Once Upon a Time... Man
| Once Upon a Time… Man | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Created by | Albert Barillé |
| Voices of |
Roger Carel Annie Balestra Patrick Préjean Claude Bertrand Yves Barsacq Vincent Ropion |
| Narrated by | Roger Carel |
| Composer(s) | Yasuo Sugiyama |
| Country of origin | France, Japan |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 26 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Procidis |
| Release | |
| Original network | FR3 |
| Picture format | SECAM (576i) |
| Original release | 1978 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Once Upon a Time... Space (1982) |
| External links | |
| Production website | |
Il était une fois… l'homme (English: Once Upon a Time… Man) is a French animated TV series from 1978 directed by Albert Barillé. It is the first in the Once Upon a Time... franchise. The series explains world history in a format designed for children. The action focuses around one group. The same familiar characters appear in all episodes as they deal with the problems of their time.
The series' opening and ending title sequences famously used Johann Sebastian Bach's as the main title theme music. Shortening the piece to only 2 minutes in length, the introduction uses the very beginning, which jumps into the start of the middle section and finally the dramatic ending to coincide with the destruction of Earth at the end of the intro.
A DVD box set of all the episodes of the series has been produced by the French production company Procidis, and distributed locally by various distributors. The DVD series was produced in French, English (not sold in UK or US), Finnish, German, Dutch, Hebrew, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish. In 2011, an English language, Region 1 DVD box set is available in Canada and the United States. This set is produced and distributed by Imavision.
The episodes of Once Upon a Time… Man typically would follow one family, which most typically used the same set of archetypes that would be reused for the scenario. These same characters would later be used in the later additions to the Once Upon a Time... series, with some changes.
Although historical figures would typically appear as themselves, occasionally one of the archetypes would be used, like Maestro as Leonardo da Vinci.
The series Once Upon a Time… Man and its sequel series were dubbed into many languages.
* Production company
** Originally broadcast in B/W; color not yet introduced in these countries
*** Contributing co-producer to the series
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Wikipedia