Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds

The story, set in 17th-century France, follows a young Dogtanian (Darutaniyan (ダルタニヤン) in the original Japanese version and voiced by Satomi Majima (間嶋 里美) and D'Artacan in the Spanish version) who travels from Béarn to Paris in order to become one of King Louis XIII of France's musketeers. (Note: that they are referred to as musketeers throughout the cartoon and only the title calls them muskehounds.) He quickly befriends three musketeers (Porthos, Athos and Aramis) saving Juliette, a maid-in-waiting for Queen Anne of Austria. A key difference between the Dogtanian adaptions and Dumas' novel is that the character traits of Athos and Porthos were interchanged, making Athos the extrovert and Porthos the secretive noble of the group.

The series was produced in 1981 by Nippon Animation[1] and MBS in Japan, where it began airing on October 9, 1981.[1] One year after its premiere, it was exported to Spain and other countries by BRB International, broadcasting for the first time on TVE in October 1982,[3] and is currently still being broadcast on different platforms such as YouTube and Netflix.

The series was dubbed into English by Intersound USA in 1985. As well as dubbing the TV series, BRB also produced a TV movie, which was again dubbed by Intersound USA.

• Japan: MBS: October 9, 1981
• Spain: Televisión Española: October 9, 1982
• UK: BBC: January 3, 1985

The partnership between BRB and Nippon Animation worked so well, that they collaborated in another successful animated series two years after Dogtanian called Around the World with Willy Fog in 1983.

In 1989 The Return of Dogtanian was produced by BRB Internacional, Televisión Española and Thames Television with animation of Wang Film Productions and Morning Sun Animation. It picks up ten years after the original story ends, with Dogtanian and Juliette now married and living together on the outskirts of Paris with their two children, Philippe and Fleur. The Muskehounds are reunited by queen Anne when her husband starts acting suspiciously. Cardinal Richelieu is still featured, along with Milady and Widimer still loyal to him.

The story is loosely based on the novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne also by Alexandre Dumas, itself building on the myth of The Man in the Iron Mask.

Dave Mallow and Doug Stone, who co-adapted the original scripts to English and co-directed, took over as the voices of Dogtanian, and Porthos, respectively. As it was produced in Taiwan by Wang Film Productions and Morning Sun Animation, Nippon Animation, the Japanese studio which produced the first series, was not involved in the sequel.

Like the first series, 26 episodes were produced. Later in 1995, a TV movie was made of the second series entitled One For All and All For One, with completely different voice actors and a few name changes from the original series.

• Aramis – Eddie Frierson
• Juliette – Rebecca Forstadt
• Pip – Steve Kramer
• Widimer – Mike Reynolds

The original version of the soundtrack to Dogtanian (called Dartacan Soundtrack), can be downloaded from Amazon's UK website in MP3 format. It includes an English version of the theme song that uses the second series opening lyrics, but the music is similar to the original opening, in this version Dogtanian however is referred to as Dartacan, his Spanish name, and the theme is sung with very high voices, similar to the original opening, and rendered in a style reminiscent of the French dub. An insert song in Spanish which has been replicated twice (Richelieu and Bulibu, probably an error on Amazon's part or that of the record company) and a few instrumental tracks that are heard in the show itself and one unused instrumental track.[5]

According to their main website, BRB Internacional was planning a new CGI movie to be released in 2016, but it has been delayed for unknown reasons.[6][7] In April 2019, it was announced that Apolo Films has since taken over production of the film.[8] On February 11, 2020, the first image of the film was revealed. It was announced that the film will be written by Doug Langdale and directed by Toni Garcia. It will also be released on SVOD.[9]

• (in Japanese) Official Japanese at Nippon Animation
• Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Muskehounds.com
• Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds on IMDb
• Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds at TV.com
• Dogtanian.net