Adventures of the Little Koala (known in Japan as Koala Boy Kockey (コアラボーイコッキィ)) is an anime television series produced by Hakuhodo. It aired originally in Japan on TV Tokyo from October 4, 1984, through March 28, 1985, and then aired in the United States on Nickelodeon (later moved into the Nick Jr. block upon its launch at the start of 1988) dubbed in English from June 1, 1987, until April 2, 1993. The storyline revolved around Roobear Koala (voiced in English by former child actor Steven Bednarski) and his friends and their utopian village in the Australian bush, known in the Japanese version as Yukari Village, within the shadow of a real rock formation known as The Breadknife. Production of the English and French versions of the series was done by the Canadian studio Cinar Films. It also aired in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Greece, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, in the Arabic-speaking world, and other countries.

Characters

Historical background

Adventures of the Little Koala was made as Japan was in the midst of a koala frenzy along with another koala themed anime titled ふしぎなコアラ ブリンキー (The Wondrous Koala Blinky), which would later be broadcast alongside Little Koala on Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. block in 1988, as Noozles. According to The Anime Encyclopedia by Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy, Japan's koala frenzy was sparked by the Tama Zoo in western Tokyo receiving their first koala as the Australian government sent six koalas to Japan as a token of goodwill, but in actuality, the Tama Zoo as well as other zoos in Japan got their koalas because Japan was craving them, and Little Koala and Noozles had already been airing when the koalas arrived in October 1984.

Production notes

The Japanese animation studio Topcraft, best known for providing animation duties on many of Rankin-Bass' American animated TV specials as well as the feature film The Last Unicorn, worked on Adventures of the Little Koala. Topcraft provided animation assistance for Hayao Miyazaki's 1984 feature film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind; in fact, some of the animators who worked on Little Koala also worked on Nausicaa. After Nausicaa, a number of Topcraft animators went on to work for Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli. Some notable animators who worked on this series included Katsuhisa Yamada and Hidekazu Ohara. The opening and ending theme songs of the Japanese version were recorded by the all-female rock band Akasaka Komachi, which would later gain fame as Princess Princess. The series has a total of 26 episodes, each of them contained two 11-minute segments.

Episode list

Home media release

In 1989, Family Home Entertainment released four English-dubbed episodes on a VHS cassette entitled The Adventures of the Little Koala and Friends: Laura and the Mystery Egg, with the episodes "Laura Finds an Egg", "Conquering Mt. Breadknife", "Save the Eucalyptus", and "Mommy Can Fly".