Animated television series
Forest Friends (French: Les Copains de la Forêt) is a French animated television series initially broadcast on TF1, and later rerun on French children's network TiJi. Along with the CGI series The Odd Family, this was one of the first shows produced by Timoon Animation,[1] a company created by Philippe Mounier.[2] 52 episodes were produced.[3]
Several of the show's tie-in books have been written by Valérie Baranski, the screenwriter for another TF1 cartoon, The Bellflower Bunnies.[4]
Synopsis
In the series, a wildfire has driven away many species of forest animals, who reluctantly must live uneasily with each other. But seven young open-minded survivors taught by their mentor the Old Oak of the Forest, step forth to prove that the animals no matter how different they are from each other, can live and work together as a community in peace and friendship. Frequently the rats cause trouble and inconvenience for the animals.
English voice cast
- Jodi Forrest
- Barbara Weber-Scaff
- Sharon Mann-Vallet
- Matthew Géczy
- Paul Bandey
- Allan Wenger
- David Gasman
Characters
- Jeff - An athletic squirrel who used to live in Squirrel City and now lives in a cabin not far from the bakery. He has a crush on Naomi
- Naomi - A mouse who loves to read books and has a crush on Jeff
- Achille - A boar and good friend of Jeff who can sometimes be a bit of a show off. He lives in a wooden board house
- Danny - A fox who is quite a prankster and a scaredy cat
- Gladys - A bear who loves to eat food and has some sort of love=hate relationship with Danny due to her fear of foxes
- Martin and Zoe - Twin rabbit siblings who always stick together and take situations cautiously
- Old Oak - A Living Tree who teaches the children all about the forest and the advantage of working together. He is Titan's father. He originated from an oak tree struck by a shooting star and Titan spawned as a sapling near one of his roots. From the sixth episode onwards he wears glasses.
- Titan - A Living Tree derived from a Cherry Tree and son of Old Oak. He is friends with Jeff and others
- Ratasha and Rascal - Rat siblings who live in a bare dusty part of the forest in an outhouse and they cause trouble for others
- Jeff's Parents - The Father is named Jack and works as the speaker and leader of the village council meetings. The mother is named Jenny and works as a librarian of the public library.
- Naomi's Parents - The Mother is named Maggie and the Father is named Boris. They both work as doctors
- Sophia - Naomi's older sister. Danny once had an unrequited crush on Sophia
- Achille's Parents - The Father named Roger does carpentry and the Mother named Margery does sculpting
- Lily - Achille's baby sister
- Danny's Mother - She is named Meryl and works as a newscaster for the local Gazette
- Danny's Father - He is named Joe and works as a traveling actor
- Didoo - Danny's baby brother
- Gladys's Parents - The Father named Billy works as a baker and the Mother named Milly works in a grocery store
- Zoe's and Martin's Parents - The father named Jimmy is a gardener. The mother named Rose looks after the house and in episode 6 teaches the children
- Ratasha's and Rascal's Parents - The mother is impatient and bossy sort and the father is an indifferent and careless sort
- Tanja – A squirrel, who likes Jeff and makes Naomi sad and jealous, and Naomi sees her like a rival for Jeff's affection
- Leon – A wolf who gets lost from his parents during snow season. He's accused by some of the adults of wanting to eat them even though he's nice
- Basher – A deer who appears in once in episode 35. Jeff and Danny fight over him and he becomes friends with both of them
Episode list
References
- ^ "Profile for Timoon Animation". TV France International. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ "Profile for Forest Friends". TV France International. Archived from the original on 2011-05-21. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. p. 273. ISBN 9781476672939.
- ^ "Profile of Valérie Baranski" (in French). Prix Chronos/FNG. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
External links
- Forest Friends at IMDb
- Official site (TF1) Archived 2008-04-30 at the Wayback Machine
- Official site (TiJi)
- Episode list Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine at AnimezVous
- Screenshots from Buena Vista's Region 2 version
