Barbapapa is both the title character, and name of the species of said character, of a series of children's books written in the 1970s by Annette Tison and Talus Taylor, who resided in Paris, France. The books were originally written in French (barbe à papa - literally Daddy's beard - is French for cotton candy or candy floss), and were later translated into over 30 languages.
As short cartoons of a length of only five minutes, the Barbapapa stories reached a broader audience via TV. Also a comic book version was created. Both the cartoons and comics sometimes show concerns about the environment and contain environmental messages.