Kartapus (lost French children's TV series; 1996)

Only known image existing to this day.

Status: Lost

Kartapus was a French live-action sitcom TV series made for children, produced by media company Carrere Group D.A., that aired in the mid and late 1990s on French channel TF1. It was made of 40 episodes that were 10 minutes long each and create by Eric Communier

Plot

It was about a big magical friendly bear, Kartapus (whose name sounds like "carte à puces", meaning "smart card") who came out of a computer and have fun with two children, a boy and a girl, who were the only ones who could see him, as Kartapus was invisible to adults. Episodes would have Kartapus cause some mischief, intentionally or not, and having the adults risking discovering his existence.

Kartapus

Kartapus was portrayed by an actor named Mathurin Petit in a still-faced full-body costume, and sequences from the point of view from adults would have simple special effects of objects moving or floating around (as manipulated by Kartapus) with some Chroma-key techniques. Although Kartapus is quite tall in "person", the show's opening theme shows him being originally a small bear cub in a sidescrolling computer game, being pursued in the forest by a much taller nasty-looking human.

Aftermath

Very little evidence of the show subsists today; it still has an (almost empty) IMDB page and a section on the Carrere website, but the named people who worked on it are only known to have been into minor projects. Even in active "remember nostalgic shows" forums, it is hardly mentioned, if at all.

No footage is known to still exist; only the Carrere website has kept a promotional picture (which illustrates this article).

References

• The IMDb page for the film. Retrieved 12 Apr '15
• Carrere Group's website that mentions Kartapus. Retrieved 12 Apr '15
• sens critique page. Retrieved 09 Febr '19