The Adventures of Hutch the Honeybee

Plot

The story begins when a queen bee's hive is attacked and destroyed by an army of wasps, which kill nearly all the bees and devour their eggs. The queen flees, but one egg is saved and hidden under a leaf. A female bumblebee, the queen's handmaid, finds the egg and raises it as her own. The little Hutch is raised with love by his adoptive mother but is despised and isolated by his half-brothers.

After discovering he is adopted and feeling never fully accepted, Hutch sets out on a journey to find his mother. He experiences many adventures, meeting and befriending various animals such as butterflies, amphibians, mice, other bees, and caterpillars, though many meet tragic ends. He faces enemies including spiders, toads, ants, wasps, hornets, snakes, moles, predatory birds, reptiles, praying mantises, and humans. During his journey Hutch meets another bee named Aya, who joins his search.

Eventually Hutch finds his mother and saves her from certain death, and discovers that Aya is actually his sister, who survived the wasps' attack. Hutch and his family rebuild the bee kingdom, vowing to make it peaceful and kind.

Other foreign versions

The original series was broadcast in France and Quebec starting in 1979 under the titles Le Petit Prince Orphelin and Hutchy le Petit Prince Orphelin. The re-edited Saban version aired in 1997 as Micky l'abeille with a new French dubbing. In Italy, the show was broadcast from 1979 as Le avventure dell'Ape Magà, with a dub derived from the original Japanese version. In the Italian dubbing, the male character of Hutch was turned into a female bee, creating awkward moments such as in an episode where Hutch falls in love with a female butterfly; the Italian dialogue sometimes left the character's gender unclear.

In 1997 a new dub derived from the American version aired on Italia 1 as Un alveare d'avventure per l'Ape Magà, with the main character male despite the name still being Magà. The show was broadcast in Spain by Telecinco. It was fully dubbed into Arabic in 1984 by the G.C.C Joint Program Production Institution based in Kuwait. In Latin America, the show aired as Josemiel in the 1980s; for Mexico, the original edition was sent in 1984 to be transmitted by Televisa and Canal 6, gaining appreciation for its dramatic script and untranslated Japanese intro and ending.

The remake Las Aventuras de Hutch was later transmitted by Televisa but adapted from the American version and got less popularity. In Brazil, it was broadcast by Rede Globo. In Israel, it aired in 1997 on Arutz HaYeladim as רון הדבורון (Ron HaDvoron; Ron the Little Bee). In the Philippines, it was featured as a TV series titled Hutch, Ang Batang Bubuyog.

In Germany, the series was named Flitz das Bienenkind; the German dub was produced by Saban in 1994 based on the US dub, with the original 91 episodes cut to 65, and it premiered on ARD on 29 December 1996.