Grim Tales(1989–1991)

The Bremen Town Musicians

When a brainy donkey overhears the horrible farmer deciding to mash him up into glue because he was getting a bit old, the donkey decides to leave the night before the mashing and become a musician in a town called Bremen. During his escape he teams up with the farm dog and cat that also decide to become musicians. Apparently the farmer thinks they are getting too old as well and plans to do horrible things to them. The farmer plans to cut off the dog's head, put it on a stick and use it as a brush to clean the pigsty with. As for the cat, he plans on cutting him up into strings to make a tennis racket. Because it is so dark they're escape attempt fails and the next mourning they are spotted by the rooster, ""COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO! HEY EVERYBODY! THE DOCKEY AND THE DOG AND THE CAT ARE ALL ESCAPING! BUT KEEP IT UNDER YOUR HAT! COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!"" Furious the farmer wakes up and sharpens his knife to kill the rooster, giving him no choice but to escape with the others. ""I'M ESCAPING TOO! I'M

The Witch Among Thorns

There was once a servant called Stan who worked for three whole years, but never did his wicked master gave him any payment. And no sooner had the three years ended the master fired Stan and gave him nothing but three balls of fluff as a paycheck. Poor Stan who knew nothing about money though three pieces of fluff was a good thing and took them on his travels. On his adventure, Stan encountered an elf sitting under a tree who dreamed of even having one bit of fluff. Being good hearted, Stan gave the little elf under the tree all his fluff. So for each fluffy piece, the elf granted Stan three wishes. Firstly, Stan wished for a bow and arrow that no matter what will always go where ever he aims at. Secondly, he wishes for a fiddle that when he plays it everyone will be forced to get up and dance. And third and finally, Stan wishes that if he asks a favour of someone that someone will have to do what he asks. In a puff of blue smoke the elf disappears leaving Stan hold a bow, a arrow, a f

The Griffin

There was once a King who had an only daughter, but the princess was always ill. So ill that she was covered in green stripes and thought she was a deck chair. No doctor had ever been able to cure her. One night when her father had folded her up for the night, he dreamed that his daughter would get well by eating an apple. So he proclaimed that whoever brought an apple that would make the princess better could marry her and take his place as the king. A farmer sent his eldest son to bring a basket of apples down to the palace. But on the way he met an ugly dirty little man who asked what he was carrying in his basket. ""If you must know, you nosey little bogy, it's full of slimey toads legs"" the eldest son told him, the little man went off saying ""If you say so, so shall it be"". The eldest arrived at the palace and boasted that he had the apples that would cure the princess. But when the king opened the basket it was ful of slimey toads legs still jumping around. The king was so mad tha

The Frog Prince

The Boots of Buffalo Leather

There was once a soldier called Trousers, who wasn't scared of anything. But when the army retired he was left without a job. Poor Trousers had been in the army all his life and didn't know how to do anything except kill people in the first degree. He tried getting a job as a baker but tried to kill the loafs of bread, he tried getting a job as a gardener but tried using the loarn mower as a weapon, and so one and so on. So he was left pennyless with only two things, one was a pair of boots made of buffalo leather, the other was a magic trick he could do on Thursdays which had been given to him by a troll which he accepted in return to stop trashing the troll to a spec. One day Trousers found himself lost in the woods when he saw a sad crying man in polished leather shoes and a green coat sitting by a tree. Trousers thought about killing the man but realised it wouldn't be polite without first saying hello. So Trousers gave 'Shiny Boots' a friendly poke in the eye and 'G'day' and then

The Gnome

There was once a very strange King who collected trees from around the world. His favourite tree was a chocolate tree that he kept in his garden. He loved this tree that he proclaimed a new law: ""If anyone eats a single chocolate from this beautiful chocolate tree, by magic they shall instantly disappear one hundred miles down under the ground."" But this only taunted his three daughters who really loved to eat chocolates, and they spent six months looking out the window hungrily at the choc that grew on the branches. Eventually the youngest princess came to the conclusion that they're father loved them too much to just magic them under the earth, and they all ran out to eat. But no sooner had they plucked one each all three daughters suffered the fate their dad had fortold... The King later discovered that his daughters were lost, and his tree reduced to a pile of chocolate wrappers. The royal stoned magician explains that the tree will never grow again unless his daughters come back.

King Thrushbeard

There was once a spoiled and unbarable princess called Beral, she was so unbarable that her father the King decided that she could get married so she could live in someone else's house and leave him in peace. The next mourning kings, barons, princes, emperors and a bus conductor all arrived at the palace so Beral could choose one to be her husband. But Beral was awful, she walked passed the long line of men saying such rude things about them, when she finally comes to a King with a crooked little chin. She made fun of him saying he looked like a Thrush and called him King Thrushbeard before throwing one of the servants at him. Furious, Beral's father hands his daughter to the first begger that comes to the door. The begger made her walk for miles across the country side, passed beautiful cities and everytime Beral asked ""Who does this belong to?"" the begger would say ""It belongs to King Thrushbeard, if you'd have married him it would have been yours"". And Beral would say ""Oh no, why di

The Turnip

Once apon a time there were two brothers, one was called Septimus and the other was called Basil. Septimus was very rich and spent the days riding around in an expensive carriage spitting grap pips out the window. Basi; on the other hand was so poor he had to spend the days as a farmer planting turnip seeds. One seed he planted grew bigger, and bigger and seemed as if it was never going to stop. Eventually the turnip was so enourmous that Basil knew he had to show it off, so he put the giant vegitable in his cart and took it to the palace to show The King. However, the king was so senile that he thought Basil was giving him the Turnip as a preasant. The king takes the massive turnip and in return gives Basil gold, medows and hurds of animals; which Basil delightfully accepts. But whe Septimus heard of what lucky Basily got for one single turnip he became extremely jealous and wondered how he could get the King to give him loads of lands, livestock and riches. Knowing what his brother g

The Little Peasant

There was once a village, a village called ""Horrid on Sea"", where everyone was rich, well everyone expect for one little man who was poor. All the rich peasants laughed at him and called him ""The Stupid Little Peasant"" and threw bits of lard and rubbish at him, because they didn't like poor people. The rich fokes had wonderful houses, feilds full of cows as far as the eye could see and they all each had six fifty pound notes with jam on for breakfast. But the Little Peasant was so poor he had to eat twigs with no jam. And when he and his wife had eaten all the twigs from miles around they had to start eating the floor of their hut. The peasant was sad to see his wife with mouthfulls of splinters every night, so one night instead of eating his piece of the floor he carved it into a little wooden carf asnd gave it to his wife as a preasant as she had always wanted to have some cows. The wifes loves it and suggests they put it out to graise with all the other cows of the village. So the n

The Three Feathers

Once upon a time there was a king who had ruled wisely, but he knew his time had come. The king had three sons, the two oldest considered themselves more cleaver and wise than the King and branded their youngest brother as 'stupid'. To decide who will be the next heir to the throne, the King sends his three sons on a quest for the world's most beautiful carpet. To find what they are looking for the sons must follow three feathers. The two 'cleaver sons' follow their features North and South, while the feather of the 'stupid prince' leads him to a trap door which leads him down to a chamber ruled by a frog. The frog magically uses the feather to create a stunning carpet. The two so-called cleaver princes on the other hand, one of them steals an old blanket from a homeless person, the other steals a snotty hanky. Angry over loosing, the two sons insist on a second test to prove who should be King. This time the sons must use the feathers to find the most beautiful and expensive ring in t

The Spirit in the Bottle

There was once a wood cutter who's wife had died and had an only son. Despite being so poor the wood cutter was determind to send to the boy to school. But the money he saved wasn't quite enough and just when the boy had learned which way around his cap went, the money ran out and the head master kicked the boy out immeadiately. Unemployed the son, much to the father's complaining, becomes a wood cutter like his old man by borrowing his neighbour's axe. One day whilst exploring the forest, the ever complaining dad grows tired and suggests the two of them rest. The boy goes on ahead but while travelling he hears a voice coming from a bottle burried beneath an oak tree. Inside the bottle is a spirit demanding to be set free. The boy does so and at once the creature grows fifty feet tall and tries to straggle the young boy. But the child managed to trick McCurius the Spirit into slipping back inside the bottle again, giving him the chance to slip the cork back in. The spirit crys realisin

The Hare and the Hedgehog

While taking a walk out in the field to steal some of the farmer's turnips, a Hedgehog is met by a Hare stealing some cabbages. The Hare being very boastful and egocentric makes fun of Mr. Hedgehog's legs considering him to be less important. This made the hedgehog furiously angry and drove him to challenge the Hare to a race, betting a gold coin and silken handkerchief. Before the big race the Hedgehog goes home with a plan up his sleeve, he gets his busy housewife to pose as himself and hide behind the hedge at the bottom of the field where the finish line is... The race begins and the Hare takes off, but the Hedgehog doesn't move. The Hare runs faster and faster down the field but when he reaches the bottom of the field, Mrs Hedgehog jumps out ad shouts ""I am here already"". The Hare was thunderstruck; he thought it was Mr. Hedgehog because most hedgehogs look alike. ""This will not do!"" he shouted, ""No this will not do at all. The race can not be run fairly we must have the race agai

The Valiant Little Tailor

There was once a tailor about to sit down to his toast and jam, but his food attracted the flies and as soon as they smelled the jam they swarmed down in a cloud. ""Hey! Who invited you, get away, get away!"" shouted the little tailor, but the flies didn't understand a word of English and sat where they were. Not wanting to have anyone play around in his lunch, the tailor pulled up a thick piece of cloth from under the work table and whacked it down on the flies. Underneath he found seven dead flies. Proud of himself the tailor made himself a belt with the words 'Seven at One Blow' and decides to show himself off to the world. On his way the tailor found a chicken stuck in a bush so he helped it out and put it in his pocket thinking it might come in useful. The road the tailor took lead him up a mountain but when he reached the top of it he saw an ugly giant who sat picking his toe nails and taking a look at the world. The trailor walked bravely up to him and asked if he'd like to come f

Rapunzel

A couple fall foul of a witch and must give up their daughter to her; years later she is imprisoned in a tower.

The Fisherman and His Wife

The tale of an honest fisherman and his greedy wife who find an enchanted, wish-granting fish.

The Three Little Men in the Wood

Hansel and Gretel

Rumpelstiltskin

The Twelve Huntsmen

Sweet Porridge