Once Upon a Time… ("Il était une fois…") is a French educational animation franchise, created by Procidis. There are seven distinct series, each focusing on different aspects of knowledge. These are mostly historical, with Once Upon a Time… Man being focused on the overall history of mankind, and most of the others are more focused on specified historical fields, such as the lives and exploits of the explorers or inventors. Life, however, featured an explanation on the workings of the body.
All feature the same stock characters, in similar archetypal roles. "Life" is the only one to not feature the children as grown up or adolescent archetypes of said characters, but as parts of the human organism.
Contents |
Originally produced in 1978, this series is the original series of the franchise, detailing the overall history of mankind. It was directed by Albert Barillé.
Produced in 1982, this series was a science fiction follow up to the last episode of "Man", which was futuristic in scope. Several episodes of this series were made into a movie. It was directed by Albert Barillé.
Produced in 1987, this series focuses on the workings of the human body, and has the children shown as the archetypes of various parts of the organism (cells, bacteria, etc.). It was directed by Albert Barillé.
Produced in 1991, this series focuses on the history of the American continent through all its settlements and their historical events. It was directed by Albert Barillé.
Produced in 1994, this series focuses on various thinkers and inventors throughout history, from the ancient Chinese, through Henry the Navigator, Gutenberg, Leonardo Da Vinci, Galileo, Newton, Marie Curie, until "tomorrow". It was directed by Albert Barillé.
Produced in 1996, this series focuses on various explorers, from "The First Navigators", through Vasco de Gama, Cabeza de Vaca and Humboldt, to Lewis & Clark and Alexandra David Neel. It was, as all the series before it, directed by Albert Barillé.
Produced in 2008, this series focuses on the preservation of the natural environment, and warnings about global warming, the greenhouse effect, pollution, and others. It features very different animation compared to earlier series. It was the last film directed by Albert Barillé, and the last series in the franchise to date. Unlike the others, this series has not yet been released in English.
The series Once Upon a Time… illustrated the various subjects (as listed above) from the point of view of a group that is always composed of similar recurring figures that represent different archetypal roles.:
Some of them had historical roles. For example Pest as Goliath and Pierrot as David. Maestro had the role of Leonardo Da Vinci and generally of benevolent or enlightened rulers (amongst these, he surprisingly represented Kublai Khan).
|
|||||||||||