When I was away at Chichester, I found a new series I already love, on Netflix.
Its called A Tale Dark and Grimm, and its fantastic. Its based on the Grimm Brothers stories. But it actually tells them as they are, no fluff, just blood and guts and gore, with the original scary stuff included. Its for kids, but that doesnt matter, as that’s how the Grimm’s originally wrote them for, even if our attitudes towards what children should be reading have changed.
It has some stunning animation. Each scene has intricate detail, full of colour and life and imagination.
It has some fantastic characters, including Hansel and Gretel, but also lovable ones like the Turnip family or dark villains like the nice man.It even has two ravens called Jacob and Wilhelm (the Grimm Brothers names) telling the story as narrators, which I only just noticed but makes me love this show even more. And it shows children being heroes, which you don’t often see, except perhaps in A Series of Unfortunate Events. It has humour, but also tragic moments, and you feel it with the characters, in the animation.
It tells the stories in their true form, keeping mainly to the original. including Hansel and Gretel, Faithful John/Johannes. But it also takes on some of the more unknown tales; like several Grimms tales where a group of children are turned to birds, and several others around being sold to the devil and needing three hairs/asking three things to get free, or travelling to the moon, sun and stars to find something/someone. There’s mention of Red Riding Hood, and Jack and a Beanstalk, but also new things like the Mother Tree, which I thought was a great addition.
It also had a great soundtrack, and even included audio clues like the rain and the sun and moon. It had action, and danger, but also love and kindness. I liked how it ended, with the stories continuing on for the ravens, and not everything ending happily. I really enjoyed it, and was sad it ended. I’m always a bit nervous of trying new things, but that was a good choice.
