Barbapapa

• 1. Introduction

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  Barbapapa, the round, pink shapeshifting creature, got its name in a Paris restaurant in May 1970. Annette Tison and Talus Taylor, a French-American couple living in the city, had just walked through the Luxembourg Garden. Taylor was an American who did not speak French. He heard a child call out something that sounded like "Baa baa baa baa." Tison explained that the child was asking for "Barbe à papa," the French name for cotton candy. That phrase translates literally as "Daddy's beard." At the restaurant, the couple began drawing on the tablecloth. A round, pink figure took shape, inspired by the soft, shapeless texture of the candy. The name Barbapapa followed almost on its own. How a candy-inspired sketch became a book, and then a franchise spanning dozens of countries, begins with a Dutch publisher named Frank Fehmers.

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• 2. The First Editions

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  Frank Fehmers stepped in where several European competitors had declined. Other publishers had expressed interest in Barbapapa but refused to cover the production costs. Fehmers proposed a co-production arrangement, and the first editions appeared in 1970 in four languages at once. L'École des Loisirs issued the original French edition. Fehmers' own company, Frank Fehmers Productions, handled the Dutch version. In Britain, the Ernest Benn Company published the English edition. In the United States, the Henry Z. Walck Co. brought out the American English version. The books were written originally in French and later translated into more than 30 languages. Barbapapa himself is described in the books as a papaya-shaped figure who grows from the ground and tries to find his place among humans. A full cast of characters was still needed, and the family that Barbapapa would eventually gain numbered nine members in total.

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• 3. The Barbapapa Family

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  Barbamama, the female companion Barbapapa eventually finds, is described in the books as more shapely than he is and colored black. Their seven children each carry a distinct color and a defining personality. Barbabravo is red and devoted to sports. Barbabright, blue, is a scientist. Barbazoo, yellow, is a nature enthusiast. Barbabeau is black and furry, and paints. Among the daughters, Barbalala is green and musical. Barbabelle is purple and described in the books as a narcissistic beauty queen. Barbalib is orange and intellectual. The shapeshifting that defines the family follows a simple rule. Each member can take any form, but their distinctive face and color always remain visible. In the original books, each transformation is announced with the phrase "Clickety Click, Barba Trick." The British dubbed version shortened that to "All Change!" Both the cartoons and the comics address environmental concerns, a recurring strand in the Barbapapas' adventures. Frank Fehmers had plans to take those nine characters to the small screen.

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• 4. On the Small Screen

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  The first Barbapapa animated series aired in France, Britain, and the Netherlands in 1974. Japan followed three years later, in 1977. The series was produced in partnership with Joop Visch of Polyscope-PolyGram and the Japanese animation studio Topcraft Limited Company. Talus Taylor designed the storyboards himself. One hundred episodes, each five minutes long, were produced across two seasons. After twelve years, the collaboration between the creative team and the co-production company came to an end. A new chapter opened in 1999, when a Japanese series was produced by Studio Pierrot and Kodansha. That series depicted the family travelling to different countries around the world and ran for more than fifty episodes. The most recent version, Barbapapa: One Big Happy Family!, launched in 2019, produced by Normaal Animation. It airs on TF1 in France and on Yle TV2 in Finland. In countries including Poland, the show appears on Nick Jr. Alice Taylor and Thomas Taylor, children of Annette Tison and Talus Taylor, wrote the series. The English dub was produced by Jungle Studios in the United Kingdom, with a cast of child actors. Each new version of the show required its own sound, and the music that accompanied Barbapapa across different countries became its own story.

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• 5. Songs Across Borders

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  Harrie Geelen wrote the lyrics to the original Barbapapa theme, with Joop Stokkermans composing the music. The Japanese version, as broadcast on TV Asahi, used an entirely different theme: music by Chuuji Kinoshita with lyrics by Zenzo Matsuyama. In Italy, the series theme was sung by the singer-songwriter Roberto Vecchioni. The Spanish children's music group Parchis recorded a song about the cartoon characters, titled "Barbapapá." The Israeli adaptation produced its own distinct musical response. In 1978, Yoram Taharlev wrote a song called "Barba'aba," performed by Tzipi Shavit. The song tells the story of a Barbapapa shunned by everyone for looking strange, until he finally meets Barbamama. It became a children's classic in Israel. The show's music continued to attract attention well beyond its original broadcast context. The French electronic music duo Air named the Barbapapa television show as an inspiration for their song "Ce matin là" from the album Moon Safari. They specifically credited the show's horn sounds as the influence. In 1994, the British post-rock trio Disco Inferno sampled the Barbapapa TV show theme in a song called "It's a Kid's World." In 2024, the German comedians Bodo Wartke and Marti Fischer released a tongue-twister rap called "Barbaras Rhabarberbar" that went viral worldwide. The song references characters called the Rhabarberbar-Barbaren, whom the title figure finds almost as likable as Barbapapa. The character's non-musical presence was equally persistent, beginning with broadcast distribution that stretched from Europe to the Americas.

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• 6. An Ongoing Presence

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  In the United States, the original Barbapapa animated series was syndicated on various networks throughout the 1970s. The English dubbing for that run was handled by Magno Sound and Video in New York. The show has been dubbed into at least five separate English versions over its lifetime. The original series continues to air to this day in France, Italy, and El Salvador. Barbapapa merchandise continues to be produced in France and Japan. On the 19th of May 2015, Google created a doodle to mark the 45th anniversary of Barbapapa's publication. It also served as a tribute to Talus Taylor. In the 2025 video game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, an expedition log describes a creature as "shifting like a Barbapapa." The game also includes a status effect named Barbapapa, inflicted by an enemy called Barbasucette. The effect reduces the next instance of damage from the affected character to one. The status effect appears in the game's Verso's Drafts downloadable chapter. More than fifty years after L'École des Loisirs published the original French edition, the character has not run out of places to appear.

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