![Fabeltjeskrant](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Fabeltjeskrant.png)
''Fabeltjeskrant'' () (or ''De Fabeltjeskrant'', Dutch for "''The Fables Newspaper''") is a Dutch
children's television series
Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evenin ...
featuring
puppetry
Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a perform ...
and
stop motion
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...
. Created in 1968 by and produced by
Thijs Chanowski Thijs is a common Dutch given name and surname. It is a short form of Matthijs (Dutch form of Matthew) or Timothijs or Timotheus (Dutch forms of Timothy). The ij is pronounced .
Some notable people with this name are:
Given name
*Thijs Al (born ...
(1st series) and
Loek de Levita (2nd series), it ended in 1989 and was broadcast on the Dutch and Japanese channels
NOS,
RTL 4
RTL 4 (Radio Télévision Luxembourg 4) is a Dutch free-to-air, free-to-cable television channel; it is the most-watched commercial station in the country, popular especially with those aged between 20 and 49. RTL 4 is a general entertainment chan ...
RTL 8
RTL 8 is a Dutch free-to-cable television channel that was launched on 18 August 2007 replacing Tien, previously known as Talpa. RTL 8's main target audience consists of women. It broadcasts soap operas, talk shows, films and reruns of progra ...
and
NHK
, also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee.
NHK operates two terrestr ...
and on Belgian channel
VRT. From 1973 to 1975 it was broadcast also in the United Kingdom, on
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
, with the title ''The Daily Fable.
Plot
Each episode is based upon
fable
Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular mo ...
s of
Jean de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine (, , ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''Fables'', which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Euro ...
,
Aesop
Aesop ( or ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales cre ...
,
Phaedrus and also by the series' scenographer
Leen Valkenier
Leen may refer to:
* Leen (given name)
* Leen (surname)
*River Leen, a river in England
See also
*Leens
Leens is a village in the Dutch province of Groningen. It is located in the municipality of Het Hogeland. Leens was a separate municipality u ...
. The main character, the
owl
Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...
"Meneer de Uil", introduces each episode reading a fable to other characters upon a tree. The setting is a forest inhabited by different anthropomorphic felt animals. The first episode was broadcast on 29 September 1968 on
NOS.
Characters
Main characters
All character ''surnames'' are referred to their
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
.
*Meneer de Uil (''Mr. Owl''), or Jacob de Uil, is an
owl
Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...
and the main narrator and face of the series. In British version his name was "Mr. Owl".
*Juffrouw Ooievaar (''Miss Stork'' in the British version)
*Lowieke de Vos (''Mr. Cunningham'' in the British version)
*Crox de Raaf (or Meneer de Raaf) (''Mr. Crow'' in the British version, in Dutch he is a raven)
*Bor de Wolf (''Boris the Wolf'' in the British version)
*Ed Bever (''Fred Beaver'' in the British version)
*Willem Bever (''Bert Beaver'' in the British version)
*Zoef de Haas (''Zippy the Hare'' in the British version)
*Stoffel de Schildpad (''Shelly the Tortoise'' in the British version)
*Truus de Mier (''Miss Ant'' in the British version)
*Gerrit de Postduif (''Gerald the Pigeon'' in the British version)
*Meindert het Paard (''Milord the Horse'' in the British version)
*Droes de Beer (''Harold the Bear'' in the British version)
*Jodocus de Marmot (''George the Guinea Pig'' in the British version)
*Isadora Paradijsvogel
*Myra Hamster
*Martha Hamster
*Momfer de Mol
*Chico Lama
*Greta Bontekoe
*Zaza Zebra
*Woefdram
Later generation characters
These character were not part of the first three series.
*Fatima de Poes, Iranian Muslima cat wearing a
hijab
In modern usage, hijab ( ar, حجاب, translit=ḥijāb, ) generally refers to headcoverings worn by Muslim women. Many Muslims believe it is obligatory for every female Muslim who has reached the age of puberty to wear a head covering. While ...
only appeared in the theater show (2007)
*Wally Windhond, (2019) DJ Dog both voice and music are done by
Armin van Buuren
Armin Jozef Jacobus Daniël van Buuren ( , ; born 25 December 1976) is a Dutch DJ and record producer from Leiden, South Holland. Since 2001, he has hosted ''A State of Trance'' (ASOT), a weekly radio show, which is broadcast to nearly 40&nbs ...
*Peter Panda (2019)
Recurring characters from the first two series
*Tijl Schavuit and Sjefke Schelm, two dodgy characters that first starred in the 70s feature film and then became recurring characters
*Piet de Pad
*Oléta Vulpécula
*Teun Stier
*Snoespoes
*Woef Hektor
*Hondje Woef
*Greta 2
*Borita
*Harry Lepelaar
*"Mister" John Maraboe
*Blinkert de Bliek and his girlfriend Frija Forel
*Melis Das
*Pepijn de Kater
*Plons de Kikvors
In other countries
The show was adapted in some other countries under the following titles:
*France: ''Le petit écho de la Forêt'' (French for ''The Little Echo of the Forest'')
*Hungary: ''Fabulácskahírek'' (Hungarian for ''The Fables Newspaper'')
*Israel: ''Sipurimpo'' (Hebrew for ''Stories Here'')
*Italy: ''La fiaba quotidiana'' (Italian for ''The daily fairy tale'')
*Norway: ''Fablenes bok'' (Norwegian for ''The book of Fables'')
*Sweden: ''Fablernas värld'' (Swedish for ''World of Fables'')
*United Kingdom: ''The Daily Fable''
*Peru: ''Las Crónicas de Fabulandia'' (Spanish for ''Chronicles of Fableland'')
*Mexico: ''Las Crónicas de Fabulandia'' (Spanish for ''Chronicles of Fableland'')
*Japan: "Fachishu shinbun" (Japanese for "The animals of Fables village")
*Poland: ''Leśna gazetka'' (Polish for "Forest newspaper")
In Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom, the show was refilmed especially for those specific countries. The Hebrew and Italian versions were dubbings of the English adaptation.
Adaptations
Lex Overeijnder wrote and drew a short-lived newspaper comic strip based on the TV show in 1969. In 1975 Dick Vlottes created another comic strip based on the series, which was published in the TV magazine Televizier in 1975.
In 1970, a film version, ''Onkruidzaaiers in Fabeltjesland'', premiered in theaters.
In 2007 a musical adaptation was created by Ruud de Graaf and Hans Cornelissen.
Comeback
In November 2017, a new
3D animated series was announced. It was broadcast in 2019 on
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
in the Netherlands.
In 2018 a book, an exhibition and a movie were launched to celebrate the 50th anniversary.
See also
* ''
Sesamstraat
''Sesamstraat'' () is a Dutch television series in the Netherlands, and a spin-off of the U.S. children's program ''Sesame Street''. In its early days the show was broadcast in Flanders (Belgium) as well. It is the second longest-running foreign ...
'' (another Dutch children's television series featuring puppetry)
Notes and references
External links
*
*
* {{IMDb title, 0294075
Dutch children's television series
1960s Dutch television series
1968 Dutch television series debuts
1989 Dutch television series endings
1960s animated television series
1970s animated television series
1980s animated television series
Dutch television shows featuring puppetry
Stop-motion animated television series
ITV children's television shows
Dutch-language television shows
Animated television series about birds
Television shows adapted into comics
Television shows adapted into plays
Television shows adapted into films
1960s preschool education television series
1970s preschool education television series
1980s preschool education television series
Animated preschool education television series
Forests in fiction