Friends of the Forest (lost alternate English dub of anime series; 1990s)

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Friends of the Forest Promo.png

TVO Promo Screenshot

Status: Lost

Friends of the Forest is the second English adaptation of the Japanese anime series Rocky Chuck, the Mountain Rat. Inspired by the literary works of Thornton W. Burgess, the show was created by Nippon Animation as part of their World Masterpiece Theater series. The anime aired for 52 episodes on Fuji TV in Japan between January and December 1973. A well known earlier 1978 English dub called Fables of the Green Forest, was produced by ZIV International and aired on TVOntario in Canada between the late 1970s and the 1980s. This version of the show has also been sold on VHS tapes as Peter Cottontail's Adventures, The Adventures of Reddy the Fox and The Adventures of Buster the Bear.[1]

The second dub aired on TVOntario between October 3rd, 1993, and January 18th, 1998.[2][3] Friends of the Forest also ran nationally in Canada on YTV between August 18th, 1995, and August 8th, 1997.[4][5] This adaptation features an entirely different voice cast, new music, and altered storylines.[6] However, it retained the main character's name of Rocky from the original Japanese version, whereas the first English version renamed him, Johnny. Friends of the Forest was also shown in Malaysia.[7]

Availability

No home video releases of the second dub are known to exist nor have any episode recordings surfaced online. The full intro from a lost Italian dub titled, Gli Amici della Foresta, (seperate from a different Italian dub called, Le favole della foresta) was uploaded by Cotton Tail on November 25, 2016. A 30-second TVO promo was uploaded by DragonStarPlanet on October 8, 2021.

Gallery

Full intro song

TVO promo

References