (BRB International film studio) and Cosmos Maya aired the CGI feature film entitled D'Artacán and the Three Musketeers in cinemas.

History

The story, set in XNUMXth-century France, follows the adventures of the young D'Artacán who travels from Béarn to Paris with orders to become one of the French king Louis XIII's musketeers. He soon befriends three musketeers (Porthos, Athos and Aramis) while saving Juliette, a bridesmaid of Queen Anne of Austria. A key difference between the adaptations of the animated series and the Dumas novel is that the character traits of Athos and Porthos are interchanged, making Athos the extrovert and Porthos the noble secret of the group.

Production

The series was produced in 1981 by BRB International and Nippon Animation and was first broadcast by MBS in Japan, where it began airing on October 9, 1981. A year after its premiere, it was broadcast for the Televisión Española's Primera Cadena first appeared in Spain as of 9 October 1982. The partnership between BRB International and Nippon Animation worked so well, that they collaborated in another successful animated series two years later, called the tour of the world of Willy Fog.

The series was dubbed into English by Intersound USA in 1985. In addition to dubbing the TV series, BRB also produced a TV movie, which was again voiced by Intersound USA. The series was first broadcast in the UK by the BBC beginning on 3 January 1985.

To date, the series is still broadcast on different platforms such as YouTube and Netflix.

Technical data

Spanish original title D'Artacán y los Tres Mosqueperros
Japanese title: Hepburn Wan Wan Sanjuushi
Gender : action, comedy-drama, fantasy
Author Claudius Biern Boyd
Basato su The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Written by Akira Nakahara, Taku Sugiyama, Yoshihiro Kimura
Regia Taku Sugiyama, Shigeo Koshi, Luis Ballester
Music by Katsuhisa hattori
Country of origin: Spain, Japan
Number of episodes 26
Manufacturers: Endo Shigeo, Junzo Nakajima
Production company: BRB International, Nippon Animation
Original network: MBS (Japan), Española Television (Spain)
Date 1st transmission October 9, 1981 - March 26, 1982