Strange Educational Cartoon Needs a Name?????

[simonsays00]

I've been trying to find the name of this cartoon for a while. It's been tricky to locate on the net because I dont really know how to explain it, but here goes...

Its from the early 80s I believe, the same style as Sport Billy (japanese anime and french dubbed etc). The opening sequence was an animated ape display to neanderthal man to present day man, with a classical soundtrack.

The narrator was a skinny old man who was essentially a walking white beard, just hair and legs and he navigated a space ship inside the human body, showing you organs and science related info.

He could also flick forward and back in time to illustrate the point he was making each week.

There was a couple of bumbling bad guys, but their reason for being there escapes me now.

Would appreciate any info on this, thanks.

[Lazimus_Prime]

Your description sounds like the "Once Upon a Time..." animated series from France. The show has an educational message. There are seven seasons of the show, each with a different title and theme:

"Once Upon a Time... Man"
"Once Upon a Time... Space"
"Once Upon a Time... Life"
"Once Upon a Time... The Americas"
"Once Upon a Time... The Discoverers"
"Once Upon a Time... The Explorers"
"Once Upon a Time... Planet Earth"

You seem to be describing the "Once Upon a Time... Man" season, which focuses on the history of the world and has an old man with a long, white beard, as well as the "Once Upon a Time... Life" season, which shows how the human body works.

Here's Wikipedia articles on the two shows:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time..._Man
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time..._Life

And here's two more sites on the shows:

http://www.procidis.com/gb/series/series_fois/d_series_homme.html
http://www.procidis.com/gb/series/series_fois/d_series_vie.html

And here's a page on the old man with the white beard, Maestro:

http://www.procidis.com/gb/heros/fois/d_fois_ma.html

[jbmb2000]

The only one I remember of these was life and it was a really fun show.