
You never really know how “good” or in this case, how “bad” a cartoon really is until you revisit it. Lately I’ve been on a kick to watch all of my much-missed cartoon shows. I was very excited as I purchased an overpriced bootleg-quality copy of the Little Prince on DVD at an anime outlet. The guy at the counter warned that this was the cartoon he hated which came on right before the one he liked. (I see what he means) However, this was the one of the most influential cartoons I remembered from my youth. In fact our first grade teacher would let us watch an hour of it on Nickelodeon in the afternoon, and sometimes Schoolhouse rock or Today’s Special. Yes, in those golden days we watched loads of TV in public school besides learning to read, write, and do math. Go figure.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s worth revisiting the Little Prince. I quite enjoyed the 80’s-style music bits that were quite plentiful in this series. I might warn though that much of the content is quite embarrassing. I owe much of this to the terrible editing job and dubbing to accommodate the American audience. What is it with the U.S. that there can be sex and drugs and guys getting owned with machine guns on every station, but they have to lie to kids about something as simple as ‘death’. I don’t remember a point in my life as a kid where I was like, “Things die? OMG, that is sooo scary. I think I’m going to need therapy.” Of course I’d seen the Disney classics “Bambi”, “The Fox and the Hound”, and also Family Home Entertainment’s “The Littlest Fox” (a Fox and the Hound rip-off, which was even more depressing). My parents didn’t bother with having ‘a talk’ with me about them and ‘death’. I would shed a few tears, then rip into a bag of potato chips and watch an episode of MacGyver, or eat some fruit roll ups and go tearing around the house like a maniac. Kids know this stuff. Kids can also have their intelligence insulted. If you try to pull this nowadays, you might get a cap popped in you by a todler from the east side.

American Censorship Rule #1: “Nudity is acceptable if blatant, hairless, and with appropriate embarrassing camera angles and pans.” Hey, doesn’t this kid look like the original link from the first legend of Zelda? What's that? You're too busy wondering why he's got no pants?–Well, I think he does.
We actually owe this one to the Japanese who make some dang good cartoons- heck, I might not have even noticed the nudity if the rest of this cartoon had not been so whitewashed before it hit our TV screens.
I would give the Little Prince an embarrassment rating of 10/10, but I was an only child- I needed to know that cartoon children had something “down there” too, so I wouldn’t feel abnormal. I wouldn’t want to ruin the experience for younger viewers who too need to know without shame.

What follows next is a crime against all cartoons and nature too. Be prepared to recoil in fear and disgust. This is, perhaps one of the most embarrassing moments in cartoon history:

The Little Prince meets the old man and they travel together for a while. The episode gets pretty boring as they practice Yuri the bear’s routine, and beg for food and board until…

The Little Prince and Yuri are practicing the ball routine at night in the forest when a wolf attacks! I don’t know which to be more afraid of- the wolf which is barely visible or the bear who looks like he just burst out of the gates of hell.

After hours of trying to nurse him back to health, Yuri doesn’t make it and he dies. (Cut to commercial)

But Woa No! The American TV censors had a even better idea!
Here’s how it all went down:
(Same scene by the grave)
Little Prince: (In denial) “Not True!”
Old man: “Poor little Yuri is gone.”
Little Prince: (In super-denial) “No! We didn’t see it!”
Old man: (In fake Russian accent) “I don’t know. Somehow in the night somebody come along and bury him, poor Yuri- better we don’t see, better somebody else do it”
Little Prince: (In super-duper-denial) “Well I just don’t believe he died, I think this is grave of somebody else, not Yuri!. There’s a village! Maybe Yuri got up during the night and wandered in there for help. Maybe he was delirious- didn’t know what he was doing- I’m going to find yuri!” (Goes through the town shouting and smiling all the while) “Yuri! Are you here, Yuri!?”
(The Little Prince continues this for several minutes- I’ve never seen someone in so much denial.)
Old man: “Children laughing? It is the same as if my little Yuri was dancing” (He’s still kneeling by grave as the Little Prince comes running up the hill with a lynch-mob with a bunch of pitchforks- oh wait, that’s a group of children.)
Fake French guy narrator: “In his feverish condition Yuri DID wander away during the night. Some small boys found him and took him into the village, where a doctor is taking care of him and he will soon be well.”

The Little Prince is so happy that he can’t help but bust a move or two while he delivers the good news to the old man. This is some mad top-rocking he’s doing- Yuri the bear must have taught him. He raps “Yuri’s well! He’ll be back! Yuri’s Well!”… This continues for about four more refrains.



Well, this had to be the worst cartoon episode I’ve ever seen, period. I’ve forgiven the Little Prince for some smaller evils, but nothing’s more evil than killing a bear and resurrecting it through censorship mumbo jumbo. Rest in peace, Yuri. Rest in peace.



Swifty: Hey, wasn’t this same exact scene in the middle of that other episode?