Babar the Elephant was first introduced to children in 1931 by the French author Jean de Brunhoff, who created the book from stories that his wife made up for their children. He went on to publish another six stories, and his son Laurent de Brunhoff continued the series after his father’s death. An animated TV series, titled simply Babar, was produced in Canada by Nelvana, running from 1989 through 1991 and then again in the year 2000.

BRIO’s short-lived Babar theme appeared in the early 2000’s, and distribution may have been limited to French markets.