I recently came across an obscure home video series geared towards children called "Mother Goose Songs & Rhymes" that featured cute anthropomorphic animals in various nursery rhythms and songs from Mother Goose. The videos were uploaded in mid 2017 and the video quality isn't the best since the uploader (Jimmy Ulakovic) filmed each of the 3 volumes from a camcorder. It was animated by an unknown (Possibly uncredited) Japanese animation studio and distributed by ABM Group and contained Japanese text. Since there's very little information about the video series online. It's become very hard to find each volume. Apparently it had around 16 or more volumes according to ebay and was made in 1988.
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Can anyone help me identity who made these along with the animation studio that did the animation? The only info that I know is that it was released in Japan, The United States and the United Kingdom.
The original uploader also uploaded Volume 1 on March 18, 2017 which was separated into four parts. Volume 2 got uploaded on April 16, 2017 and has three parts and Volume 3 was uploaded on April 21, 2017 with three parts.
UPDATE (6/29/18) : Apparently the animation was done by a Japanese animation studio called "Triangle Staff".
I find this appealing since some of the animal characters such as Betty Botter portrayed as a cute spaniel and the pig in This Little Piggy from Volume 3 looked so cute and charming. Some of the character designs reminded me of the characters from the 1986 anime series Maple Town by Toei Animation which was also filled with anthropomorphic animals. It seriously made me curious on what studio animated these. But since the credits are in Japanese I can't tell who did these. Which is weird since the series has English audio but doesn't contain a English text for the opening and closing.
I then decided to look up the title on sites such as ebay.com and Amazon. Then I searched up the title with the distributor name ABM Group along with the title. Worldcat.com has the three volumes but with a different name and was instead called "Music and song Mother Goose". Even weirder is that when I searched it up on Google it had more then 16 volumes but it's difficult to tell.
I wish there was a user on this site that understood Japanese. Maybe the Japanese name might have better information. Even stranger is the credits state that it was made in 1988 (Possibly released in Japan first) but possibly gotten a Western release in 1991.
Hopefully somebody out there has a good copy of one of the volumes (And the other 16 or more?) and hopefully upload them on the Youtube in better quality in the future. I really hope somebody who reads Japanese or able to type Japanese words . That way we might finally be able to solve who animated the Mother Goose series. I'm still thinking it was either by Toei or a now defunct Japanese animation studio. Doesn't help that the video series has Japanese credits instead of english.
Worldcat.org mentions that the musical directors were Keijo Kusano & Jeff Manning while the directors were Stuart Atkin, and James House. As seen on this page for Volume 2 and 3.
I decided to make a few screenshots of the three volumes just in case they get removed or when the original uploader closes their account in the future. This should be extra helpful for users looking for these volumes online or on auction and store sites.
Someone forgot to add the ruby text when they made the logo for the show.
Edit: I translated the first part of the name shown on the logo. It says "ABC Academy Mother Earth's Video"
I also translated part of the last bit of the logo. It says "Home _______ Series Volume 10" Which is odd considering that is shown on a screenshot of Volume 3.
Last Edit: Feb 28, 2018 1:34:20 GMT by Terry the Cat
Someone forgot to add the ruby text when they made the logo for the show.
Edit: I translated the first part of the name shown on the logo. It says "ABC Academy Mother Earth's Video"
I also translated part of the last bit of the logo. It says "Home _______ Series Volume 10" Which is odd considering that is shown on a screenshot of Volume 3.' That's weird since "Home ______ Series Volume 10" is kept in Volume 1 and Volume 2.
Now I'm more curious about this, especially when you see the English VHS covers for Volumes 1, 2, and 3 that look different than the actual video. After learning that this was an obscure anime geared towards children. I'm very fascinated when it comes to obscure anime from the 80's and 90's especially ones geared towards young children. I'm going to keep on searching more info about the series online and hopefully finally discover what animation company made these since the English VHS cover only credits ABM Group.
Found a picture of Volume 2 VHS Tape from ebay that has a screenshot of Old King Cole on the back of the box.
More help is welcome so we can be able to learn more about this. If anyone on the Lost Media is able to buy a good copy of any of the volumes online. Please be sure to upload them when you get a chance.