Babar The Elephant

Jean De Brunhoff was the creator of Babar the Elephant. Babar started as a bedtime story that De Brunhoff's wife told his children when they were young. The boys liked the story of the adventurous elephant that left the jungle for Paris and asked De Brunhoff to make pictures to go with the bedtime story. The first book was popular so several more stories and pictures were created. The series has over 100 licensees worldwide, and the "Babar" brand has a multi-generational following. There are 12 Babar stores in Japan. A global cultural phenomenon, whose fans span generations, Babar stands alongside Mickey Mouse as one of the most recognized children's characters in the world. There are now over 30,000 Babar publications in over 17 languages, and over 8 million books have been sold. Laurent de Brunhoff's Babar's Yoga for Elephants is a top seller in the U.S. with over 100,000 copies sold to date. The Babar series of books are recommended reading on former First Lady Laura Bush's national reading initiative list. All 78 episodes of the TV series are broadcast in 30 languages in over 150 countries, making Babar one of the largest distributed animation shows in history.