The Adventures of Hutch the Honeybee

The Adventures of Hutch the Honeybee, or Honeybee Hutch, is an anime cartoon series produced by Tatsunoko Productions. The cartoon features the adventures of a young bee named Hutch : the son of a Queen bee, Hutch is separated from his mother when his native beehive is destroyed by an attack of wasps. The series follows Hutch as he searches for his missing mother, in the midst of a frequently hostile nature.

After being broadcast in several European countries, the show was translated into English as Honeybee Hutch, and re-edited in the 1990s for the Anglo-Saxon market, by Saban Entertainment. A sequel, New Honeybee Hutch or The New Adventures of Hutch the Honeybee, and numbering 26 episodes, was produced in 1974. The original series was remade in 1989 under the same Japanese title, Konchū Monogatari: Minashigo Hutch.

The original show and its remake are notable for their frequently sad and cruel scripts. In many episodes, Hutch would befriend another insect, only to see his new friend die a violent and painful death. On 31 July a 2010 remake of show will be released in Japan titled Hutch the Honeybee.

Cast

 * Chieko Honda as Teru
 * Haruko Kitahama as Mama
 * Junji Chiba as Piccolo
 * Masako Nozawa as Bunkichi
 * Minoru Midorikawa as Water Scorpion
 * Takeshi Watabe as Kamakiri
 * Toshiko Sawada as Narrator
 * Yoshiko Matsuo as Flower
 * Yoshiko Sakakibara as Queen
 * Yoshiko Yamamoto as Aya
 * Youko Kuri as Hutch
 * Yuuko Maruyama as Apachi

English dub cast

 * Joshua Seth as Hutch
 * Mari Devon as the Nattor
 * Edie Mirman as Honey Queen Bee
 * Heidi Lenhart as Haley
 * Frank Catalano as Hutch's Evil Twin Brother
 * Dorothy Elias-Fahn as Dorothy Fahn
 * R. Martin Klein as Dan Dan
 * Melodee Spevack as Hutch's Mother

Other foreign versions
The original series was broadcast in France and Quebec (Canada) starting in 1979, under the titles Le Petit Prince Orphelin (The little Orphan Prince) and Hutchy le Petit Prince Orphelin. The re-edited Saban version was broadcast in 1997, under the title Micky l'abeille (Micky the bee), with a new French dubbing.

In Italy, the show was broadcast as L'ape Magà (Magà the bee), a title similar to the more popular Maya the Bee. In the Italian dubbing, the male character of Hutch was turned into a female bee like Maya, which created some awkward moments in the translations, such as in the episode which depicts Hutch falling in love with a female butterfly. The Italian dialogue sometimes left the character's gender unclear, generating some confusion. .

In Latin America, the show was broadcast as Josemiel in the 1980s, for Mexico, the original edition was sent in 1984 to be transmitted by Televisa and Canal 6, got a lot of appreciation by their fans due to the dramatic script and the not-translated Japanese intro and ending. Some years later, the remake named Las Aventuras de Hutch were transmitted also by Televisa, but as being adapted from the American version of the animation it got less popularity than the original series.