''Le Manège enchanté'' (

British English British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...

: "The Magic Roundabout",

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

: "The Magic Carousel") is a popular French animated children's television series of hundreds of episodes each five minutes long, which premiered on October 5, 1964, on the first channel of the ORTF. Serge Danot created the series. The series features characters in the make-believe land of ''Bois-Joli'': Père Pivoine, the owner of the roundabout; Zébulon, a

jack-in-the-box A jack-in-the-box is a children's toy that outwardly consists of a Music Box, music box with a Crankset, crank. When the crank is turned, a music box mechanism in the toy plays a melody. After the crank has been turned a sufficient number of ti ...

; Pollux the British dog; Azalée the cow; Ambroise the snail; Flappy the Spanish rabbit; Margote, a girl; and Jouvence Pio, a gardener who starts every sentence with "Hep Hep Hep". The footage was used by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

to produce an English-language version, ''

The Magic Roundabout ''The Magic Roundabout'' is an English-language children's programme that ran on BBC Television from 1965 to 1977. It used the footage of the French stop motion animation show '' Le Manège enchanté'' but with completely different scripts a ...

'', using scripts that bore little relation to the original story lines.

Production

The programmes were created by stop motion animation with puppets used for the characters. The first season consisted of about 39 episodes. The initial episodes were filmed in black and white. After Danot's departure in 1967, a second series of 100 episodes was broadcast in 1971. In 1989 another 250 episodes were produced by AB Groupe for the ''

La Cinq La Cinq (, ) was a French free-to-air television channel. Created by politician Jérôme Seydoux and Italian media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, it existed from 1986 to 1992. The contract for France's fifth terrestrial network, which was suppos ...

'' channel.Agnès Moreau, ''De Nounours à Casimir, du petit écran au coffre à jouets'', éditions Massin, 1997,

Voices

* Jacques Bodoin : Pollux / Flappy / Ambroise / Zébulon (1963–1966) * Bernard Haller : Pollux (1966) * Christian Riehl: Pollux (1966–1990) * Micheline Dax: Azalée (1963–1966) * Pascaline Priou: Azalée (1966–?) * Patricia Danot: Margote (1963–1990) * Serge Danot: Ambroise (1966–?)

Films and revivals

* '' Dougal and the Blue Cat'', French animated film directed by Serge Danot in 1972 * ''

'', Franco-British animated film, released in 2005 The series was revived using computer animation. 52 episodes aired from September 2006 on

Disney Junior Disney Jr. (formerly Disney Junior) is an American pay television network owned by the Disney Branded Television sub-division of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company. Aimed mainly at children two to seven year ...

and from 2 April 2006 on M6. A new series will be produced by Mediawan (who acquired AB Groupe in 2017; whose previously produced the fourth season and remastered the previous three seasons including their English adaptation) through its animation subsidiary

Method Animation Method Animation (formerly known as Method Films) is a French animation studio owned by Mediawan through its Kids & Family division founded in 1998 by Aton Soumache. The studio produces CGI and 2D animated shows. It came together in 2014 as the c ...

alongside Jérôme Brizé's production company and rights to the franchise Magic! and was planned to release it for 2024 but has since been delayed to 2025.Method Animation's British animation studio Wildseed Studios which Mediawan Kids & Family had brought in 2023 joined the revival as co-producer in June 2025.

References

External links

* *
Le Manège enchanté (1963)
' on

AlloCiné AlloCiné is an entertainment website founded by Jean-David Blanc in 1988, then joined by Patrick Holzman. It has belonged to the company since 2013 Webedia. which specializes in providing information on French cinema, mostly centering on nove ...

*
Le Manège enchanté (2006)
' on

''Le Manège enchanté''
on ''Planète Jeunesse'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Manege enchante, Le 1963 French television series debuts 1990 French television series endings 2006 French television series debuts 2010 French television series endings 1960s French animated television series 1970s French animated television series 1980s French animated television series 1990s French animated television series 2000s French animated television series 2010s French animated television series French computer-animated television series French children's animated fantasy television series French children's animated comedy television series Stop-motion animated television series Television shows adapted into films French-language television shows

Production

Voices

Films and revivals

See also

References

External links