Barbapapa

Barbapapa is both the title character, and name of the "species" of said character, of a series of children's books written in the 1970s by Annette Tison and Talus Taylor, who resided in Paris, France. The books were originally written in French (barbe à papa is French for cotton candy, or — literally — "father's beard"), and were later translated into over 30 languages. As short cartoons of a length of only five minutes, they reached a broader audience via TV. Also a comic book version was created. Both the cartoons and comics sometimes show concerns about the environment and contain environmental messages.

Barbapapa is now one of the popular characters that is made into merchandise in some Asian countries, such as Japan.