''Zoom the White Dolphin'' (), known in Japan as , is a 1971

anime is hand-drawn and 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 Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

series created by Vladimir Tarta. Directed by René Borg, the show was produced by Telcia, Saga Films and Japan's Eiken. The series debuted in France in 1971 on ORTF's second network and later aired from 29 June 1981 on FR3. The Japanese version of the series ran on TBS in 1975. An English dub was produced and broadcast internationally on networks such as ABC Television (Australia), CBC Television (Canada) and ITV (United Kingdom), with a

compilation film A compilation film, or compilation movie is a film composed of scenes and shots taken from two or more prior films and edited together so as to make a new film, whether on the same or a different subject. The most common example would be a docum ...

airing on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

(USA) as part of '' Special Delivery''.

Synopsis

The series presents the adventures of Zoom, a white

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...

, and his friends, two children who live with their sailor uncle. The cast includes several animals including a mynah bird (who understands the dolphin language in addition to the language of the other animals and the humans on the island and acts as a translator), a

koala The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the w ...

, and a

sloth Sloths are a group of Neotropical xenarthran mammals constituting the suborder Folivora, including the extant arboreal tree sloths and extinct terrestrial ground sloths. Noted for their slowness of movement, tree sloths spend most of their l ...

. During their adventures, Zoom meets a beautiful female dolphin, called Za-za-zoom in the English version, with whom he has a baby. A condensed feature-length version, dubbed in English, was released on videocassette in the United States by Embassy Home Entertainment in 1985. The release was never re-issued on any other home video format.

Product promotion

Zoom was the mascot for

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since ...

's Galak chocolate brand until the company ended its licence in 2003. However, the series rights-holders sued Nestlé after extant stocks of Galak product featuring the character continued to circulate.

Remake

In 2013, TF1, Media Valley and Marzipan Film announced plans to produce a 52 thirteen-minute episode CG-animated reboot in collaboration with

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

and TiJi. The series debuted in France on 30 August 2015. A second 52-episode season debut on 4 October 2020.

References

External links

*
Iruka to Shônen
: information on Japanese version of the series

Coucoucircus: series theme
* 1970s French animated television series 1971 French television series debuts 1971 anime television series debuts French children's animated adventure television series Japanese children's animated adventure television series CBC Television original programming Fictional dolphins Fictional sloths and anteaters Polynesia in fiction Animated television series about mammals Animated television series about birds Television series about koalas Animated television series about children {{animation-tv-prog-stub