The Little Polar Bear (in Dutch: Lars de kleine ijsbeer) is a franchise about a polar bear cub named Lars who first starred in a number of books written by Dutch author, . The first of several animated adaptations of the books is a Japanese original video animation, released on April 28, 1990, with animation production by I.G Tatsunoko (now known as Production I.G). It later became an animated TV series for BBC TV and WDR Lars, der kleine Eisbär, in the 1990s. The show proved to be popular in Germany.