Plot

In his spectacular film debut, young Babar, King of the Elephants, must save his homeland from certain destruction by Rataxes and his band of invading rhinos.

The film begins in the present day, during a cheerful and festive parade in the fictional city of Celesteville. All the citizens throw peanuts, sing, dress up and wave to the parade floats, including one of a large, menacing-looking elephant with a horn for a nose. The crowd is excited to see King Babar and his family (Queen Celeste, Babar's children). Later that night, Babar agrees to tell his children the story behind the festivities and where the parade's name came from.

Going back in time to when Babar was younger and his kingdom was still developing, Babar is weighed down by the formalities and diplomacy associated with being king. When doing something as basic as trying to choose a good name for a parade to celebrate Celesteville, Babar's overzealous advisors (elderly advisor Cornelius, and Pompadour, the high-strung minister of protocol), instead sing to him to encourage the process of bureaucracy, something which they both adore. Troubadour, their tiny mute elephant clerk, assists with an accompanying slideshow. Babar finds the whole thing unbearably slow and boring, but this is interrupted by a young Celeste, who runs in terrified to tell Babar that her village and all her friends and family are in danger of being attacked by Rataxes, a terrifying rhinoceros, and his many men. When Cornelius and Pompadour flat-out refuse to believe her, finding the whole idea of it silly, Celeste runs out of the palace crying. Babar chases after her and promises that he will do something to help. He orders Cornelius and Pompadour to implement an elephant army to protect the village, but they inform him that to do so properly would take at least three days.

Knowing that Cornelius and Pompadour will be reluctant to let him do anything, Babar decides to use Celeste's brother, Arthur, as a stand-in for himself so his advisors won't worry about him while he's away helping Celeste. Babar climbs out the window and escapes. Arthur dresses up as Babar and assumes the role, but quickly finds it nerve-wracking when Cornelius comes in unannounced and stands next to him, believing him to be Babar. Babar himself, meanwhile, tricks the guards into opening the palace doors and he runs away into the jungle.

Upon arriving at Celeste's village, he is horrified to discover that she was telling the truth - rhinos are lighting fire to houses and chaining up all the elephants, including Celeste's own mother. Babar tries to intervene, head-butting numerous rhinos aside, but he is knocked unconscious by a larger rhino and Celeste is thrown down a water well. When Babar wakes up the next day, he rescues Celeste from the well and the pair discover that Celeste's grandfather has survived the attack, and protected many of the village children in the process. Babar instructs them to go seek refuge at the palace, and then he and Celeste set off to rescue her mother, and the other elephants, from Rataxes' wrath. The elephants have been stripped of their clothing, tied up and used as slave labor for the building of a new rhino kingdom.

Along the way, Babar and Celeste meet a zany and playful monkey named Zephir, who gives them the location of the rhinos' base after singing a fun song with his new friends. They also meet a surprisingly helpful crocodile, named Croc, who lives within the jungle. Babar and Celeste finally arrive at the rhino's base, only to come face to face with Rataxes himself, who plans to invade Babar's kingdom by twilight. Babar worries what will become of his advisors and his kingdom if Elephantland is invaded, but he and Celeste are put in jail before they can do anything about it. Luckily they are able to escape with the help of Zephir, and they hurry back to Elephantland to save it.

Heading into the rhinos' tents, they disguise themselves as one of the warriors, asking for "special detail" of their plans for attack, but to no avail. They get away from Rataxes quickly, launching from a catapult and landing in a fountain, much to the surprise of Cornelius, Pompadour and Troubadour, who don't recognize him (they still think Arthur in disguise is the real Babar). Pompadour berates Babar and Celeste for attempting to swim in a public fountain, but then Arthur reveals himself to the advisors and Babar is reintroduced. Cornelius and Pompadour are happy to see him back, but they are horrified when the rhinos approach the kingdom, threatening to kill them if they refuse to surrender.

To buy time, Babar leads the two advisors along with him outside the palace grounds, suggesting that they come up with an answer for the impatient Rataxes about whether or not the kingdom will surrender. Babar hopes to distract Rataxes; Cornelius and Pompadour nervously attempt to get the rhino leader on-board with diplomatic protocols by singing to him about committees, which Babar expected from them. This works for a few minutes but eventually only angers Rataxes further, sending both advisors running in terror back inside the palace gates as Rataxes continues to heighten his threats. Babar comes up with a resourceful and innovative plan, and the elephant army takes some action into their hands. Together the elephants use the palace musical horn as a fake trunk for a large elephant which they have sewn. This giant elephant float appears real to the rhino soldiers, who flee in terror, only to bump into Croc and his gang of other crocodiles, who proceed to chase the rhinos and bite their behinds. Rataxes initially believes the float is a diversion to distract him from invading the palace, but when he accidentally lands on the float between its crazed-looking painted eyes, he runs away screaming into the distance.

At sunrise, Babar's friends congratulate him on saving the day and his town, but Pompadour rushes in with worry, exclaiming that the committee he and Cornelius had set up was unable to decide on a name for the parade. Cornelius orders his colleague to calm down, pointing out that Babar as the king is responsible enough to choose a good name, considering he saved the palace. The elephants are surprised to learn that their very first Victory Parade will be held during the afternoon. It has gone by that name ever since, the older Babar recalls.

As Babar finishes his tale, he finds that his children have all gone to sleep. Right after he closes the door, they re-enact scenes from the story, until their father tells them to get back to bed. This film later became the basis for the 1990's Nelvana-Ellipse television series Babar, which continued the story with the same characters.