Billie and Hein Blöd crying over the deaths of the Sinclairs
Käpt'n Blaubär Club was an hour long German puppet children's series which ran on ARD from 1993 to 2001. It was part of a longrunning franchise (in both puppet and animation form) centering on sea captain Käpt'n Blaubär (literally a blue bear), who first debuted as a segment on Die Sendung mit der Maus in 1991. The avuncular old sailor would tell tall tales of the sea to his grandchildren.
The show featured frame segments (with Blaubär, his rat crewmate Hein Blöd, and others) as wrap arounds for pre-existing programming, with Die Dinos (the German dub of Dinosaurs) as a regular segment beginning with the first Käpt'n Blaubär Club episode in 1993. Clips appeared in the intro whenever an episode was included. The Die Dinos series finale, "Dino-Dammerung," aired as part of the 78th episode on March 25, 1995.[1]
For the episode, while in the middle of his own problems with King Neptune, Käpt'n Blaubär stops to ask the Sinclair Family to stop by (naming them all, even Oma). After the episode, which culminates in the extinction of the dinosaurs, the captain's friends Hein Blöd and Billie the video pirate (a human character) are left sobbing (while the gloomy underscore by Ray Colcord for the Dinosaurs episode continued to play). They're heartbroken by the deaths of the Sinclairs, with Hein Blöd particularly missing Baby Sinclair. To cheer them up, and as an antidote to the downbeat finale, Blaubär shows "Ich bin das Baby" (the German dub of "I'm the Baby (Gotta Love Me)").
Other shows spotlighted on Käpt'n Blaubär Club over the years included DuckTales, the French series Ernest le vampire, the CINAR Paddington Bear series, silent film shorts (including Chaplin), and the live-action German series Der kleine Vampir – Neue Abenteuer (with Ingeburg Kanstein).
As for Käpt'n Blaubär himself, he had further spin-offs, including a 1999 animated feature, the puppet series Blaubär + Blöd, and would return to Die Sendung mit der Maus from 2008 to 2012, among other appearances.
Connections[]
- Peer Augustinski voiced Schnatterschnute on Blaubär + Blöd (2002-2008)
- Sabine Bohlmann voiced the pink bear cub in Käpt’n Blaubär – Der Film (1999)
- Jannik Endemann voiced the yellow bear cub (1995-1998)
- Andreas Förster puppeteered Hein Blöd
- Gerlach Fiedler voiced a pirate in Käpt’n Blaubär – Der Film (1999)
- Edith Hancke voiced Karin (1995-2001 and on Blaubär + Blöd)
- Robert Missler voiced a pirate in Käpt’n Blaubär – Der Film (1999)
- Iris Schleuss puppeteered Karin (1995-2001 and on Blaubär + Blöd)
- Constanze Schmidt puppeteered the yellow bear and Knut (ca. 1995-2001)
- Bodo Schulte puppeteered Käpt'n Blaubär, Flöt, and others
- Wolfgang Völz voiced Käpt'n Blaubär
Sources[]
- ↑ Fernsehserien.de. German airing info from Hörzu.