Gîbus (partially found Belgian animated series; 1965)
Gîbus is a 1965 animated series produced by the Belgian studio Belvision, about the adventures of a short stage magician. It had 26 episodes of 6 minutes in length each.
Premise
The series focused on the random adventures of a diminutive stage magician named Gîbus (his name is a French word for the collapsible type of top hat stage magicians wear) who possessed actual magic powers. He was well-meaning but tended to be clumsy and his magic tended to work wrong.
He has to deal with his bossy manager (who has a stereotypical German accent), often confronts a large and brutish villain called Biceps, and is sometimes helped by a pretty female secret agent called Mademoiselle Pépée.
In order to avoid confusion with multiple other uses of the word "gibus", the series is frequently referred as "Gibus le magicien" (Gibus the magician) among watchers (not to mention the circumflex accent is very often omitted).
Availability
The series was aired only a few times ever since its creation. According to some witnesses, the last time it was aired was in 1993 on the French cable channel Canal J.
Gîbus only had very rare VHS releases and its episodes are now very hard to find. For a long time, only two episodes were available on the Internet.
In October of 2017, the French nostalgia forum Le Pays du Manga ("The Land of Manga", aka LPDM) has managed to find 8 other episodes apart from the two already online.
Appearances on Tintin VHS tapes
Animation studio Belvision also created the first Adventures of Tintin animated series in the 1960s, so, when some of its episodes were released on VHS, they would sometimes come with an episode of Gîbus as well.
This is similar to what was done with the old French animated series Virgul, of which two episodes would often appear at the beginning and the end of Fil à Film VHS tapes for children's media.
A VHS of the two-part episode The Calculus Affair came with a Gîbus episode at the end of the tape: Gîbus perd la boule ("Gîbus loses his mind"), where Gîbus and a female agent, Mademoiselle Pépée, pursue a crystal ball.
Cable channel CFI (Canal France International) once aired the Calculus Affair episodes along with that same Gîbus episode.
There is also a VHS of the 1969 animated feature Tintin and the Temple of The Sun that included a Gîbus episode: Gîbus et les gogos (Biceps steals Gîbus' laughing hand puppets, the gogos, and turns them evil).
List of Known Episodes
# | Episode Title (French) | Episode Title (English) | Status |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Gîbus est un héros | "Gîbus is a Hero" (video with English subtitles) | Found |
2 | Gîbus contre Biceps | "Gîbus Vs. Biceps" | Lost |
3 | Gîbus joue et gagne | "Gîbus Plays and Wins" | Lost |
4 | Gîbus et le rhinocéros | "Gîbus and the Rhinoceros" | Lost |
5 | Gîbus vainqueur à Waterloo | "Gîbus wins Waterloo" | Found |
6 | Gîbus pique-nique | "Gîbus goes on a Picnic" | Lost |
7 | Gîbus contre le bonhomme de neige | "Gîbus Vs. the Snowman" | Lost |
8 | Gîbus et Pharaon | "Gîbus and the Pharaoh" | Found |
9 | Gîbus perd la boule | "Gîbus has a ball" (video with English subtitles) | Found |
10 | Gîbus toréro | "Bullfighter Gîbus") | Found |
11 | Gîbus et l'auto magique | "Gîbus and the Magical Car" | Lost |
12 | Gîbus et les pêcheurs de perles | "Gîbus and the Pearl Fishers" | Found |
13 | Gîbus contre le fakir | "Gîbus VS. the Fakir" | Lost |
14 | Gîbus fait ses preuves | "Gîbus Proves Himself" | Lost |
15 | Gîbus et les gogos | "Gîbus and the Gogos" | Found |
16 | Gîbus au Texas | "Gîbus in Texas" | Lost |
17 | Gîbus somnambule | "Sleepwalking Gîbus" | Lost |
18 | Gîbus et l'île au trésor | "Gîbus and the Treasure Island" | Lost |
19 | Gîbus 1er de cordée | "Gîbus Leading the Rope Team" | Found |
20 | Gîbus au bal masqué | "Gîbus at the Costume Party" | Found |
21 | Unknown | Unknown | Lost |
22 | Unknown | Unknown | Lost |
23 | Unknown | Unknown | Lost |
24 | Unknown | Unknown | Lost |
25 | Unknown | Unknown | Found |
26 | Unknown | Unknown | Found |
External Links
- IMDB page for Gîbus. Retrieved 12 Apr '15
- Forum topic talking about the series. Retrieved 12 Apr '15
- VHS website talking about the Tintin VHS. Retrieved 12 Apr '15
- Original list of episodes (partial). Retrieved 12 Apr '15