Cartoon
Boule et Bill (2005 TV series)
The story
Boule et Bill is a French–Canadian animated television series based on the Belgian comic strip Boule et Bill by Jean Roba. Produced in 2004 by Dargaud Marina and Tooncan Productions with Bel Ombre Films, Télétoon, TF1 and TPS Jeunesse, it consists of 104 episodes of seven minutes and was directed by Francis Nielsen. It premiered on TF1 on 3 January 2005, in the network's TF! Jeunesse block, and aired on Télétoon from 31 December 2005. A DVD edition was released by Citel on 7 June 2005. It is based on the popular Belgian comic Boule et Bill. It has aired on the channel Unis since 2015. It is the second animated adaptation, the first airing in the year 1975 on the channel RTBF. There is also a third TV series produced in 2015 that has aired on France 3 since 2016.
It is distributed internationally by Dargaud Distribution, and copyrighted in 2004 by Dargaud-Marina and Bel Ombre Films and TéléTOON/TPS Jeunesse. It is a Tooncan XXIII Inc. production.
Plot
The story focuses on a suburban family in Brussels in the 1960s.
Characters
Boule/Billy is the boy
Bill/Buddy is his dog
Pierre is his dad
Carine is his mom
Mouf is a friend of Boule/Billy
Plum is a girlfriend of Boule/Billy
Episodes
There are one hundred and four episodes.
Production
Development for the series was announced in August 2001, when Dupuis Audiovisuel, the production arm of Belgian comic publishing house Dupuis, had ordered a new animated series based on the Boule et Bill comic series with Dupuis Audiovisuel's distribution arm Dupuis Distribution set to distribute the series internationally. Three years later on June 25, 2004 during production on the upcoming adaptation, Dupuis Audiovisuel and its distributiom arm Dupuis Distribution alongside its comic publishing parent Dupuis had been brought by French media entertainment company Média-Participations who owned Dupuis' French publishing rival Dargaud with the latter's distribution unit Dargaud Distribution assumed the role of distribution when it absorbed the former's distribution division Dupuis Distribution. Two months later at the start of September of that year following the acquisition of Dupuis Audiovisuel and kts's parent Dupuis by Média-Participations, development of the series was moved to Dargaud's animation division Dargaud Marina when it partnered with Canadian animation studio Tooncan Productions to produce Boule & Bill, becoming a French/Canadian production with TF1 being served as commissioner & Gaspard de Chavagnac and Paul Cadieux would serve as producers for the upcoming adaptation.
It is co-produced by Patrick Dedieu. Administrative production by Judith Serfaty, assistant-produced by Ingrid Libercier and Jennifer Regent.
The series was written by Marine Locatelli, Didier Lejeune and Alain Vallejo, with Muriel Achery and Lejeune as heads of writing, character design by David Leuba, graphic design by Rémi Lasfargeas and artistic direction by Serge Cicerone. Animation was produced by Hong Guang Animation in Suzhou, China. François Sasseville directed the French-language dubbing, and the voice cast includes Laurent-Christophe de Ruelle, Hugolin Chevrette, Martin Watier, Aline Pinsonneault and Nathalie Coupal.
The graphics adaptation is done by Remi Lasfargeas of Acacia Studio - La Faktory. Also by Seahorse Productions, with artistic director responsible for design Serge Cicerone and Bernard le Gall supervising storyboards. The animation is done by Hong-Guang Animation Suzhou, with associated producer George Chang and assistant producer Mandy Le, coordinating producers Linus Lee and Sophie Huang, and animation supervisors SKinny Wen, Anthony Wang, Max Ma, Denis Du, Jack Zhou, and Sunny Sun.
Music is by Laurent Cayol, Francois Monfeuga, Jacques Bastello, and Olivier Lanneluc. Musical editing is done by Dargaud-Marina - Emi Virgin Music Publishing.
Additional work by Laurent-Christophe de Ruelle and Nathalie Coupal and Kun Jalabet.