The Fairytaler (Danish: Der var engang..., German: WunderZunderFunkelZauber – Die Märchen von Hans Christian Andersen) is 2002-2005 Danish-British-German animated anthology series based on the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen. The series celebrates Andersen's 200th birthday.
Tropes:
- 0% Approval Rating: The king and queen from "The Tinderbox". When they deny a soldier sentenced to death his last wish, the crowd becomes furious and demands that the soldier has the right to do so. The rulers are reluctant to grant the soldier's wish to smoke a pipe, which summons magic dogs. When the rulers are gone because of dogs, the people quickly accept the soldier as the new king.
- Abusive Parents:
- In "The Flying Trunk", Sven's father is an old greedy Jerkass. And despite his wealth, he is cheapskate to such an extent that Ebenezer Scrooge, Scrooge McDuck and even Uncle Frank would be shocked.
- In "The Tinderbox", after when the king was told that his daughter would marry a soldier, he locked her up in a tower where no one can enter. His wife, the queen, is just as nasty as he is.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: In "Thumbelina", the swallow appeared and became friends with Thumbelina after she was abandoned by the cockchafer, while in the original tale she met the swallow in mole's house.
- Adaptational Heroism: In "The Snow Queen", while the titular character is still a villain, she admits that Kai is needed to break the curse that has hardened her heart. After breaking the curse, she becomes a good-natured dryad.
- Adaptational Intelligence: In "The Flea and the Professor", the cannibals are quite sophisticated and think that professor comes from the backwards culture.
- Adaptational Modesty: At the climax of "The Emperor's New Clothes", the Emperor isn't entirely naked, but wears a pair boxers.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In "The Ugly Duckling", titular character's siblings are very nice to him and are upset that Duckling is gone.
- Adaptational Villainy: In "The Ugly Duckling", the wild ducks are such jerks that they even make a deal with the farmyard cat to eat the ugly duckling because they want him to leave them alone.
- Adaptation Expansion:
- In "The Hardy Tin Soldier" Jack-in-the-box bite off his spring to in order to be free.
- In "The Wild Swans", the king divorces the witch and banishes her.
- Adapted Out: The show itself is probably the most faithful adaptation of Andersen's works, but religious aspects of his tales are almost absent.
- Anachronism Stew: In "The Tinderbox", executioner tells the soldier that smoking pipe isn't good for health. The episode just like other episodes takes place in 19th century, when the harmful effects of nicotine on health were not considered. Justified, because it was probably the Rule of Funny and dark humor that decided it.
- Bittersweet Ending: Andersen's stories in this version are very faithful adaptations of their source materials and keep their bittersweet endings:
- In "The Fir Tree" titular character gets burned, but is glad when his spirit cames back to the forest.
- In "The Little Mermaid", the titular mermaid loses her beloved prince when he marries another princess, dooming her to dissolve into sea foam unless she kills prince, which she can't bring herself to do. But because her love was so pure and selfless, she lives on as a spirit of the air.
- Boyfriend-Blocking Dad (and Mom): The king and queen from "The Tinderbox" are furious at the thought of their daughter marrying an ordinary soldier. So much so that they sentenced the soldier (whom the princess fell in love with) to hang and denied him the right to make a last wish.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Princess of cannibals from "The Flea and the Professor" is ruthless ruler that even her father is afraid of her.
- Call-Forward: In "The Old Street Lamp" we see young Andersen writing his stories with hopes that his works will be successful.
- Cannot Spit It Out: In "The Princess and the Pea", the prince tells his parents he wants a "real" princess with a "special something", causing them frustration as they can’t find anyone who meets his standards. It isn’t until the climax that he’s able to explain what he’s really looking for: a princess who’s not afraid to be herself around him, and whom he can be himself with as well.
- Deadpan Snarker: In "The Golden Treasure", the drum often makes remarks that no one hears.
- Disc-One Final Boss: In the "The Tinderbox" we have the old woman who lures soldiers to be killed. However, she is quickly killed by the soldier. After that he goes to country ruled by the true villains, king and his wife.
- Dub Species Change: Hooded crows from "The Snow Queen" and dead crow found by Jack from "Jack the Fool" are translated as ravens in Polish dub.
- Even Evil Has Standards: In the "The Ugly Duckling", after the farmyard cat fails to kill Ugly Duckling, the wild ducks who they promised Ugly Duckling as a sacrifice for the cat are trying to wriggle out of the deal. The cat does not like this behavior.
- Faint in Shock: In "The Travelling Companion", the princess faints after breaking from troll's spell.
- Fat and Skinny:
- The brothers of Jack in "Jack the Fool".
- Lars and Stieg in "The Golden Treasure".
- Fourth-Date Marriage: The prince and princess in "The Princess and the Pea" marry a week after their first meeting - though they agree to spend some time traveling and studying together before any marital matters.
- Framing Device: Andersen tells his stories to children while riding as passengers in a horse-drawn carriage.
- From the Mouths of Babes: In "The Emperor's New Clothes", when the crowd realizes the little girl is right that the Emperor has no clothes on, they all laugh and jeer at the Emperor.
- Graceful Loser: In "The Jumper", the cricket accepts his loss in the competition claiming that admitting defeat is the mark of a good soldier.
- Hair-Raising Hare: In "The Fir Tree", the nasty hare deliberately hops on the top of a young fir tree, much to its annoyance.
- Hand Blast: In "The Tinderbox", the soldier blocks one of old woman's fireballs with his saber.
- Heel–Face Turn: In the "The Golden Treasure", Lars and Stieg in childhood often make fun of Peter (who was able to fight back effectively). When they all grew up, Lars and Stieg, still being mischievous, became good friends with Peter.
- Henpecked Husband: In "The Gardener and the Family", the aristocrat is dominated by his loud, obnoxious and obese wife.
- Hypocritical Humor: In "The Tinderbox", before executing the sentence, the executioner tells the soldier that smoking is harmful to your health.
- Killed Off for Real:
- In "The Tinderbox", the soldier during the brief fight with old woman kills her with his saber.
- In "The Travelling Companion", John's companion beheaded the troll, after asking if he can have a word.
- Killed Offscreen:
- In "The Tinderbox", the soldier finds the tinderbox in skeleton of another soldier, realising it's the work of an old woman demanding the tinderbox. Later old woman reveals that she is a powerful witch and he isn't the first soldier she has asked for a "favor".
- In "The Travelling Companion", the king shows John the cemetery where the rivals for the princess's hand, killed by her, are buried. At the end John's companion brings the head of a troll he previously killed.
- Kindhearted Simpleton:
- Old couple from "What The Old Man Does Is Right". They don't care about problems and prefer bartering to money, which amazes the foreign richmen. And when they get a bag of gold from them, they use it to plug a hole in the roof.
- Jack Landgren from "Jack the Fool" is cheerful absent-minded ditz using a goat as a mount. However, he doesn't care about it at all.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The spoiled and cruel imperial princess from "The Swineherd" is thrown out and stripped of her title by her father-emperor when he catches her having kiss with a swineherd (who was a disguised prince in love with her). And she is rejected by the prince who understood how evil she is. The prince at least gives her money to buy food and a house, which she doesn't appreciate.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Played for Laughs in "The Galoshes of Fortune", when the police seargent being under the spells magic galoshes, got fabulous long mane like Fabio Lanzoni.
- Loving a Shadow: In The Flying Trunk, after the titular trunk is broken and Sven is lamenting losing his fortune and his chance to be with the princess, it suddenly dawns on him that he never even learned the princess' name. This realization leads him to have an epiphany that he'd gotten too caught up in wanting to impress others and living a life of luxury, when what he truly loved was making and telling stories.
- Manipulative Bitch:
- In "The Swineherd", the imperial princess is snobbish brat using their ladies-in-waiting to gain advantage.
- In "The Wild Swans", the witch uses her manipulation to make Elisa and her brothers disgusting in the eyes of the king.
- Must Make Her Laugh: In "Jack the Fool" titular character gains love of princess by making her laugh and having good times.
- Named by the Adaptation:
- In "The Flying Trunk" merchant's son is known as Sven.
- Toys and their owners in "The Lovers" also got names.
- Parental Favoritism: In the "Jack the Fool", Mr. Landgren clearly favorites his two oldest sons, and considers Jack a disgrace to the family and forbids him to go before Princess for fear of embarrassment.
- Prince Charmless: In "The Princess and the Pea" the prince is a bored and blasé person, but ultimately a decent person.
- Princesses Prefer Pink: Imperial princess in "The Swineherd".
- Rebellious Princess:
- In "The Flying Trunk", the sultan princess is not fond to marry Sven (who is mistaken for an angel). And even she states that she doesn't know what the message of his fairy tale is.
- In "The Princess and the Pea", the alleged princess gets fed up with prince’s parents, then yells what she thinks he must be like.
- Servile Snarker: The royal butler in "The Princess and the Pea" dryly and stealthily insults his employers, and feigns back injuries to get out of anything he doesn’t want to do.
- Setting Update: Zigzagged. While all the stories take place in the early 19th century, as Andersen lived, the intro/framing device is set in modern Denmark. It's similar with the children listening to Andersen, who near the end of the intro/framing device move back in time with him.
- She's a Man in Japan: In Polish dub, the titular character from "The Fir Tree" is female, as Polish word for fir tree choinka is feminine.
- Stealth Insult: The butler in "The Princess and the Pea" sneakily insults the king and queen as they lament how troublesome princes are these days, and how the townspeople are depressed. The butler quips that he blames "the parents," and the government, respectively.
- Toon Transformation: The ending of the intro/framing device has Mr. Andersen and children to whom he tells his stories transform into 2D versions of themselves via magic (as well as going back in time into early 19th century with him, with appropriate clothing for that era).
- Wicked Stepmother: In "The Wild Swans", the witch after enchanting and marrying the king is very cruel to his children, even before she turns them into swans. She even gives them cake, just to turn it into sand, saying that children must use imagination.
- Wicked Witch:
- The old woman from "The Tinderbox" turns out to be one.
- The witch from "The Wild Swans" uses her magic mostly to abuse her stepchildren.