The first one seems to take place in Australia (they fly over Sydney at one point), and involves a flying bus, a house in the middle of nowhere and a treasure, I saw this in French, not in English although I know it was dubbed into French.  I think it was around 1981 or 1982 that I saw it, and I really want to see it in English from the beginning.

The second movie I saw around 1985, it involves two kids and they chase this animal into the forest after it's stolen money, all the animals they interact with are animated, so it's a mix of live action (kids, forest, etc) and animation (animals).

The first one may have actually been an Australian tv series called Professor Poopsnaggle. It had a flying bus and a theme tune I LOVED as a kid!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5hMNnXgH34

The first one may have actually been an Australian tv series called Professor Poopsnaggle. It had a flying bus and a theme tune I LOVED as a kid!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5hMNnXgH34




That looks like it, but I could've sworn I saw it in the really early '80s in French.  Any idea where to actually find it?

Well Professor Poopsnaggle was a spin-off from the tv series Secret Valley from 1984 (which I also loved)... and that was taken from a 1980 movie of the same name. So yes, this sounds like it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqdRrmaXgFo

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0220267/