''The Bellflower Bunnies'' () is a French animated series based on the ''

Beechwood Bunny Tales ''Beechwood Bunny Tales'' () is a series of children's books written by French author Geneviève Huriet and illustrated by Loïc Jouannigot. The original books have been published in France by Éditions Milan since 1987. English translations of ...

'' book series by

Geneviève Huriet Geneviève Huriet (born 24 August 1927) is a French author, known for the ''Beechwood Bunny Tales'' (''La Famille Passiflore'') children's book series. Huriet's works have been published by Éditions Milan, Grasset Jeunesse and Albin Michel in he ...

. The show debuted on

TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is part ...

with four episodes airing between December 24 and December 28, 2001. It is a co-production between France's TF1 and several Canadian companies. 52 episodes were produced. The show centers on the adventures and exploits of the Bellflower family, a clan of seven

rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

s who live in Beechwood Grove, which is called Blueberry Hill in the English version. The two adults in the family, Papa Bramble and Aunt Zinnia, take care of their five children: Periwinkle, Poppy, Mistletoe, Dandelion and Violette.

Production

Early on in its run, the series was produced as a package of four specials by TF1 and its subsidiary, Protécréa, along with TVA International of Montreal and

Melusine Mélusine () or Melusine or Melusina is a figure of European folklore, a nixie (folklore), female spirit of fresh water in a holy well or river. She is usually depicted as a woman who is a Serpent symbolism, serpent or Fish in culture, fish fr ...

of Luxembourg; Moran Caouissin, an animator from Disney's ''DuckTales'' movie, served as the director. Production of the series began in the fall of 2000, at a cost of over US$2 million, or US$600,000 per episode. Starting in 2004, later episodes were produced by Euro Visual,

Tooncan Tooncan was an animation studio based in Montreal, Quebec founded by Paul Cadieux.Thomas, Holly E. (2007, June 17)Children's DVDs: Small-Screen Summer ''The Washington Post''. Retrieved March 29, 2008. The company has worked on TF1's '' The Bell ...

, Megafun, Big Cash, Dragon Cartoon and Disney Television France. This time, Eric Berthier directed, and Alice Willis composed.

Home video and DVD

Europe

At least six DVD volumes of ''The Bellflower Bunnies'' have been released by

Beez Entertainment was a Japanese anime, film production, and distribution company, established by Bandai and a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings. They focused mainly in international distribution of anime properties in North America. Most of the anime and film ...

and Seven Sept in the franchise's native France, separately and in a box set.''La Famille Passiflore'', Vol. 1-5
Chapitre DVD. Retrieved January 8, 2008. In Germany, edelkids released the first sixteen episodes in February and August 2008.

North America

Feature Films for Families released the first two volumes of the English version on VHS (in 2001) and DVD (in 2003), as part of a marketing deal with TVA. In 2005, another four DVDs were released under the Direct Source brand. Each disc in this version consists of two episodes. Since the DVDs are now next to impossible to find in the USA; Amazon Prime Video, Kimcartoon and YouTube are the currently only known options in the USA.

Episodes

Fifty-two episodes of ''The Bellflower Bunnies'' were produced over the course of three seasons. and all of these have aired in the show's native France; although episodes 39-52 were first aired on German channel KI.KA in May 2008.

Voice cast

Season 1

*Tom Clarke Hill *Regine Candler *Tom Eastwood - Papa Bramble *Rhonda Millar - Periwinkle, Violette (Pirouette) *Joanna Ruiz Rodriguez - Poppy

Seasons 2 & 3

English version

*Danielle DesormeauxPlatypus Theatre - ''Emily Saves the Orchestra''
. Retrieved March 22, 2008. *

Anik Matern ''Space Cases'' is a Canadian science fiction television series that aired on Nickelodeon for two seasons. Created by Peter David and Bill Mumy, it premiered on March 2, 1996, and ended on January 27, 1997, with reruns until 1998. ''Space Cases'' ...

- Violette *

Holly Gauthier-Frankel Holly G. Frankel, also known as Holly Gauthier-Frankel, is a Canadian Voice acting, voice actress and voice director. Gauthier-Frankel is best known for playing Fern Walters in ''Arthur (TV series), Arthur'', Sagwa in ''Sagwa, the Chinese Siames ...

(as Holly Gauthier-Frankle) - Mistletoe *

Eleanor Noble Eleanor Noble (born June 15, 1980) is a Canadian actress. She is President of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA). Career She voiced Lori Mackney in later episodes of ''What's with Andy?'' following Jaclyn Li ...

- Periwinkle *Matt Holland *Joanna Noyes *Liz MacRae - Dandelion *

Mark Camacho Mark Camacho is a Canadian character actor. Career He has starred in live-action films, but is best known for his voice acting roles, such as Oliver Frensky in ''Arthur'', Lyle in '' Animal Crackers'', Dad in '' Rotten Ralph'', George Martin in ...

*Simon Peacock - Papa Bramble *Laura Teasdale - Poppy *

Danny Wells Jack Westelman (April 7, 1941 – November 28, 2013), professionally known as Danny Wells, was a Canadian actor. He was best known for his role as Charlie, the bartender on ''The Jeffersons'', as well as his role as Luigi in the live-action/ani ...

* John Stocker *Sonja Ball *

Susan Glover Susan Irene Glover (born January 14, 1957) is a Canadian actress, best known for playing Sarah in ''Naked Josh''. She is also known for voicing Mrs. Wood in ''Arthur'', Izabella Dehavalot in '' Amazon Jack'', Mrs. Schuman in ''Spaced Out'', Mrs. ...

*A.J. Henderson * Rick Miller * Rick Jones * Danny Brochu

French version

* Flora Balzano *Julie Burroughs *Hugolin Chevrette *Mario Desmarais *Antoine Durand *Marylène Gargour *Annie Girard *Hélène Lasnier *Elisabeth Lenormand

Notes

References

Works cited

* *

External links

*
''The Bellflower Bunnies''
at TF1.fr
Episode list
* KI.KA'
''Bellflower Bunnies''
site (with a video clip from the "

Room to Move "Room to Move" is a pop song written by Simon Climie, Rob Fisher (duo Climie Fisher) and Dennis Morgan. It first appeared on Climie Fisher's debut album ''Everything Everything, every-thing, or every thing, is all that exists; it is an ...

" episode)
Series' second theme song
by Alice Willis

at

ZDF ZDF (), short for (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany ( ...

site (requires

RealPlayer RealPlayer, formerly RealAudio Player, RealOne Player and RealPlayer G2, is a cross-platform media player (software), media player app, developed by RealNetworks. The media player is compatible with numerous container file formats of the multimed ...

) *Trailers for the first two Region 1 volumes at

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

:
"Room to Move" / "Carnival"

"Balloonatic Bunnies" / "Slide On"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellflower Bunnies 2001 Canadian television series debuts 2010 Canadian television series endings 2000s Canadian animated comedy television series 2010s Canadian animated comedy television series 2000s Canadian children's television series 2010s Canadian children's television series 2001 French television series debuts 2010 French television series endings 2000s French animated television series 2010s French animated television series Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming Canadian children's animated comedy television series French children's animated comedy television series Canadian television shows based on children's books French television shows based on children's books Animated television series about families Animated television series about rabbits and hares