Grimm & Grimm is an animated children's television series, based on stories based on fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and other notable authors. The series was a co-production of Canadian production company Magic World in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Gannett and TF1. The series first aired in Canada on CBC Television in the summer of 1985, and began airing in syndication in the United States in September of that year. The cast of characters is made up of anthropomorphisms of various animals, with the main characters being the Brothers Grimm themselves.
Plot[]
The series follows the traveling brothers Jacob and Wilhelm (both ferrets), who travel the world and encounter and document strange goings-on, which turn to be the events of various classic fairy tales. Later in their journeys, they are joined by Hans Christian Andersen (a Great Dane), another traveling storyteller, and Princess Rapunzel and Prince Tobias (both lions), a royalist couple. Their brother Ludwig Grimm communicates with them through telegraph and helps with writing their essays and articles.
Cast[]
- Jim Henshaw as Jacob Grimm
- John Stocker as Wilhelm Grimm
- Chris Wiggins as Hans Christian Andersen
- Hannah Marsan as Princess Rapunzel
- Martin Berger as Prince Tobias
- Eric Peterson as Ludwig Grimm
- Nicholas Pennell as Friedrich Von Savigny
Production[]
Development[]
Paul Bourne conceived the idea in a meeting with Joseph Haddad and Michael Warren at Magic World's Toronto headquarters.
Casting[]
Bourne selected Jim Henshaw and John Stocker to voice the Brothers Grimm at the suggestion of Martin Berger, who declined to play the role of Jacob. Berger would eventually be cast as Prince Tobias. Bourne also went to the Stratford Festival to try and recruit actors, managing to secure the services of Nicholas Pennell, Frances Hyland and Domini Blythe for roles in the series.
Music[]
Guido & Maurizio De Angelis composed the show's theme song, performing both the English and Italian versions (being credited for the latter under their Oliver Onions pseudonym).
International broadcast[]
| Country | Broadcaster |
|---|---|
 Brazil
|
SBT, Boomerang |
 Canada
|
CBC, Radio-Canada, YTV, Télé J, Treehouse, Télépetite |
 Denmark
|
TV 2, MiniChannel |
 Finland
|
Kolmoskanava, MiniChannel |
 France
|
TF1 |
 Germany
|
ZDF, K-Toon |
 Hungary
|
MiniChannel |
 Iceland
|
RÚV, MiniChannel |
 Israel
|
IETV, Arutz HaYeladim, Hop! Channel |
 Italy
|
Italia 1, Canale 5, TVI 6 |
 Japan
|
NHK |
 Kuboia
|
Vision One (Bumper's Block, Tiny Vision) |
 Mexico
|
Imevisión, Canal Once, Boomerang |
 Netherlands
|
VARA, Kindernet, KBV/K-Blub!/Blub! |
 Norway
|
NRK1, MiniChannel |
 Poland
|
TVP1, MiniChannel |
 Portugal
|
RTP1, RTP2, Canal Panda |
 South Africa
|
Bop TV, SABC 1 |
 Sweden
|
TV3, MiniChannel |
 United Kingdom
|
BBC (Children's BBC), TCC, Sky Living (Tiny Living), Pop |
 United States
|
Syndication |
Merchandise[]
One of its most notable licensed products was Grimm & Grimm Cereal from Quaker Oats, which was sold from 1985 until 1993.
Home media[]
In the United States, many videotapes of episodes were released by Celebrity Home Entertainment under their Just for Kids line in the remainder of the 1980's well into the 1990's before the rights were eventually transferred to Lyrick Studios (who released videotapes until shortly before the distributor's closure in 2001).
Video games[]
In 1994, an adventure game was made and published by Playfair Interactive, entitled Grimm & Grimm's Fairy Tale Feast. Released for personal computers and disc-based systems of the time, it was one of the very few game adaptations of the series but easily the most successful and well-remembered, getting re-released on occasion in the intervening years. Of further note is that Bourne himself wrote the game's plot and the voice cast reprised their roles.
A second computer game (Grimm & Grimm: No Easy Pea-sy Princess to Please-y) was released by Playfair in 1996. Loosely based on The Princess and the Pea, the game is an entry in the publisher's Abra-Cademy Adventures series (deviating from Fairy Tale Feast mainly in terms of using traditionally-animated graphics).