The star of the Babar books by Jean and Laurent de Brunhoff, Babar is king of the elephants in Celesteville, where he lives with queen Celeste, their children the triplets Pom, Flora, and Alexander, his young cousin Arthur and his monkey friend Zephir, his trusted advisor Cornelius, the wonderful Old Lady of course, and all his myriad subjects. He is occasionally tormented by his enemy the cruel Rataxes, king of the rhinoceruses, but on the whole, life in Celesteville is peaceful, at least for those of us who don't find the sight of an elephant on a bicycle somewhat disturbing.

In 1989 an animated television series was produced by Nelvana Limited and Clifford Ross Company based on the original Babar books that were published in the 1930s. It ran from January 3, 1989 to June 5, 1991 with a total of six seasons.

The television series features the same characters from the books, as well as a few new faces such as Pompadour, Babar's royal minister of protocol.

The first and second seasons rely heavily on flashbacks into Babar's past showing the progression from losing his mother to a hunter and living in Paris with the Old Lady to becoming king of Celesteville. Subsequent seasons are more focused on the present and allow for characters such as Babar's children to have episodes focus on them. The sixth season takes on a much different format, however, with Babar and his family going on fantastic adventures in a hot air balloon, which was inspired by the second book in the Babar series called "Le Voyage de Babar."

While only a few television stations such as Qubo play re-runs of Babar and it is not yet available on DVD, all the episodes are available for purchase through Amazon.com's video on demand feature, which allows you to watch them via your computer.

Sources:

http://www.babar.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babar_the_Elephant

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