Babar (1989)

Babar: The Movie is a 1989 drawn-animated film made by Canada's Nelvana Limited and France's Ellipse Programme, and distributed by New Line Cinema. It is based on the characters of Jean de Brunhoff's eponymous children's books, and was a follow-up to the first season of the HBO TV series. This is one of New Line Cinema's only two animated feature films; the next being 1994's The Swan Princess.

Babar: King of the Elephants is a 1998 animated film made by Nelvana Limited and released in theaters in Canada by Alliance Communications and in the U.S. straight to video by HBO Home Video. Based on Jean de Brunhoff's book series, it is the second Babar movie, following 1989's Babar: The Movie, and is also a remake of the 1989–1991 HBO television series. Because it follows the books closer than the series did, it contradicts it on several points. This is the very last film by Alliance Communications.

This story begins to tell the classic tale of Babar's early life with his mother and all the other elephants in the jungle, and how his life is shattered when a hunter kills his Mother and he must cope on his own.

Forced to run away from the jungle by the Hunter, Babar makes his way to the City only to find it just as dangerous and confusing. Motherless and alone, Babar is befriended by the Old Lady, who tries to teach him how to fit into her world, with his ultimate test at a society dinner in his honour.

Babar leaves the Old Lady and City to return to the jungle so he can bring the other elephants his newfound knowledge. However, he discovers that despite the fact that his old friends are still running from the Hunter, they resist trying out any of his ‘new' ideas.

As the Elephants' new King, Babar's first decree is to build a city for all the elephants. However, not only does Babar have to contend with the fact that Lord Rataxes is also trying to build a city, his own obsession to see his dream city completed on time creates insurmountable problems.

When the Hunter returns to threaten Babar's kingdom, Babar faces his greatest challenge as King when he unites Lord Rataxes and everyone in the jungle in an all out effort to fight the Hunter and repel him for once and for all.

At an important palace ball, Babar's advisors Cornelius and Pompadour jeopardize Babar's relationship with Celeste by forcing Babar to take the visiting dignitary's daughter to the dance instead of her.

Babar's hopes of rebuilding an old theater dedicated to his mother are jeopardized when all his subjects get caught up trying to build a rocketship in a silly attempt to beat Lord Rataxes to the moon.

Babar decides to let a young circus boy live in the palace, but when the boy regrets his decision and wants to return to his circus home, he discovers it might be too late since the circus has been captured by Lord Rataxes.

Times are hard for Babar when Lord Rataxes stops all pomegranate shipments from reaching Celesteville. However, when Babar finds a pet warthog in the jungle, Rataxes suddenly says he's willing to negotiate. What Babar doesn't realize is the warthog belongs to Lady Rataxes, and Rataxes has to grab it back before she or Babar discover that he lost it on purpose.

When Babar organizes a world class ballet to be performed in Celesteville, the star of the show, a temperamental prima ballerina, makes problems for his friends in the cast and crew and turns Babar's production into a disaster.

Babar is scheduled to perform a duet with a great pianist at a concert. However, he refuses to admit that the piece of music is too hard for him, so he procrastinates practicing until he feels so guilty that it begins to affect his job as King.

When Babar's crown goes missing, amateur sleuth Zephir decides to help Babar solve the mystery. However they both get panicky when all the clues point out that Babar's closest friends stole the crown as the first step to taking over his kingdom.

When Babar discovers that the ‘Phantom' in an abandoned theater is really a lonely Old Musician who lives there, Babar decides to try and help him come out of seclusion. Unfortunately, the Phantom resents the meddling and scares Babar's friends away to the point where they decide the theatre should be torn down.

When Zephir and Celeste have an accident they soon find themselves battling out their trial in court. Babar is caught in the middle, forced to be the Judge of who is guilty of causing the mishap.

King Babar recalls a time when he was a young boy living in the City. Babar and his friends were picked on by the school bullies and made to feel like outcasts because they all looked 'different'.

King Babar recalls having to make a tough decision between loyalty to friendship and loyalty to the law, when a group of boys he knows are about to cause trouble at a local junkyard.

An annual bike race is about to take place and Babar has selected Arthur to be his teammate for the event. However, when Babar learns that too very fast athletes are also competing in the race, he decides to use unorthodox tactics in order to win, despite the fact that he could be disqualified if he were caught.

Babar has been troubled as of late, as he’s learnt that Zephir is too busy fooling around to take his duties as a Royal Guard seriously. In an attempt to teach him a lesson, Babar decides to play a prank of his own, though he soon learns something that makes him deeply regret his earlier actions.

Babar goes out of his 'way' to find the Old Lady a unique gift for her birthday.... the tail feather of the "Way Out Bird" who can only be found on top of the treacherous "Way Out Peak".

When Babar fails to fill out the proper papers to ship fairground supplies through Rhinoland, a General in Rataxes' army uses this as an excuse to declare war on Celesteville.

When Rataxes refuses to let Babar build a railway through Rhinoland, Babar is forced to detour through a jungle inhabited by a strange monster known as the 'Polomoche'.

Cornelius believes that he's becoming quite useless, when his age causes Babar and his friend to get shipwrecked on an island that's home to a monstrous gorilla.

Rataxes 'king-naps' King Tuttle, the Tortoise King, so he cannot sign Babar's treaty that would force Rataxes to stop dumping garbage into the river.

King Babar's children decide to help their father overcome one of his problems by telling him about the time when they thought there was a monster in the Palace.

The Royal Guard must do everything they can to protect the King and Queen, though when rumors are spread that an assassin is going to try to take Babar’s life, Pompadour and Cornelius decide to stay by their sire at every moment, though their actions only seem to get on Babar’s nerves.

Babar's children recall the time when they accidentally went up in a balloon and entered a terrible storm, forcing Babar and Celeste to use every bit of their courage and resourcefulness to save them.

When Flora decides to do a newspaper story about Real Life of the Royal Family, the royal homestead is thrown into a panic as her photographs prove to be embarrassing to everyone in the palace.

With Babar and Celeste spending all their time tending to the needs of her new baby sister Isabelle, Floras feelings of being unwanted ultimately lead her to run away from home.

When Pom and Alexander are left to baby-sit their little sister Isabelle, their preoccupation with covering up some palace mischief allows Isabelle to go missing

When Babar has to honor an old promise and grant the wish of anyone who returns pieces of an old coin to him, his entire kingdom is put in jeopardy as Rataxes shows up with a piece and demands to be made King of Celesteville.

While visiting Rhinoland to celebrate the peace treaty between their two kingdoms, Babar and Rataxes get caught up in a battle of one-upmanship which jeopardizes their attempts to rescue their lost children from a treacherous labyrinth.

When Alexander and Victor use the father-son events of a family picnic as a way to determine which of them has the best dad, Rataxes cheating not only costs him the race, but the admiration of his son.

Believing that magic is the only hope of Flora surviving a deadly snakebite, Alexander ventures into the dark forest to find an old lady he thinks is a witch.

Stuck baby-sitting his little sister Isabelle, Alexander spends the afternoon making up a fairytale which ultimately draws them closer together.

Burdened by the insurmountable demands of running his kingdom and family, Babar wishes he was never King. To his surprise and dismay, he gets his wish. Celesteville has become, Rataxesville!

When Uncle Arthur, the world traveller and adventurer, shows up at the palace, his tall stories propel Babars children into getting themselves mixed up in a dangerous dock side escapade.

When a mysterious creature is sighted in the Celesteville lake, Babar calls upon a famous undersea explorer to help him protect it from the clutches of Rataxes.

Babar's health is in question when he accredits his strange behavior to mysterious visits from the Old Elephant King's ghost.

When Babar sets off with Uncle Arthur and Zephir to renew a childhood treasure hunt Rataxes seizes the opportunity to try and beat him to it.

Alexander's flying skills get him into hot water when he crash lands his plane in the jungle and makes friends with a tribe who invite him for dinner.

Babar learns that honesty is the best policy when Zephir takes up the palace duties of Pompadour and Cornelius, with disastrous results

Flora's pen pal arrives, believing Flora is queen of Celesteville. Afraid to tell the truth, Flora convinces Pom and Alexander to help her keep up the illusion.

Alexander learns a hard lesson about responsibility when he lets his rowing team and Zephir down.

When two inept thieves make off with Arthur's treasured statue, Babar is called in to solve the mystery.

When a baby elephant is abandoned on the doorstep of the Rhino palace, Rataxes finds himself acting as an unwilling father.

After witnessing the arrival of a mysterious time traveler, Alexander has a hard time getting anyone to believe his story.

A fault in the Rhino Security system traps Cornelius and the children inside the Rhino Place, and it's up to Cornelius to devise an escape before its too late.

As part of a school project to promote understanding and co-operation, the children convince Babar and Rataxes to change places for the day. Forced to deal with the other's problems, Babar and Rataxes learn it isn't easy to walk a mile in somebody else's shoes.

After a calculating con man lures Arthur into throwing away his life savings for a worthless mine, Zephir and Arthur plan to teach the thief a lesson.

When Rataxes seals the border between Rhinoland and Celesteville, it's up to the mysterious night raider known as The Scarlet Pachyderm, to save the day.

Babar and the children have no idea just how much they've been taking Celeste for granted, until she wins the lead role in Basil's new theater production.

A successful radio show shoots Zephir to superstar status with the children of the Kingdom. Unfortunately his questionable advice on "dealing with your parents" triggers a confrontation between generations.

Arthur becomes a hero when his "lead blimp" tops the jungle popularity polls. But the blimp doesn't work yet and the greatly anticipated maiden voyage is only a few hours away.

The kids decide to hold a yard sale believing the palace to be in financial trouble. But while looking for goods to sell, they mistakenly pick up Rataxes' "favorite" lamp.

Determined to win Celesteville soap box derby, Victor "borrows" Pom and Flora's secret design. But when Alexander gets the blame, Victor wonders if winning means everything.

Rataxes takes the credit when Basil saves Isabelle's life. Rataxes is hailed as a hero but finds his guilty conscience troubling him.

When Pom makes the school basketball team as "towel boy" he lets Babar believe he's a top player. Yet Pom is in for trouble, when Babar makes plans to attend a game.

Babar is out to catch the "biggest fish in all of Celesteville". But with the clumsy Flora as his partner, Babar's dream seems unlikely.

Arthur pulls a prank, which has everyone believing aliens are landing. But the joke backfires on Arthur when he spots a real UFO and nobody believes him.

Cornelius and Pompadour have a major disagreement and vow never to speak again. However, both are unaware that their silence could cost them their lives.

Babar takes his family up into the mountains ostensibly for a winter holiday. But Babar is really searching for the mythical creature he saw as a child.

Babar agrees to clandestinely escort a top-secret briefcase to Paris. But the simple journey becomes complicated when the Old Lady mysteriously disappears from the train.

When the kids turn eleven they decide they are now adults. Babar and Celeste are shocked when they announce their "adult" plans for their lives.

Arthur builds a flawed robot but will not admit his mistake. In trying to cover up the situation, things get out of control.

Babar talks with Flora about the importance of always telling the truth. Yet Babar starts to regret those words when Flora does exactly that.

Babar and the family prepare to embark on a journey to find the ""Land of Happiness.""

Babar, Celeste, Zephir and the children arrive at their first destination only to find that everything on the island is somewhat ""different.""

Babar's balloon lands him and the others in a world filled with amusing games and fun.

The children are jovial when they learn that their balloon landed in a town filled with toys.

The family lands in the beautiful Land of Ice. Unfortunately, things aren't always what they seem.

Babar and his family get caught in a terrible storm and get shipwrecked.

Babar and his family run into some trouble when they meet a witch,. named Lulu.

Babar, Celeste, Zephir and the children, come across a spring filled with mysterious water.

The family find themselves stuck in an underground city where they are faced with a serious problem.

The balloon lands on an island in the middle of nowhere, but they must help their new friend from doing something that will change her fate.

Babar and his family land in a treat-filled town with a problem.

Babar's family participate in a treasure hunt.

Once Babar and his family journey through this final land they should be able to reach the fabled Land of Happiness. This of course, is easier said than done!