Around the World with Willy Fog (1983) User Reviews

Another childhood favourite...

[bigsleepj · 7 October 2003]

"Around the World with Willy Fogg" is basically just Verne's "Around the World in 80 Days" anime-style with one or two characters added and Fog's named changed to something easier on the tongue.

This is one of my favourite childhood tv-series'.

Everybody (oh well, next to everybody) know the story, and if you find this series watch it. It's dated but despite the artistic licence with the story is true to Jules Verne's spirit of adventure. The English version even has a great song. You'd have to be very stuck-up not to like it.

Oh yes, everybody's animals too. So this is a nice little anthropomorphic spin on the tale.

One of my favorite cartoons

[jeanserge21 · 9/10 · 25 August 2006]

This cartoon is one of my favorite one. I saw it when a child at the Spanish TV in the eighties. Of course, it is adapted from Jules Verne's novel with animals. Phileas Fog is a lion, his wife a nice female cat and so on. But the adaptation introduces new characters and in particular a gangster who will follow Willy Fog (Phileas Fog) to make him fail in his mission. We also find a new character as a little mouse, who is Rigodon's friend (Rigodon is Passe-Partout in the novel). This makes the cartoon even more interesting than the original novel. Indeed, when I read the book I was highly disappointed! Jules Verne should have seen the cartoon before writing his book. Moreover, the cartoon also introduces very nice songs during all the series. I heard these songs and the emotion is still the same.

Even Jules Verne would have loved this!

[alex9920 · 10/10 · 7 April 2020]

This Spanish cartoon is an all time classic. If you love adventure and cartoons, you can watch it several times without getting bored. Its based on the Jules Verne's classic novel Around the World in 80 days, but its adapted with talking antropomorphic animals, new locations (like Mexico and Hawaii) and new characters, created for the series, which change the plot a little compared to the original story.

Using animals as characters makes this show special and more interesting to watch, considering every animal matches the character perfectly: Willy Fogg (Phileas Fogg in the original novel) is a lion, due to the fact he is a gentlemen, Transfer a character that doesnt appear in the book is a wolf that tries to sabotage the travel of the protagonists, Romy (Princess Aouda) is a panther, Rigodon (Passepartout) is a cat and Dix and Bully (who play the role of inspector Fix) are dogs.

This cartoon has great moments, funny and memorable characters (especially Rigodon, his best friend Tico and Dix and Bully), lovely songs that are used in certain episodes, a good and detailed animation and the best of all, a great adaptation of a wonderful novel.

Sticks closely to the book by Jules Verne

[shelbythuylinh · 10/10 · 19 November 2021]

Except for a few changes like the new villain Transfer who transfers to other characters to thwart Willy Fog and company's plans and you notice with a sprinkle in his eye there.

Secondly I thought like Passepartout needed to be the main character, that of Rigadon needed to be the main character. As we know very little about Fog other than he is very wealthy and has no life and lives to clockwork perfection there.

Auoda the name in the love interest is changed to Romy there. Still follows close to the story.

Grand adventures

[ReptiDomus · 9/10 · 23 July 2016]

Around the World With Willy Fog combines the artistic talents of a French author, a Spanish production company, Japanese animators and pop music - a strange combination of ingredients to be sure, but it just works.

As an adaptation of Jules Vernes' classic adventure novel, this series is pretty faithful, though it manages to differentiate itself in a few positive ways. While all major plot points remain intact and only names were changed, additions include a spirited sidekick for Mr. Fog's butler and a villain who constantly tries to thwart the heroes. The backgrounds and scenery are gorgeous and detailed, and are well-utilized by the series' diverse locations, although the character animation lacks fluidity, which is unfortunately typical for anime. It has a great soundtrack as well, composed by Mocedades, a prolific Spanish pop group, and it shows, as the opening and closing songs are particularly pleasant ear-worms. (But strangely, for the English dub at least, any mid-episode song is of much worse sound quality.)

The most brilliant Cartoon

[robert-gloch · 10/10 · 25 February 2022]

Best Cartoon-Serie until today : Story, Music (complete album), Characters, Humor, Entertainment. All Episodes pure joy (especially in German). After almost 30 years, I refounded Willy Fog again - I can never forget the melody when Willy and his friends started with the old train or ship to get in new countries and cultures. Bully and Dix (Inspectors from Scotland Yard) are the real Stars of the Story, because it's the the Funny Moments. Transfer the real evil side (change always his look).

Exiting until the end - the last episodes 21-26 are the best.

A very memorable series

[TG22Film · 16 February 2005]

This is such a fantastic animated series (for everyone, not just kids!) for a number of reasons. Firstly, there are obviously the lovable characters, the way we see them develop throughout the series is a joy to watch. Secondly, the story lines are enticing, you just have to know whats going to happen in the next episode- take the jungle episode and the evil worshippers approaching as a great example of how great this series was at cliffhangers. Thirdly, the music score is really fun to listen to. Although it is distinctly '80s' sounding, each tune really tends to capture the atmosphere of the moments in the series. For just a cartoon series there are so many 'true to life' things in this series- like morals, the evolution of friendships, romance, financial problems and solving problems. Not forgetting the enormous geographical value of this programme- how many places do they visit throughout the series? Point proved. The only thing I have to say against it is repetition. How many times do we have to hear them say they're hungry or they're late for a train? Mind you this recurrence amuses rather than annoys me.

An absolutely brilliant series!

[action-6 · 12 October 2000]

"La vuelta al mundo de Willy Fogg"("Around the world with Willy Fogg") is one of my all-time favorite cartoon-shows. I first rented all the episodes way back in 1988, and I saw every single episode again in 1992, and I was lucky to catch many of the episodes recently on the Spanish tv-channel TVE("Television España"). Thank goodness I`ve learnt Spanish instead of French!

The series is based on a novel by Jules Verne, which is called "Around the world in 80 days"(I don`t remember the original French title). The main character in the series is Willy Fogg, who was called Phileas Fogg in the novel.

We follow Willy Fogg & co. on a fantastic journey around the world against the clock, because Willy Fogg has made a bet that he`ll be able to travel around the world in 80 days.

I think the series has got great atmosphere, nice animation, great characters, great music and quite a few "scary"(for the kids) scenes too.

**"Plot spoiler"**

My favorite episode is without a doubt the one where Willy saves a princess from being sacrificed in India. Sadly I missed that episode when I caught parts of the series on TVE. There are 26 episodes which are on 5 tapes. The tapes are very difficult to come by, so buy them when you see them. I know that I will!

Very good for kids.

[afonsobritofalves · 14 April 2019]

One of the best cartoons ever and one of the best series of the 80's. Very educational and fun. Highly recommend.