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(SOLVED) 1980s Japanese anime style cartoon where animals and birds in the forest have a big battle against each other

posted 5 months ago by RustyShacklefurd (2025)
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I watched this on TV around 30 years ago. I didn't see the ending. I don't know if it was a movie or just one episode of a TV show. I saw this either on Nickelodeon or some other TV channel for kids with lots of cartoons. I turned off the TV in the middle of the battle.

I started watching it at the beginning. There was a bear who seemed to be the official king of all the non-winged animals in the forest or he had some similar type of leadership position. He and another mammal went to this bush which was the home of the king of the birds. They were just looking out of curiosity. The bird king was gone but his kids were there and they were annoyed by the bear and other mammal invading their privacy. They told their dad when he got back and the bird king flew off to demand an explanation from the bear while he was sitting on his throne. The bear didn't do or say what the bird king wanted so they decided to have a battle. Before the battle, the bird king sent a mosquito to spy on the non-winged animals. Perhaps the bird king was actually the leader of all winged animals. During the battle the birds had some sort of strategy to bombard the non-winged animals from the sky but the non-winged animals found some way to thwart that strategy and kept on fighting. It was around that point I turned off the TV.

[–] wositelec (280) 5 months ago

I'm not sure, but I remember that anime version of "Simba: The King Lion" has many battles between non-winged and winged animals. Definitely there are: bear Ballo, Simba, Bambi deer and many "mixed" characters from different animated movies and fairy tales :-) I remember king of eagles and king of vultures.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2374051/

[–] RustyShacklefurd (2025) 5 months ago

This isn't it. The cartoon I saw had a bear as king. Simba: The Lion King looks like it's set in Africa or India and I got the feeling that the cartoon I saw was set somewhere in North America. Simba: The Lion King was made in 1995 and I probably saw this cartoon before 1995. Also, the animation in Simba: The Lion King looks newer than the animation in the cartoon I saw. That cartoon had animation that looked like it was from the 1980s.

[–] wositelec (280) 5 months ago

I was sure. Maybe it was something unpopular. It's interesting that I found unpopular tale of Grimm Brothers "The Bear and the Bird King", but it is only book. Perhaps it has less popular movie adaptation. In a little-known Brothers Grimm tale, when a grouchy bear sparks a feud between air and land animals, he must apologize for his mischief.

Amazon.com Review
In a little-known story from the Brothers Grimm, retold and illustrated by Robert Byrd, a great war is about to begin. The nestlings of the bird king are insulted when the bear climbs to the top of the tree and proclaims, "Why, this doesn't look like a royal palace ... and you don't look like royal children, either. You look like plain old nasty children to me." This is more than a royal family can bear, so they gather all the creatures of the sky, including bees, gnats, and other flying insects, to fight the bear and all the four-legged creatures that he's summoned for battle. Fortunately, the bird king is more clever than the opposition and comes up with a plan to foil his enemy and therefore avoid an all-out war. The illustrations are delightful, with birds attired in royal splendor and all the creatures donning plumed hats and fanciful clothes from days long gone.
https://www.amazon.com/Bear-Bird-King-Robert-Byrd/dp/0525451188

**EDIT:
Perhaps it is "Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics" and an episode "The Wren and the Bear". I see that it is entitles as Japan series "Gurimu meisaku gekijou" (1987–1989)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0305033/
Here is king of birds and bear in a throne.

[–] RustyShacklefurd (2025) 5 months ago

I looked up The Wren and the Bear episode of Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics and that's definitely correct. Thank you very much.

[–] TimeTunnel (4677) 5 months ago

And that's how the joke of that fairy tale gets "Lost in Translation". 😥

The wren is "Zaunkönig" in German, what verbatim means "Fence King".
A humorous name for a great little singer. 🐦 🎵 🎶
The bear and the fox mistakenly take the name for that birdy as a true king.
That's how the story and the (almost) animal war evolve. ☺

[–] TimeTunnel (4677) 5 months ago

P.S.

Detail correction, sorry...just did reread the fairy tale.
The bear 🐻 and the wolf 🐺 misinterpret the birdy's 🐦 name.

The fox 🦊 later plays a different role.