In a fit of nostalgia I decided to buy the revamped DVD box set of this legendary cartoon series, which was released recently. This 26 episodes long series was one of the first big cooperations between French and Japanese anime makers and formed the basis of one of the biggest cartoon empires in the world: DIC. Jean Chalopin was the spiritual father of this epic story, which was loosely based on the Odyssey of Odysseus (or Ulysses) from Homer’s Iliad. Whereas the mythological story took place in ancient Greece, this series takes place in 31st century space, hence the name Ulysses 31.

I have always been fascinated and riveted by French and early Japanese anime. From the educative “Il était une fois.. l’homme” to sci-fi anime like Goldorak and Albator to the wonderful Rémi sans famille; I gobbled it all up as a young boy. The animation was simplistic but stylish, the adventures were epic and mesmerizing and it was completely devoid of blatant product placements as you’d find in cartoons nowadays. The tone of the cartoons was quite serious without being moralistic or patronising, whereas the overall theme was that of the ongoing struggle between good and evil. A far cry from most cartoons nowadays that seem only to serve as a commercial platform to sell games, toys and candy. The Japanese drawing style -with its trademark big watery eyes- became very popular with the European audience and opened the door for more Japanese anime and manga, like Akira and Tetsuo.

The story starts when Ulysses and his crew on board of the spaceship Odysseus leave the space station of Troy to find their way back to Earth. When Ulysses’ son, Telemachus, is abducted to a planet that worships a mechanical Cyclops, Ulysses goes after his son to rescue him. Telemachus meets Yumi and her brother Numinor who come from the planet of Zotra and are also held captive. After Ulysses frees Telemachus and his new-found friends, he destroys the giant Cyclops and flees the hostile planet. However, the Cyclops was a creature of the god Poseidon and his wrath and that of the gods of the dimension of Olympus is terrible: Ulysses and his crew are cast away into deep space and a curse renders everyone on board of the Odysseus in a deep sleep, except for Ulysses, Telemachus, Yumi and little robot No-No. The quest then begins to find a way to the kingdom of Hades and back to Earth.

The story introduces a plethora of Greek mythological personages and elements: Circe, Orpheus, Sisyphus, The Sphinx, Calypso, Scylla and Charybdis, Cronus, etcetera. The lead characters are quite one-dimensional: Ulysses is righteousness incarnate and the blandest of the lot, whilst the children are more inquisitive and headstrong (especially Yumi). Finally, No-No, the cute little robot, takes care of the comic relief. The artwork shows its age: you see a very low frame rate and simple, ‘cartoonesque’ drawing but still very distinct and beautiful. The inspiration for the artwork obviously comes from movies like Star Wars (Ulysses wields a light sabre) and 2001: A space Odyssey (a talking ship’s computer, suspended animation units). The sound is in mono but the soundtrack accompanying the series is simply stunning. Not only is the title song a great pop-rock song (a similar-sounding theme was later used in Chalopin’s cartoon Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors) but the themes that are played throughout the series are simply wonderful, often minimalist but to great effect.

Jean Chalopin
Chalopin has been responsible for some of the most popular cartoons in the eighties and nineties and helped introduce Japanese manga and anime in Europe. 21 years after his birth in 1950 in Tours, France, he established his production company DIC which brought him success worldwide. The production and direction of Ulysses 31 took him to Tokyo and introduced him to Japanese anime producers like Shingo Araki. After a short flirt with Toei Animation he ended up making the first long Franco Japanese feature with Tokyo Movies Shinsha (TMS). Chalopin already had some experience with Japanese anime when he wrote the scenario for the superb Rémi sans famille (a.k.a. 3-D Animation: Homeless Remi). He continued then to make successful cartoons like Heathcliff, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, The Care Bears, MASK and his most successful series, Inspector Gadget.
By now, Chalopin extended his business to the US and established DIC Enterprises in Los Angeles together with Andy Heyward. DIC became the world number one in TV animation, however the American investors were not happy with the CEO being a Frenchman, which subsequently lead to the retirement of Chalopin in 1988. He then continued to establish several businesses like C&D and Jean Chalopin Consultant.

Chalopin has left us some great cartoons and anime, but for me Ulysses 31 is his best work, together with Rémi (which is even a notch better in my book) and it remains a classic forever. Real purists would probably go for the original French-dubbed version, but the English boxed DVD-set is of good quality and surely worth the buy.