The Adventures of Hutch the Honeybee is an anime series produced by Tatsunoko Productions. The series 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. A sequel, 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, Minashigo Hutch. The original show is notable for its 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. In one, he befriended a female honey bee who lost her brothers and sisters to a hornet army. The 1989 remake, however, featured completely new episodes and a much more light-hearted story. On July 31, 2010, a movie which was a remake of show was released in Japan titled Hutch the Honeybee. After being broadcast in several European countries, the show was re-edited and translated into English in 1996 by Saban Entertainment, with 65 out of 91 episodes being dubbed. Saban's edits cut out some of the show's violent material.
The original series was broadcast in France, by TF1, and Quebec starting in 1979, under the titles Le Petit Prince Orphelin and Hutchy le Petit Prince Orphelin. The re-edited Saban version was broadcast in 1997, under the title Micky l'abeille, with a new French dubbing. In Italy, the show was broadcast by various local TV channels in the late 1970s as Le avventure dell'Ape Magà, a title similar to the more popular Maya the Bee, with a dub derived from the original Japanese version. 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 1997 a new dub, derived from the American version, aired on Italia 1 under the title Un alveare d'avventure per l'Ape Magà. In the second dub the gender of the main character is male, despite the name still being Magà. The show was also broadcast in Spain by the television networkTelecinco. 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. In Brazil, it was broadcast by Rede Globo. In Israel, it was broadcast in 1997 on Arutz HaYeladim as רון הדבורון. In Philippines, it was featured as a TV Series with title “Hutch, Ang Batang Bubuyog”, “Hutch, The Kiddie Bee”. In Germany, the series was named Flitz das Bienenkind. The German dub was produced by Saban in 1994 and was based on the US dub. The original 91 episodes were cut together for a total of 65 episodes. The series premiered on ARD on 29 December 1996.
