Ferdy the Ant (TV series)

Ferdy the Ant
Genre	Adventure
Based on	Ferda Mravenec by Ondřej Sekora
Developed by	Entertaining Cartoon Productions
Screenplay by	Iva Hercíková Liane Novotny
Directed by	Jerry Hampeys Ralph Newman
Opening theme	"Ferdy is your Friend" (English dub only)
Composers	Evžen Illín Jiří Strohner
Country of origin	United Kingdom Germany China Liechtenstein Czech Republic Slovakia Slovenia
Original languages	English German Czech Slovak Slovene
No. of episodes	52
Production
Running time	25 minutes
Production companies	Clearwater Features Liliput Produktion Far Eastern Animation Ferda European Cinema Production
Original release
Network	SWR Fernsehen (Germany) ABC (Australia) TV SLO 1 (Slovenia) ČST 1 (Czechia) Jednotka (Slovakia)
Release	1984 (1984) – 1985 (1985)

Ferdy the Ant (also simply referred to as Ferdy and Ferda) is a 1984 German-British children's animated television series based on the Ferda Mravenec series of picture books by Czech author Ondřej Sekora. The animation was handled by Far Eastern Productions.

There are three English dubs. The original British English dub, the short-lived Harmony Gold USA dub and a German-produced 2000 dub that uses English-speaking voice actors based in Germany.

The show is primarily aimed towards children from ages 3 to 10, and has been owned by Entertaining Cartoon Productions and Licensing AG since 2000. It was also an animation by Far Eastern Animation in Taiwan.

It was also International Broadcast on the ABC & ABC Kids in Australia. The series was also broadcast on Nepal Television during the early 2000s. It was one of the few animated shows including Moomins that aired on the Nepal's national television at that time.

It was produced by Liliput Produktion and Clearwater Features.

Premise

The series revolves around a little boy-ant named Ferdy as he embarks on a variety of adventures in the insect utopia of Käfertal with his close insect friends.

Episode format

Story-arcs usually last up to seven episodes.

Main characters

• Ferdy
• Bug Butterfingers
• Cricket (Tony in the later dub)
• Arambula
• Grasshopper
• Woody (Bumble in the Harmony Gold dub)
• Gwendolyn (Referred to as Laura in later episodes)
• Bug Sniffy
• Bug Gobbler
• Oskar

Episodes

1. The Daring Rescue
2. The Danger from the Mill
3. The Crazy Snail Trip
4. The Valley of the Horses
5. My Friend the Star
6. On Butterfinger's Trail
7. A Coach for Gwendolyn
8. The Search
9. False Witness
10. The Camp of the Red Ants
11. The Silver Grotto
12. The Ghost Mill
13. The Robbers
14. Dangerous Excursion
15. Playing With Water
16. The New House
17. The Cuckoo's Egg
18. The Spring Festival
19. The Heatwave
20. The Trip to Italy
21. The Ill-Fated Skiing Trip
22. The Flight in a Balloon
23. Butterfinger's Art School
24. On a Treasure Hunt
25. The Forest Fire
26. Homesickness
27. The Mysterious Ship
28. Ferdy in the Ant Hill
29. The Slavedealers
30. The Raid
31. The Battle
32. The Wedding Feast
33. Movie Stars
34. The Unknown Weapon
35. A Nightmare Diet
36. The Honey Knight
37. The Tortise
38. The Dream of the Wild West
39. The Visitor From Space
40. The Beauty Contest
41. The Circus
42. Gwendolyn's Birthday
43. Robin Hood
44. The Ghost Driver
45. The Pizzeria
46. The Owl's Book
47. The Toadstool
48. The Waterskiing Race
49. The Musical
50. The Easter Egg
51. The Snake
52. Hocus-Pocus

Video game

A 3D episodic arcade video game based on the series was developed by Centauri Productions and released by Cenega in 2002 for the PC.

Home media

In 1986, select episodes of the Harmony Gold USA English dub of the series received a small VHS release in the US. The entire series was released on DVD in the Czech Republic in 2003.