Bernard Deyriès & Jean Chalopin

In the 70s Bernard Deyriès teaches in a school of commercial art in Tours where he manages a small animation section. He also mets in Tour Jean Chalopin who produce short cartoons, mostly for advertising. When Chalopin decides to go to Japan to produce TV shows from his company, DIC, Bernard Deyriès and a small group of French artists follow him.
In 1981, Ulysses 31 is the first co-production with the Japanese. They work in Japan for several years for DIC and their series get a global success: Inspector Gadget, The Littles, Rainbow Brite, The Popples, etc. In 1987, DIC Enterprise is sold to a U.S. company and Jean Chalopin returns to France.
After his return from Japan, Bernard Deyriès has the opportunity to run his own studio, Story, who is responsible for the pre-production of French series. He still works with Jean Chalopin: Sophie and Virginia and The Twins of Destiny. But Bernard Deyriès also works on other projects: Gargantua, Cupido, The Pastagums, Bamboo & Co., etc. Among its recent achievements, Sophie's Misfortunes (Les malheurs de Sophie in French) got had a great succes in France and the series has even been aired in Japan. He has also produced other adaptations of stories written by the Comtesse de Segur: Un bon petit diable (in French). Finally, a sequel to the Mysterious Cities of Gold series is mentioned and Bernard Deyriès should be the director with a part of the original team ...

Jean Chalopin started in animation during the '70s by procuding institutional or commercial cartoons. At that time, French production is almost nonexistent. He establishes a studio in Tours, then in Boulogne: DIC, but it's hard to find enough qualified staff to produce important series. So he decides to go to Japan to produce series for television faster and at lower cost. DIC becomes the largest producer of European and American cartoons. Later, Jean Chalopin decides to separate from his company DIC which is sold to an American group. He returns to France and creates C&D, which produces series in Europe: The Twins of Destiny, T. Rex, Conan: The Adventurer ... However, competition is becoming tougher, affecting the quality of the production, and C&D is eventually sold to the company Saban/Fox in 1996.
Today, John Chalopin has little relations with the producers of DIC Enterprise (acquired by Disney). However, he still took part in the adaptation of the film Inspector Gadget, and he wrote 52 episodes for the new animated series Gadget and the Gadgetinis produced for Fox/DIC. He also wrote a new series entitled Cyrano 2022 and a draft of script for the Mysterious Cities of Gold sequel that he hopes to be produced in the coming years.

See this interview with Bernard Deyriès in 2000, as well as interviews with John Chalopin, dating from 2002 and 2003.