Around the World with Willy Fog

**Around the World with Willy Fog** (Spanish: La vuelta al mundo de Willy Fog) is a Spanish animated television adaptation of the 1873 novel Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne produced by Spanish studio BRB Internacional and Televisión Española, with animation by Japanese studio Nippon Animation, that was first broadcast on TVE1 weekly between 8 January and 15 July 1984.

## Storyline

In 1872 London in a world of humanoid animals, Willy Fog is the quintessential British gentleman of rigid sedentary habits, much to his new servants', Rigodon and Tico, pleasure. Suddenly, Fog is forced to take an extraordinary wager on behalf of a friend that he can circumnavigate the world in 80 days. Now, with little but a satchel carrying the necessary funds, Fog and his staff start their journey. Unknown to Fog, he is doggedly pursued by Scotland Yard detectives Dix and Bully on suspicion of a bank robbery. More seriously, however, Fog's movements are also being shadowed by Transfer, a villainous master of disguise who is commissioned by his enemies to interfere in the journey in any way he can. Regardless, Fog is determined to see the challenge through, finding dangers and friends, of which the gracious Princess Romy is the most welcome of new companions, on a journey unlike any other of their time.

## Trivia

* The Japanese version has different background music and some of the dialogue has been changed.
* Not all versions of the series have a narrator's voice.
* This is one of the most accurate adaptations of the Jules Verne tale ever made. Even though the characters are humanoid animals, adds new characters, adds a balloon ride for the part of the trip, and makes a few changes (names and minor plot changes to account for the villains' schemes), for the most part the series adapts fully the major and minor plot points of the novel.
* In Spain, this show's country of origin, there is a slang idiom made from this this show: "¡Tienes más peligro que Willy Fog con el abono transporte!" ("You're more dangerous than Willy Fog with a public transport pass!")
* While the series never achieved popularity in the United States, the English version found fame when it was broadcast on Children's BBC in the United Kingdom. The show's theme song was so popular that when the presenter of Children's BBC offered viewers a Willy Fog Song Sheet printed with the lyrics, demand was overwhelming.
* The purpose of the character, Transfer, is not only to provide a serious antagonist for the series' protagonists, but he also allows Phileas Fogg's more morally questionable actions in the original novel to happen to move the story along in ways that keep Fog in this series the unblemished hero. For instance, whereas Fogg in the book is forced to steal an elephant for an overland trek across India, the series has Fog accepting that the elephant's owner's refusal is final, only for Transfer to mug the elephant owner and impersonate him to arrange Fog and company to have that needed elephant on their trip under false pretenses for his own purposes.
* The original novel has the Princess change into a European dress; most adaptations have her keep her Indian dress to emphasize her Oriental character. The series reaches a compromise between the two by having the Princess wear a dark funeral sari for part of the show and a brighter-colored sari for the remainder.