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NOS News•today, 11:39•Changed today, 11:59
The name Barbapapa, of the series of the same name, is recorded in the Van Dale. This was said by editor-in-chief of the dictionary Ton den Boon last night in the radio program Follow spot on NPO Radio 5. “It has become so common, it should definitely be included.”
Barbapapa, his wife and their seven children were like shapeless figures that could take on any shape. The TV series consisted of short films in which the family solved problems by taking the form of an attribute that was needed at that moment: a ladder, a wheelbarrow or a musical instrument. “The name Barbapapa is still widely used, often in a comparison about being flexible or flexible,” says Den Boon.
“I found mentions of the name in 1990, but still in the media in recent years,” he says. “For example, it is written that as a civil servant you have to be a barbapapa to think along with the citizen all the time. Or death is like a barbapapa: sometimes a thief in the night, other times very gentle.”
The series dates from the 1970s and was created by the French-American couple Annette Tison and Talus Taylor. Barbapapa was broadcast in more than forty countries.
Wieteke van Dort, Leen Jongewaard, Edwin Rutten, Aart Staartjes and Marijke Merckens recorded the Dutch episodes. Partly because these well-known actors joined the series Barbapapa very popular in the Netherlands.
Barbapapa first appeared in book form in 1970. Three years later it was also made into an animated series, which was broadcast all over the world. The first publisher to see value in the colorful creations was Amsterdam’s Frank Fehmers Productions. In total, millions of booklets were sold, in more than thirty languages. In the Netherlands, the series was repeated numerous times until it disappeared from television in 2011.
The series is more than fifty years old and quickly became popular. Den Boon: “They provided a solution everywhere, that constructive appeal appealed to many people. The same applies to the diversity in the figures, the program was certainly quite progressive at that time. All the colors of the world united in one family.”
There were also terms in the series that have been etched into the collective memory, such as “Huup, Huup, barbatruc!”, when one of the figures changed shape. That famous statement will not be published separately in the Van Dale.
The name Barbapapa came about when the creator heard someone in France ordering cotton candy: a barbe has papa. Hence the pink color of the father of the special family.
2023-11-04 10:39:29
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