Cosy Corner (partially lost animated series; 2003)
One of DVD Covers (one of two releases)
Status: Partially Lost
Cosy Corner (Le Nidouille) was a French animated series for kids that first aired on television on March 17, 2003. The series tells the story of 7 anthropomorphic animals who built their own houses "cozy nests" on a big tree (hence the name of the tree "Nidouille").[1] Although the series was very popular (especially in France, Saudi Arabia and Poland), part of the 52 episodes, Books, and DVDs have not survived to this day.
The series was made in the early 2000s in Storimages (which also created very known series such as: TroTro, Yakari or Cartouche: Prince of the Streets. Here, Cosy Corner was the only show in this company that used 2D and 3D methods while the rest of the shows only used 2D methods and the second oldest series created there, the oldest being Cartouche: Prince of the Streets. Cosy Corner is also the only very infamous series from this studio nowadays), when GCI animation was developing. The creators of the series decided to combine the CGI methods with 2D, which gives an amazing effect (CGI characters, 2D backgrounds). Cosy Corner was one of the first French series to use this method.
Characters
Stella the Mouse - A very feminine mouse that tries to be pretty. She sees herself as a "princess", likes to play with dolls and is nice to others (sometimes not). Her cottage is pink with white garlands on the edges of the roof and the interior is pink striped wallpaper. Inside there is a window with yellow curtains, a wardrobe with an attached mirror and a pink dressing table next to it.
Victor the Bird - He is a bird and the youngest inhabitant of Cosy Corner. He is often a victim of bullying. He loves airplanes and even his house is decked out with airplanes (literally). Though he has a child mentality, he is a caring and inquisitive boy. His house has a blue plane shape with a red wheel on the front. The wallpaper is blue, with red bed and fake airplane controls, where Victor can play an airplane pilot.
Mario/Marius the Crocodile - a very lazy crocodile. She very rarely helps to his friends. He often has a mess in the house and Mario/Marius doesn't bother to clean it up. We rarely see him active, but he's good in making parties. His little house is orange and so is the interior. It has a fridge, wardrobe, TV and frequent mess.
Nina/Nini the Coyote - We don't know exactly if Nina/Nini is a coyote. She is a professional acrobat and she's hyperactive. She's bossy and very mobile. Nina/Nini has difficulty calming down sometimes. She loves to show off. Nina/Nini is not used to failure. Nina's/Nini's house is purple with an orange triangular roof. Inside, the wallpaper is purple, orange. There is also a circus rope attached inside, a ladder, a swing and beams supporting the rope. There is no fridge in the house, but there is a mini bar with a green cupboard next to it.
Louis the Owl - The owl with passion to music. He is nervous in the very early episodes but is later seen as an intellectual and quite a nice character. He has crush on Stella. His house is blue with a purple roof. Inside, the walls are deep blue to bright blue stars. Inside there are musical instruments (such as piano, bongos), loudspeaker, lots of books on shelves, turntable, computer, telescope next to the window, pouffe and lots of cabinets.
Jacky the Hedgehog - Previously a racist hedgehog. He's bossy and he is not afraid to say what she thinks, whether it is nice or maybe not. Sometimes he's a typical "bad boy" or "karma Houdini". He is often very rude to Victor, and one of the few exceptions he is nice to is Nina (his best friend) and Margot (his crush). He loves sports very much. His house is brown with spikes on the roof. Inside, the walls are yellow with a bed with attached to it slide. Next to it is a skateboard ramp and a basketball net. There is a chest with his personal belongings under the bed (often this chest is in other places).
Margot the Frog - Cottage core frog. She's without assertiveness in herself. She has many interests such as painting on canvas, cooking or bathing in the bathtub and swimming pool (located outside her house). She is honest and never lies. She always cares about her friends. She has a huge crush on Jacky. She is the character with the most frequent animation errors. Her house is green with a parasol and hammock on the roof. Inside, the wallpaper is green with a long staircase, a bath in the center and a kitchen.
Reception
In Slavic countries, the show is rated fairly low due to the disturbing character artwork, even though the show was made in the early 2000s where the 3D character artwork was not somehow perfect. This ranks among the critics. The series, for unknown reasons, is nowadays very infamous and forgotten, despite the fact that probably many people watched it from around the world.
The second cause of criticism is the series' controversy, even though the show was geared towards preschoolers. The controversy emerged especially in the early episodes of the series from episode 1 to episode 25. These episodes featured not only the main plot of the series, i.e., racism and discrimination, but also dirty and black jokes, political jokes, sexism and sexualization. Discrimination and racism were the most common here, and the rest appeared too, but rarely. The most controversial episode is Episode 5, which was about propaganda (possibly North Korean, where Mario acted like Kim Jong Il, what is bad enough and something quite worrying considering that this series aimed at children). In episode 38, homosexuality was also mentioned (Margot and Nina moment), but this is technically a controversy, but the element of main plot of the series, i.e. "friendship, love, tolerance, peace".
Availability
Most of the Cosy Corner dubs are either lost or rare. French dub was made public from all parts of the DVD (17 episodes) in January 2023 on youtube (previously it was not available anywhere for over 20 years). Caroline Combes and Brigitte Lecordier performed there. It is partially found.. The second example is Polish dubbing, a variant on the DVD. It was released under the name "Uroczy Zakątek". Of which only 7 episodes are available on the Internet. The rest (11 episodes to be exact) are unpublished. The real Polish dub from "Bedtime Story" block from TVP1 is completely lost and little is known about it. As for the almost complete dubs, there is Arabic from Ajyal TV and Karbala TV (the most famous dub). Unfortunately, the dub got its religious version (similar to the first). It was broadcast on the Basma Channel probably around 2012-2015. Dub is uncommon and thanks to this dub lost episodes of Cosy Corner have been found, which are currently posted on YouTube. The Polish dub, variant 2, belongs to the only surviving Slavic dub. There's also found Slovenian dub. There was also a Serbian dub about which almost nothing is known, except that it was recorded in Loudworks Studio and aired on the Mini Ultra. The biggest mystery is the English dub, which is left with a lot of things like: episode titles, a 2-second clip from episode 11 and voice acting. Dub was also recorded in France. The only almost complete dubs are Arabic, French and Polish.
Most of scenes in dubs (especially the Arabic ones) were cut due to the controversies mentioned above. This is the reason why the show was on the level of Tomorrow's Pioneers formerly.
Episode List
| # | Episode Title | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fitgety Nina | Found | Released on VHS and DVD |
| 2 | It's Not Your Game! | Found | Released on DVD |
| 3 | Bright Me The Moon! | Found with censorship | Released on DVD |
| 4 | Where Did The YoYo Go? | Found | Released on VHS and DVD |
| 5 | I'm The Chief | Found | Released on VHS and DVD |
| 6 | Autumn Leaves | Found | |
| 7 | Gift for Margot | Found | Found without original soundtrack |
| 8 | Stella Makes Star Of Herself | Found | Released on VHS and DVD |
| 9 | Frickle Stella | Unpublished | Released on DVD |
| 10 | Mario Has Hiccups | Found | Released on DVD |
| 11 | Magic Soup | Found with censorship | Released on DVD |
| 12 | The Treasure Of The Pirate Ship | Found | Released on VHS and DVD |
| 13 | Radio Cosy Corner | Found | Released on VHS and DVD |
| 14 | Victor's Blankey | Found | |
| 15 | Liar's Cake | Found | |
| 16 | The Storm | Lost | |
| 17 | Giving is Giving | Found | |
| 18 | Trampoline | Found | |
| 19 | Nina's Jokes | Lost | |
| 20 | One Foot in Front of the Other | Found | Released on VHS and DVD |
| 21 | The Monster in the Drawer | Found | Released on DVD |
| 22 | The Prince's Blankey | Found | Released on VHS and DVD |
| 23 | Ice Cream... | Found | Released on VHS and DVD |
| 24 | Stella's Secret | Unpublished | Released on DVD |
| 25 | Poor Victor | Found | Released on DVD |
| 26 | It Doesn't Matter | Lost | |
| 27 | There's Only One | Found | |
| 28 | Jacky's Good Deeds | Found | |
| 29 | The Stroller | Found | |
| 30 | Nosy Cosy | Found | |
| 31 | Victor is Afraid of Water | Found | Released on VHS and DVD |
| 32 | Best Friends | Found without original soundtrack | |
| 33 | Opeartion Pollution | Found | |
| 34 | The Kid Hearted Dragon | Lost | |
| 35 | Tongue in His Pocket | Unknown | |
| 36 | When Stella Comes Home | Lost | |
| 37 | Vroom Vroom! | Found | |
| 38 | Margot and Nina are angry | Found | Released on VHS and DVD |
| 39 | All Cheaters! | Found | |
| 40 | Margot doesn't dare to say "No" | Found | |
| 41 | The Lucky Charm | Found | |
| 42 | Bubble Game | Partially Found | |
| 43 | The Sandcastle | Found | |
| 44 | Tongue in His Pocket | Lost | |
| 45 | Magical Candy Cane | Partially Found | |
| 46 | One Hell of a Number | Unknown | |
| 47 | Dancing the Tortilla Cosilla | Found | |
| 48 | Why Do Things Keep Disappearing? | Found | |
| 49 | Messy Mario | Found | |
| 50 | The Mysterious Drawing | Found | |
| 51 | The Battle of the Tea Set | Found | |
| 52 | Cosy Corner Combo | Found |
References
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