Babar, king of Celesteville and elephant to boot, started in a series of French children’s books all the way back in the early thirties, originally written by Jean de Brunhoff and later continued by his son Laurent. The books sold very well all over Western Europe,1 so adaptations were inevitable. Indeed, a television series spanning five seasons aired from 1989 to 1991. Then, for some reason, a decade later there was a sixth season. A season with an episode called Land of games.
Land of games? Chess games, perhaps? Why, yes! In fact, Babar and his family land the hot-air balloon they’re travelling in on an enormous chessboard and soon his kids are meeting life-sized talking pieces. It turns out that king Nofun of the land of games hates games and has forbidden them all. Babar’s children break that rule and the king locks them up.
In an enormous plot hole, the king, who hates games, challenges Babar to a game of his choice with his children for stake. Babar chooses chess, of course, but that sadly turns out to be the one game Nofun is any good at. And Babar, though confident enough, doesn’t seem particularly well-versed in the intricacies of our noble game: he starts with 1.c3. Nofun counters with 1. … c5 and then there is a cut to this position:2
The board is too big by at least one file. Some parts of the boards, possibly most of it, remains out of frame, but what we see is enough. There follows a quick succession of very zoomed in shots showing pieces being taken. When the fog of war has cleared a bit, Babar seems to be in trouble:
The position may be something like this:
but it may also not be. Everything about the position seems to flicker, as if it’s seen through hot air on a sun-drenched summer noon..Sometimes, there is an extra file on the left. Sometimes the rook is on b2 instead of a2. Sometimes, the black queen is on g7 instead of g6.
What’s for sure is that the black queen, played by Babar’s daughter, is attacking the white knight. She tricks him into making her take that knight, by pleading him not to. Somehow, white answers queen to king’s rook four, checkmate. In what is another enormous plot hole, Nofun not only releases Babar’s kids but had so much fun during the game that he now allows games again. If he has fun with these sort of games, he’s a right psychopath and needs to be locked up. Forever.
Realism: 0/5 There’s so many plot holes you could play connect four with it. And the positions are not the most minor ones.
Probable winner: Babar, apparently. How, I couldn’t tell, but I also don’t see how a family of five elephants flies in a wicker basket under a balloon.
1. [And Canada, but that’s basically Very Western Europe.] ↩
2. [Nofun probably just didn’t have access to a good diagram editor.] ↩