is an

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series based on a series of books published in the 1910s and 1920s by Thornton W. Burgess which ran on the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

ese network

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network ...

from 7 January 1973 to 30 December 1973. It consists of 52 episodes and was produced by the animation studio Zuiyo Eizo along with

Mushi Production or Mushi Pro for short, is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Fujimidai, Nerima, Tokyo, Japan. It previously had a headquarters elsewhere in Nerima. The studio was headed by manga artist Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka started it as a rivalry wi ...

as part of the ''Calpis Comic Theater'' (later known as

World Masterpiece Theater was a Japanese TV anime staple that showcased an animated version of a different classical book or story each year from 19:30 to 20:00 on Sunday on Fuji TV. It originally aired from 1969 to 1997 and from 2007 to 2009. Commonly abbreviated to ...

). The series has been aired in many countries outside Japan, such as Italy (on TMC), Germany (

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), Spain (

TVE TVE may stand for: Television * Televisión Española, a Spanish state-owned public-service television broadcaster ** TVE HD, a high-definition channel run by Televisión Española * Televisão Educativa, a defunct Brazilian TV network * TV Eduk ...

), Romania ( TVR 1), Portugal ( RTP), Venezuela ( VTV), the United Kingdom ( ITV /

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

), Canada (

TVOntario TVO Media Education Group (often abbreviated as TVO and stylized on-air as tvo) is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario ...

Knowledge Network Knowledge Network, also branded as British Columbia's Knowledge Network, is a Canadian publicly funded educational cable television network serving the province of British Columbia. It is owned by the Knowledge Network Corporation, a Crown cor ...

and

CBLFT-DT CBLFT-DT (channel 25) is an Ici Radio-Canada Télé station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which broadcasts programming to the province's Franco-Ontarian population. It is part of a twinstick with CBC Television flagship CBLT-DT (channel 5). ...

, dubbed in both English and French), Saudi Arabia (

Saudi 2 Saudi TV Channel 2 (KSA 2), or as of 2014 known as Saudi 2 was the English news and entertainment TV channel of Saudi Arabia. Established in 1983, the channel produces programmes focusing on cultural, political, and economic issues aimed at ...

), Australia (

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), Ireland ( Raidió Teilifís Éireann), Israel ( Channel 2 dubbed in Hebrew), the Emirates (

Dubai 33 Dubai Channel 33 (originally branded as Ch33) was a national television channel transmitting terrestrially out of Dubai in English, targeting the expat community in the U.A.E. It was founded in 1977. Up until the late 1980s, it was a 12-hour channe ...

), Nigeria ( NTA), Cyprus (

METV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television program ...

), New Zealand ( TV One), Brazil (

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), the Netherlands ( TROS), Malaysia ( Network Two), Singapore ( Mediacorp Channel 5), Indonesia (

RCTI RCTI (''Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia'') is a West Jakarta-based Indonesian free-to-air television network. It is best known for its soap operas, celebrity bulletins, news, and sports programmes. It was first launched in 1989, original ...

/ SCTV), South Africa ( SABC2), Namibia ( SWABC, back when it was known as South West Africa at the time), Hong Kong (both ATV and TVB) and Trinidad and Tobago ( TTT). The release of the series into

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was done through

ZIV International ZIV International was an American production and distribution company founded in 1971 by Irv Holender. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, it distributed Americanised versions of European animated cartoons and Japanese anime series, and produced ...

in 1978. There was a second English dub under the title ''Friends of the Green Forest'' which aired on the TVOKids on TVOntario in the 1990s. In the United Kingdom, the original transmission of the series as aforementioned on the ITV network was cut short, with only the first 30 episodes being broadcast in 1982, because the series was dropped due to the introduction of the Childrens ITV service in January 1983 taking over the series' former timeslot. Some of the other episodes were then later subsequently broadcast sporadically in the UK on the "Early Morning" weekend segment on

in the early 1990s

Synopsis

The series consists of the adventures of Johnny (or: Rocky), a woodchuck, and his mate Polly in the Green Forest. They make a lot of friends among their neighbours, and everyone works together to avoid the attacks of the different predators that put them in danger, such as man, the weasel, and the fox.

Characters

* Johnny Chuck, a

woodchuck The groundhog (''Marmota monax''), also known as a woodchuck, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. The groundhog is a lowland creature of North America; it is found through m ...

, sometimes called Rocky * Polly Chuck * Peter

Rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit sp ...

* Uncle Billy Possum * Chatterer the

Red Squirrel The red squirrel (''Sciurus vulgaris'') is a species of tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' common throughout Europe and Asia. The red squirrel is an arboreal, primarily herbivorous rodent. In Great Britain, Ireland, and in Italy numbe ...

* Bobby

Raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...

, he wears pants and suspenders * Reddy the Fox * Sammy Jay, a

blue jay The blue jay (''Cyanocitta cristata'') is a passerine bird in the family Corvidae, native to eastern North America. It lives in most of the eastern and central United States; some eastern populations may be migratory. Resident populations are ...

* Grandfather

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

* Old man

toad Toad is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. A distinction between frogs and toads is not made in scient ...

* Buster the bear, a black bear * Red tail

hawk Hawks are birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. They are widely distributed and are found on all continents except Antarctica. * The subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sparrowhawks, sharp-shinned hawks and others. This subfa ...

* Harry

Mink Mink are dark-colored, semiaquatic, carnivorous mammals of the genera '' Neogale'' and '' Mustela'' and part of the family Mustelidae, which also includes weasels, otters, and ferrets. There are two extant species referred to as "mink": ...

(called Billy in the books) * Jimmy

Skunk Skunks are mammals in the family Mephitidae. They are known for their ability to spray a liquid with a strong, unpleasant scent from their anal glands. Different species of skunk vary in appearance from black-and-white to brown, cream or gin ...

* Tom, Farmer Brown's son * Bowser the hound * Joe

Otter Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine, with diets based on fish and invertebrates. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which also includes we ...

* Paddy

Beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers a ...

* Danny Meadowmouse

Episodes

Music

* Opening Theme (Japanese version): ''Midori no Hidamari'' by Micchī (

Mitsuko Horie is a Japanese actress, voice actress and singer. She was born in Yamato, Kanagawa. She has voiced several characters throughout her career, such as Sailor Galaxia in '' Sailor Moon: Sailor Stars'' and Remi in the Nippon Animation World Master ...

) and Chatterers

In popular culture

In the 2014 anime '' Shirobako'', protagonist Aoi Miyamori states that her favorite anime is "Andes Hedgehog Mountain Chucky", which features a predominantly animal cast and is inspired by ''Fables of the Green Forest''.

References

Notes

Jonathan Winters will provide all the off-camera voices for "Fables of the Green Forest," a new children's animated cartoon series. Simpson's Leader-Times, Friday, 23 May 1975, p. 11

External links

* *
Fables of the Green Forest Series intro
{{World Masterpiece Theater 1973 anime television series debuts 1973 Japanese television series debuts 1973 Japanese television series endings Animated television series about foxes Animated television series about squirrels Bandai Visual Fuji TV original programming Mushi Production TVOntario original programming World Masterpiece Theater series