Animated Hero Classics is an Edutainment animated series released straight to video from 1991 to 2005.
As the name suggests, it is a series of animated biographies of various famous figures in history, such as Louis Pasteur, Joan of Arc, Pocahontas, and Florence Nightingale.
Tropes:
- Actually, I Am Him: When Florence Nightingale and her team of nurses arrive in Constantinople, they’re greeted by a man who asks to speak with the man in charge. Florence tells him she’s in charge, to which the man says he’s looking for an “F. Nightingale.” She then reiterates, she’s in charge and the F stands for Florence.
- Adaptational Villainy: For whatever reason, the episode on George Washington portrays him as having had to deal both with the British and butt heads with higher ups on the Rebels' side, including the Inspector General (here portrayed as a by-the-book type who is unable to reconcile his book-learning with the realities of the battlefield and tries to have Washington removed for calling him out).
- Adapted Out: Louis Pasteur’s four daughters are mentioned, but not his son, Jean Baptiste.
- Age Lift:
- Joseph Meister was nine when he received the rabies vaccine and made a full recovery. The animation depicts him as a young teen.
- Surprisingly averted with Pocahontas, who first appears as a young girl and slowly ages throughout the episode.
- Ambiguously Christian: Several figures mention God or make references to praying in their respective episodes, but many times this is the farthest it goes.
- Animation Bump: While the animation is never poor, the quality often shifts throughout the same episode. Most of the time the animation has flat colors with minimal shading, then suddenly there will be a shot that looks like it came from a Disney film. These moments are usually reserved for action sequences or quiet character moments.
- Artistic License – History: In real life, it was Joseph Meister’s mother who brought him to see Louis Pasteur. In the animation, Joseph is brought to him by his father, and his mother is never seen nor mentioned.
- Annoying Arrows: Averted; Joan of Arc is seriously wounded when an arrow strikes her in the chest, as she was in real life. She survives, but it's clear she's in agony and must force herself to keep going so as not to dissuade the troops.
- Award-Bait Song: Each episode had at least one of these, often repeated during the end credits.
- Based on a Great Big Lie: The episode about Pocahontas depicts the popular myth that she saved John Smith from being killed by her father.
- Bittersweet Ending: Joan of Arc’s episode ends with her army victorious in battle, but not before her being arrested and burned at the stake as a heretic.
- Bloodless Carnage:
- Averted with Joan of Arc; when she pulls the arrow out of her chest, blood trickles down with it.
- When Joseph Meister is bitten by the rabid wolf, not a drop of blood is to be seen.
- Bookends: Abraham Lincoln’s episode begins and ends in the same location, Lincoln giving a speech as he leaves via the train station at his hometown of Springfield, Illinois, to his coffin being delivered to that very same train station.
- Deuteragonist: Helen Keller’s episode is just as much about her teacher Anne Sullivan as it is her.
- Downer Beginning: Helen Keller’s episode opens with her happily enjoying a day out with her parents, only to suddenly become feverish and unresponsive. In the next scene, a doctor informs her heartbroken parents that the fever has left her blind and deaf.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Helen Keller’s hands are held under water running from a pump while Anne spells "water" into her hand. After a few seconds of resisting, Helen suddenly freezes, blinking a few times (and showing the audience her eyes for the first time since the prologue) and spells "water" back to Anne.
- Eyes Always Shut: Helen Keller is depicted this way after she loses her sight (and hearing) as a toddler. She only opens them for her "Eureka!" Moment.
- The Hero Dies:
- The Pocahontas episode ends with Pocahontas dying of smallpox on a ship en route to North America, leaving her father, husband, and young son.
- The Joan of Arc episode ends with her execution.
- Abraham Lincoln’s last appearance in his episode is welcoming Fredrick Douglas to the White House, and the immediate narration describes his assassination one month later. His coffin can be seen carried to the train as his widow and youngest son cry into each other’s arms.
- Heroic Dog: Joseph Meister is introduced with a shaggy dog always by his side, who always refers to his dog as "Boy". When they confront a rabid wolf attacking their flock of sheep, the dog leaps to his owner’s defense. Given that he’s never seen again, it’s sufficient to say that the poor dog succumbed to rabies.
- Historical Hero Upgrade:
- John Smith is portrayed as one of the few good-hearted men in Jamestown and showed sympathy to the Powhatan tribe, which is the opposite of what many accounts describe.
- The series portrays Christopher Columbus as an intrepid explorer who wanted to prove the world was round.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Lodovico delle Colombe is portrayed as jealous rival of Galileo who wanted him to be put to death as a heretic, eventually forging evidence for his trial, and being disappointed he only got house arrest. In real life, while he and Galileo were rivals due to their oft-opposing theories, there’s no evidence of the level of villainy shown in the cartoon.
- How They Treat the Help: Young Florence Nightingale is introduced offering her family’s maid a ride in her own carriage, and staying with her for the evening to help her care for her sick husband.
- Important Haircut: Joan of Arc is first introduced with waist-length hair. She cuts it into a chin-length bob upon joining the army.
- Kneel Before Frodo: When Florence Nightingale returns from the sick tent on the front lines, all the soldiers in the hospital rise and salute her, including the man who just moments before refused to salute his superior officer due to a bad leg.
- My God, What Have I Done?: All the persecutors at Joan of Arc’s execution eventually become horrified and sad that they have condemned an innocent young girl to death. One of the most prominent was an English soldier who witnessed Joan of Arc praying for the English Army, and pleaded with her to lie in order to escape execution.
- Narrator: A narrator closes out almost all of the episodes, mostly to describe what the focus figure accomplished after the episode’s events.
- Outliving One's Offspring:
- Chief Powhattan is shown to have outlived his beloved Pocahontas, and is seen scattering petals over the side of the ship in mourning.
- Louis Pasteur's assistant believes the reason he is working so hard to create vaccines is "for the sake of his daughters." When the person he's talking to expresses confusion, saying he only has one daughter, his assistant sadly states "He had four."note
- Right before leaving for Washington D.C, Abraham Lincoln mentions in his speech that he not only raised his children in Springfield, "but buried one." This is a reference to Edward Baker Lincoln, his second born son who died at three years old. Then the Lincoln family would go on to lose eleven-year-old Willie to typhoid fever, to which his heartbroken father has to break the news to his youngest son Tad.
- Real-Person Epilogue: Episodes are usually concluded with a narrator summing up the subject’s most noteworthy accomplishments, and featuring a fade transition from the animated depiction to either a real photograph or live-action footage of them.
- Religious Edutainment: The series was sometimes classified as this, due to some of the historical figures either being very devout (such as Joan of Arc) or being at least partly responsible for a religion’s survival (the Maccabees).
- Say My Name: Helen Keller’s parents can only helplessly cry “Helen! Helen!” when their young daughter suddenly becomes unresponsive.
- Savage Wolves: It’s widely believed that Joseph Meister caught rabies from a dog attack, but the series portrays the attack stemming from a lone wolf instead. Meister first discovered the wolf attacking all of the sheep and tries to defend the flock, but he and his dog end up savagely attacked until his father shoots the wolf when it tried to land the finishing blow. They later find out the hard way that the wolf had rabies.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Helen Keller’s hair is shaggy and unkempt due to nobody being able to brush it for her. When Anne Sullivan takes her away for a brief time to teach her, part of her new routine includes brushing her hair. When the two return to her parents, Helen looks much more presentable, with her hair brushed and pinned up in ringlets.
- So Proud of You: Florence Nightingale’s parents, who were initially against her becoming a nurse, later write to her while she is working at a battlefield hospital, telling her she makes her country and her family very proud.
- Tough Love: Anne Sullivan’s teaching of Helen Keller ultimately falls under this; she insists Helen eat from her own plate with utensils instead of grabbing food from others, she takes her plate away if Helen refuses to comply, and sternly insists that Helen at least try to do things on her own rather than let others do it for her. It does seem to work, but one instance of Mr. Keller retrieving her napkin for her instead of letting her pick it up nearly undoes all of it.