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| Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds | |
|---|---|
 Title screen | |
| Spanish | D'Artacán y los Tres Mosqueperros |
| Kanji | ワンワン三銃士 |
| Revised Hepburn | Wan Wan Sanjuushi |
| Genre | Animation, action, comedy-drama, fantasy |
| Created by | Claudio Biern Boyd |
| Based on | The Three Musketeers byAlexandre Dumas |
| Written by |
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| Directed by |
|
| Music by | Katsuhisa Hattori |
| Opening theme | Guido & Maurizio De Angelis |
| Country of origin |
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| Original languages |
|
| No. of episodes | 26 (24 aired in Japan) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Claudio Biern Boyd |
| Producers |
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| Production companies | |
| Original release | |
| Network |
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| Release | 9 October 1981 (1981-10-09) – 26 March 1982 (1982-03-26) |
| Related | |
Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds[a] (Japanese: ワンワン三銃士, Woof-Woof Three Musketeers, Spanish: D'Artacán y Los Tres Mosqueperros) is a children's animated television series that adapts the classic 1844Alexandre Dumas story ofd'Artagnan andThe Three Musketeers, produced by Spanish studioBRB Internacional with animation by Japanese studioNippon Animation, that was first broadcast onMBS in Japan in 1981–82.[1]
Most of the characters in the series areanthropomorphizations of dogs, hence the title of the cartoon, although there are a few exceptions, most notably, Milady the cat and Dogtanian's two sidekicks Pip the mouse and Planchet the bear, among several others.[2][3]
In 1985, BRB Internacional released a television film edited from the series entitledDogtanian: Special. In 1989, they produced withTelevisión Española andThames Television a sequel series entitledThe Return of Dogtanian. In 1995, they released a television film edited from the sequel series entitledDogtanian: One For All and All For One. In 2021, Apolo Films (BRB International's cinema studio) and Cosmos Maya released a feature-lengthCGI film entitledDogtanian and the Three Muskehounds in cinemas.
All twenty-six episodes ofDogtanian and the Three Muskehounds can be watched on the officialYouTube channel set up by BRB Internacional.
The story, set in 17th-century France, follows a young Dogtanian (D'Artagnan (ダルタニヤン) in the original Japanese version and voiced by Satomi Majima (間嶋 里美) and D'Artacán in the Spanish version) who travels fromBéarn toParis in order to become one of KingLouis XIII'smusketeers (they are referred to as musketeers throughout the cartoon and only the title calls them 'Muskehounds'). He quickly befriends three musketeers (Porthos, Athos and Aramis), saving Juliette, amaid-in-waiting for QueenAnne of Austria. A key difference between the English-language dubs of theDogtanian adaptions and Dumas' novel is that the names ofAthos andPorthos were interchanged, making Athos the extrovert and Porthos the secretive noble of the group.
Dogtanian stemmed fromClaudio Biern Boyd's love for literature. As a child, before television arrived in Spain (the first broadcast was in 1956), he enjoyed reading works by authors such asJules Verne,Emilio Salgari,Alexandre Dumas (père),Karl May andEdmondo de Amicis, while imagining the situations in the books he read. By the time he was part of the newly-formedBRB Internacional, after signing important contracts with animation studios for broadcast and merchandising, Claudio decided to do an original series instead, based on his favorite childhood books.
After adaptingCantar del mío Cid asRuy el pequeño Cid, he adapted Dumas'The Three Musketeers and set the main characters as dogs, with the starting point being a two-part Salvat encyclopedia on them, costing 25pts. The species were defined according to his imagination. For the villains, Milady was set as a cat, an animal Claudio hated, and Richelieu was set as a fox in homage of a village he spent summers for years where the local villagers complained about a fox that raided henhouses at night. As of 2021, Claudio owned a bulldog, which, in the series, was the species of Richelieu's guard. Moreover, Dogtanian was chosen as abeagle in homage to Charles M. Schulz' characterSnoopy, for which Claudio had an affinity for.[4][1]
As with his early series, pre-production work was done in Spain and post-production work in Japan at Nippon Animation's facilities inTokyo.[5] On the Spanish side, the series was directed by Luis Ballester and Claudio Biern Boyd, with the latter supervising the script, while in Japan, Shigeo Koshi was at the helm of the department while Shuuichi Seki served as the series' character designer.[1]
Adapting the novel was complicated, mostly due to its length and tragedy. BRB's scripwriting theme created a "clean and polished" product, removing most of the dark undertones of the original novel: the novel was set in a chaotic period of French history, with violence happening throughout. The Musketeers in the original work had the following characteristics: Athos was an alcoholic, Porthos the lover of a woman married to a rich man, whose only way to marry was with the death of her husband. D'Artagnan himself was an adulterer, courting his two loves, Milady and Constance. Much of these characteristics were removed from BRB's adaptation.[1]
The choice of anthropomorphic characters was cheaper and removed traces of violence found in the original work. This style was not new for Nippon Animation, having done several animated series before where the characters were all anthropomorphic animals. These were made as such to be more attractive to children, expressing the way of being of the characters in a more direct manner. Dogtanian and the Muskehounds are portrayed with more "rounded" characteristics while the villains, especially Richelieu, were drawn in a more aggressive style. Milady, a cat, also represents the animal's association with stealth and espionage.[1]
The series was produced in 1981 byBRB International andNippon Animation[1] and was first broadcast byMBS in Japan, where it began airing on 9 October of that year.[6] A year after its premiere, it was broadcast for the first time in Spain onTelevisión Española'sPrimera Cadena on 9 October 1982.[7] The partnership between BRB International and Nippon Animation worked so well, that they collaborated again to work on another successful animated series two years later calledAround the World with Willy Fog.
Source:[6]
The series first aired in Japan on the 20[b] of the 25[c] stations of theJapan News Network (TBS) at the time, in block, with theMainichi Broadcasting System responsible for co-production. The series aired on Fridays at 7pm during its run.[11] Unlike in certain markets, ratings in Japan during its first run were sluggish, reporting only 4% ratings in the Kanto area. Due to poor viewer performance, MBS withdrew from producing animated shows for the 7pm timeslot andCalpis withdrew from sponsorship. After it ended, it was replaced byJarinko Chie in its timeslot, which had been moved from a 5pm Saturday slot on a handful of affiliates and was finally shown on much of the network as consequence.[12] The series competed withNinja Hattori-kun, and despite competition from similar shows at the time, merchandising was released in Japan.[1]
The series premiered in Spain in 1982, and it only aired onTVE1 due to scheduling problems. This marked the premiere of the series in Europe.[1] Before long, it was sold to numerous TV channels around the world, includingRTP in Portugal,RAI in Italy, theBBC in the United Kingdom andTF1 in France, to high ratings.[13] In Brazil, it aired onRede Manchete in 1984 as part of the children's showClube da Criança whenXuxa Meneghel was its host. It was repeated until 1986 on other children's programs shown on the network. The success of the show in Brazil caused Editora Riográfica (laterEditora Globo) to import the comics based on the series from Spain. In the mid-2000s, the compilation film, released there under the home video titleLord Dog, aired onTV Brasília in the period when the station had disaffiliated itself fromRedeTV!.[14]
The series was dubbed into English by Intersound USA in 1985. As well as dubbing the TV series, BRB also produced a TV film, which was again dubbed by Intersound USA. The series was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC on January 3, 1985 and onThe Disney Channel in the United States from 1986 to 1988.
In the United Kingdom during the late 1980s,Video Collection International Ltd. released multiple episodes ofDogtanian and the Three Muskehounds on VHS after its broadcast on theBBC from 1985 to 1987, and its reruns onITV from 1988 to 1990.
| Title | Release date | Episodes |
|---|---|---|
| Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds (VC 1101) | 3 October 1988 |
|
| Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds: Episodes 3 & 4 (VC1109) | 3 October 1988 |
|
| Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds: Episode 5 (WP 0008) | 7 November 1988 |
|
| Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds: Episodes 6 & 7 (VC1118) | 6 February 1989 |
|
| Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds: Episodes 8 & 9 (LL 0005) | 1 May 1989 |
|
| Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds: Episodes 10 & 11 (LL 0006) | 1 May 1989 |
|
| The Complete Adventures of Dogtanian (VC1174) | 10 September 1990 | |
| Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds (KK 0003) | 22 July 1991 |
|
The series has been released on DVD in the UK byRevelation Films in Region 0 format:
In November 2010, a version that contains both series and both television films was released exclusively toHMV. The complete boxset was later made available at other retailers.
The complete series was released on DVD in the U.S. in 2012 by Oasis DVDs.
The series can be found on different platforms such asYouTube,[15]Netflix andITVX in the United Kingdom.
The original version of the soundtrack toDogtanian (calledDartacan Soundtrack) can be downloaded from Amazon's UK website in MP3 format. It includes an English version of the theme song that uses the second series opening lyrics, but the music is similar to the original opening. In this version Dogtanian is referred to as Dartacan, his Spanish name, and the theme is sung with high voices, similar to the original opening, and rendered in a style reminiscent of the French dub. It includes insert song in Spanish which has been replicated twice (Richelieu and Bulibu, probably an error on Amazon's part or that of the record company) and a few instrumental tracks that are heard in the show itself and one unused instrumental track.[16]
In 1985, BRB Internacional released a television film edited from the series entitledDogtanian: Special.[17]
In 1989 a sequel series entitledThe Return of Dogtanian was produced byBRB Internacional,Televisión Española andThames Television with animation ofWang Film Productions and Morning Sun Animation.[18] The outsourcing had changed a few years earlier due to a price hike at Nippon Animation.[5] Like the first series, 26 episodes were produced.
In 1995, BRB Internacional released a television film edited from this second series entitledDogtanian: One For All and All For One.[19]
BRB Internacional was planning a new feature-length CGI film and was originally planned to be released in 2016, but was delayed for unknown reasons.[20][21] In April 2019, Apolo Films, their new cinema studio, took over production of the film.[22] The film was written byDoug Langdale and directed by Toni Garcia.[23] The film was released in theaters under the titleDogtanian and the Three Muskehounds.[24] It was released onSVOD.
The film maintains the original series opening main theme tune composed byGuido and Maurizio De Angelis. Additionally, they have composed new songs for the film.[25]
The film was released in the United Kingdom on 25 June 2021.[26]
