 It was released a year later in its native Belgium, and in some European territories subsequently.A book adaptation of the film, by Anthea Bell, was published in Great Britain by Hodder and Stoughton in 1979 ().The film was first released in English in the United Kingdom by Target International in 1979, but it was not until the success of Hanna-Barbera's "The Smurfs" cartoon that "Flute" began to gain widespread attention