Good show, Passepartout!note
Lord Maze: So, Phileas Fogg, you want to marry me niece Belinda?
Phileas Fogg: Yes, Lord Maze.
Maze: Then prove yourself worthy. Travel around the world in eighty days!
Passepartout: Impossible!
Fogg: We shall do it!
Maze: I'm betting £20,000 you can't!
Fogg: It's a bet!
Around the World in Eighty Days is an Australian 16 episode cartoon show produced in 1972 and a loose adaptation of Jules Verne's novel of the same name.
Phileas Fogg wants to marry the lovely Belinda Maze, niece to the unscrupulous Lord Maze. Maze makes a wager with Fogg that if Fogg can go around the world in eighty days, he may marry Belinda (with £20,000 thrown in as a sweetener). Fogg, along with his companion Passepartout and his pet monkey Toto, sets out to do so. Lord Maze, seeking to win the bet, sends a hired thug named Fix to prevent Fogg from reaching his goal.
Notable for being the first Australian cartoon shown on U.S. network TV, as NBC aired it as a Saturday-Morning Cartoon in 1972-73.
Compare with its Spiritual Successor, Around the World with Willy Fog.
Tropes in this series include:
- Adapted Out: Aouda, a beautiful Indian woman and Fogg's canonical love interest, does not appear in the show. Fogg's love interest is Canon Foreigner Belinda Maze.
- The members of the Reform Club don’t appear in the show either. It’s just Lord Maze who is opposed to Fogg marrying his niece.
- Adaptational Villainy: In the original novel, Fix was a Scotland Yard detective who pursued Fogg out of suspicion that he was a bank robber. Here, he's Lord Maze's hired thug.
- All Cloth Unravels: Fix loses his pants in this manner in the first episode.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Lord Maze will do anything to keep Fogg from winning the bet and marrying his niece. That's why he got Fix to handle the job.
- Bag of Holding: Passepartout uses this to carry whatever items Fogg asks for in a particular episode.
- Canon Foreigner: Toto the monkey, Belinda Maze and her uncle Lord Maze.
- Character Catch Phrase:
- Passepartout: "Parlez vous!" and "Fix Tricks! FIX TRICKS!"
- Fix: "I' LL FIX THAT FOGG!"
- Fogg (at the end of an episode): “Good show, Passepartout!”
- Fogg: Special catchphrase for each episode, repeated several times. Episode 1 was "The motto of the wise is, Be prepared for surprises." By Episode 16, it was: "Learn to use what you have got, and you won't need what you have not!"
- Chekhov's Armoury: Once an Episode, Fogg will ask from Passepartout for all the items they will need to overcome the problems on that episode.
- Crazy-Prepared: Fogg knows what they will need in the future and figures out what items he requires for a particular situation.
- Expository Theme Tune: Around the World in Eighty Days, Passepartout / So Fogg may marry Belinda Maze, Passepartout / Fogg may fail because of Fix / Unless Fogg nixes Fix's tricks / Around the World with Passepartout.
- Harmless Villain: Fix, no matter how much he tries, is unable to keep Fogg and Passepartout from reaching their goal.
- Hurricane of Aphorisms: Fogg spouts proverbs to Passepartout at the beginning of every episode, the events of which invariably go on to demonstrate the wisdom of said aphorism.
- Marilyn Maneuver: Belinda Maze in the intro. Due to bouncing with a pogo stick, her dress folds up enough to cover her upper body, exposing her underwear.
- Master of Disguise: Fix. His disguises can fool Passepartout.
- Mellow Fellow: Fogg, no matter the situation, tends to be unflappable ... though by Episode 16 he occasionally allows his face to display exasperation. Never for long, though.
- Proper Lady: Belinda, who is devoted to Fogg and is nicer than her uncle, is very much a dignified British lady.
- Quintessential British Gentleman: Phileas Fogg, as in the novel, is a proper gentleman.
- Road-Sign Reversal: Fix does this in the first episode to keep Fogg and Passepartout from reaching Buckingham Palace.
- Save the Villain: Fogg and Passepartout rescue Fix from an erupting Mount Vesuvius in one episode, and from a gang of desert bandits in another.
- Silly Simian: Passepartout’s pet monkey Toto provides much of the show’s humor.
- Talking to Themself: Fix: "Have you got a plan, Mr. Fix?" "Have I got a plan, Mr. Fix? Have I got a plan?"
- Time Title: An adaptation of the novel, Around the World in Eighty Days.
Good show, Passepartout!
