Reminds me I should finish subtitling in English the first episode of "Moi Renart"... another long-lost French cartoon that had been found after I personally contributed to the search.
And it seems it really was French! Original title: « Les Conquérants »!
The credits are in French and cite many French animators; with character designers whose visual style is recognizable such as the Papyrus cartoon!
Now, this movie has no mention at all on the internet (if you don’t count our very discussions here and on Reddit).
And the animation is kinda choppy, has the characters transparent and sketchy black and white…
I would say, it seems the movie was never officially finished, and so it was never cited in anyone’s resume, and for some reason, through some way… the rough reel found itself in the hands of some Brazilian distributor who found a way to have it sold as a genuine feature cartoon…
That is awesome!!! Hmm... The film looks like it wasn't really been finished, which explains why it's so difficult to find anything about it on the internet. It seems that production was interrupted on the "pencil test" part. Strangely, all the backgrounds were fully painted and finished, in contrast to the unfinished animation that was still even on paper.
After watching the whole film, I could say that, if it was properly completed, it would really be something successful. The characters are full of personality, the animation is fluid enough, the story is captivating, etc. But the film ends with an abrupt cut, without an outcome or explanation of some of the things that happened previously (what happened to Satya on the boat when he was young, what was really inside the boxes left on the island, ...) , mainly because it was not finished at all, which is a shame. The film is very good.
Part of what is written on the cover seems to be true: the film was most likely something made for World Children's Day or something children-related. It touches a lot on the subject of young people's rights, child slavery, children being exploited or abused, etc. what makes me believe that this was indeed made for it, kind of like the "Meena" cartoon, also from 1993. But it definetely wasn't a success in over 100 countries 😅
Actually, that is my friend's YouTube channel. So I guess he finally managed to find a copy of it somewhere. That's great! I'll email him later about this.
I am glad it got found so early and you got to enjoy it! Shame I can't understand Portuguese. Maybe if someone could make a subtitled version... this movie looks very interesting to me.
And after further research, it seems Les Conquérants was supposed to originally be a series made of 7 episodes of 26 minutes each, and so this Brazilian VHS is an edit of those episodes put together to constitute a feature film!
The page oddly mentions an English title under the name of "The Conquerents"... either there was a planned English dub, or it was just a hastily put-together English title in case they could sell this for an English-speaking market.
And it seems it really was French! Original title: « Les Conquérants »!
The credits are in French and cite many French animators; with character designers whose visual style is recognizable such as the Papyrus cartoon!
Now, this movie has no mention at all on the internet (if you don’t count our very discussions here and on Reddit).
And the animation is kinda choppy, has the characters transparent and sketchy black and white…
I would say, it seems the movie was never officially finished, and so it was never cited in anyone’s resume, and for some reason, through some way… the rough reel found itself in the hands of some Brazilian distributor who found a way to have it sold as a genuine feature cartoon…
I'm beginning to think this was just a production of a small low-budget independent long gone French-speaking studio from the 80s or early 90s. That's why there isn't much to find it about it. According to that video that I linked about Lloyds Home Video, it imported a lot of low-budget foreign material for the Brazilian market.
I am not surprised. I have seen a lot of 80s and 90s French VHS covers, and many of these would try to sell low-budget obscure B-movies as Hollywood-style action/adventure epics with splendid cover art. Some would even sell completely different films inside, lying all the way! It's a big rabbit hole.
At this point I'm very convinced it's just a long forgotten French (or at least French-speaking country) film that wasn't even popular when it came out.
Likely. Or a made-for-TV animated movie. Some of those get lost easily and there is little interest in the French public to search for them (which is a shame!).
For example, I remember seeing an animated "Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves" movie on French TV back in the 90s, (with the semi-realistic proportion style typical of a lot of French cartoons then) where the Thieves are all birdmen, and turn to roast chicken when splashed with hot oil. I cannot find it anywhere, or even a confirmed mention of it.
I think a significant reason why this isn't blowing up is that there isn't much that can be done with a dead Youtube link. The Wayback Machine doesn't archive Youtube videos. I threw the links into the Wayback Machine and one of them was archived before being taken down. It was uploaded by a user called Sen whose channel is still up. There's no videos and no external links and the name isn't distinct enough to be able to find a way to contact them elsewhere.
If you have any other ideas of how this can be found then I'm sure people would be happy to help, so long as you treat them with respect and understand that the community is full of human beings who don't enjoy being talked down to.
I think the only way it could be found in HD would be if someone hacked into blink industries database (please?)
DON'T you dare encourage illegal activities. You are warned.
- Squidward turning into a snail in "I Was A Teenage Gary" - "The Adventures of Left Pong Paddle" - "Here Comes Sophie" - "Stop" (Sega Genesis Game) - banned Minerva Mink shorts of "Animaniacs" - "Ren & Stimpy" theme song by Kurt Cobain - "X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes" alternate ending - "Croc 3"