De Fabeltjeskrant Returns: Dutch Puppet Classic Gets CGI Revival and a 1,600-Episode Restoration
A Dutch children's puppet show that first aired in 1968 is heading back to screens — this time in CGI, and with its entire archive of roughly 1,600 episodes restored for YouTube. Deadline
De Fabeltjeskrant — the title translates as "The Fables Newspaper" — was created by Leen Valkenier and ran on television from 1968 to 1992. The show is set in a forest full of anthropomorphic animals, where an owl named Meneer de Uil reads the day's headlines from a newspaper. It became a cultural phenomenon in the Netherlands and Belgium, sold into 40 countries, and accumulated more than 1,600 episodes.
Now a new CGI incarnation is in development, and it will be shopped to international buyers at MIPCOM in October. MIPCOM is the annual television trade market held in Cannes, where studios and distributors pitch new series to global broadcasters and streamers.
The revival is a partnership between Robin de Levita Productions — whose founder is three-time Tony Award-winning producer Robin de Levita — the Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision, Monks, and JVDB Studios. Monks is handling the new animated version using what the partners describe as current-generation animation and digital production technology. JVDB Studios is combining AI tools, digital production, and global distribution to introduce the franchise to new audiences.
The production team bills the CGI version as a "new creative future for the franchise" and says it will keep the same underlying values as the original show. No episode count, release window, or target platform for the new series has been disclosed.
Alongside the new production, the restoration effort is already underway. It works from original 16mm film elements preserved for more than half a century. The restored episodes are due to be released on the De Fabeltjeskrant YouTube channel, making the full historical archive available to stream for free.
For fans who grew up with Meneer de Uil and the animal cast, the restoration means the original puppet show — decades of it — will be watchable again in quality far beyond what ageing videotape allowed. For the franchise's new custodians, the YouTube archive functions as a foundation: a free, accessible introduction to characters and storylines that the CGI series will build on for audiences who never saw the original.
