Ox Tales - Fantazoo

This animated series has gone under various names in other countries - Boes, Fantazoo, Bus Bus, Ollie Ollie Oxen, Bof! - but for the English market, it's simply known as "Ox Tales". Based on the Dutch comic strip by Wil Raymakers and Thijs Wilms, it became an animated series in the early 80's courtesy of a Japanese-Dutch animation studio - which starred Ollie the Ox and his friend Jack Turtleson as they run the Funny Farm containing every animal possible in one setting. It also featured the voice of A.J. Henderson, who also did voice-over work for Arthur, David the Gnome and Sharky and George.

As "Ox Tales" is known in Italy.

The series was in association with Saban Entertainment, whose library also includes the Super Mario Bros Show, Samurai Pizza Cats and, most famous of all, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Amongst their collection of Animé shows, when translated for the English market, Ox Tales was redubbed with dreadful puns and often satiric humour (provided by the "Narrator", Towilla Toucan). Some English dubs worked, some didn't. Rather depends on the writer/s involved.

I have fond memories of this series, though, both in English as part of CITV's afternoon schedule and in Italian during the yearly family abroad. And it's very rare - from what I know anyway, having not watched much of this category myself - for an Animé series to be consistently fun, whereas most Japanese shows tend to go mad with monsters and laser guns and characters with depressing back-stories. Nope, none of that. Ox Tales just goes for laughs, thick and fast, just as Tex Avery would have done so way back in the Golden age.

It's another little winner that, with so many shows as such, deserves a proper DVD release at some point - even then, the animated series had scenes that didn't quite make the transfer when aired for the American market.

But for those who may not have seen the original Dutch comic strip, from which the humour was based heavily from, the gags there are more daring compared to what was made in the animated series...clearly, the Dutch don't have obligations to what was printed in their newspapers!

Even if the original comic's humour sometimes came too close to the bone, it still boasts of beautiful artwork and terrific visual gags from the artists involved, which have made it a success, a "cult" even, in the European market.

All in all, whether you've read the comic or seen the Animé, both are nevertheless tremendously funny, from the silly to the cringe-worthy to the truly weird =P

LINKS OF INTEREST:
Hey Blog Guy - a dormant but useful blog that focuses mostly on the Dutch-Japanese side of "Ox Tales"
Read the history of "Boes", translated from the original Italian website

View some of the original episodes in Italian...
...or if you've a few Euros to spare, try and buy some copies of "Fantazoo" from the ReNoir comic website!
Listen to the English theme song, arranged by Shuki Levy!