This character sheet will cover the regular characters of the French metaseries Il Était Une Fois...
Maestro
- Voiced by: Roger Carel (original French), Josef Meinrad (German), Gino Donato (Italian), Stanisław Brudny (Polish), Juan Domingo Méndez (Latin-American Spanish), Francisco Sánchez (European Spanish)
- Author Avatar: He's supposed to be based on the series' creator: Albert Barillé.
- Cool Old Guy: A wise, kind, very smart man with lots of wisdom to spare.
- Friend to All Children: He often hangs out with Pierrot and Petit Gros.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: If Episode 14 is to be believed, Maestro had blond hair in his youth.
- Hammerspace Hair: Maestro tends to hold large objects in his beard hair.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Pierre and a lesser degree Le Gros, though he also has shades of this to Pierrot.
- I Was Quite a Looker: He appears as Leonardo da Vinci in the episode about the Italian Renaissance, from his youth
◊ to his old age◊. - Senior Sleep-Cycle: Is often shown dozing off in Life.
- Wizard Beard: Such a glorious one, it's as if he was made of it!
Pierre
Another of his designs
- Voiced by: Roger Carel (original French), Joachim Tennstedt (German), Paolo Bessegato (Italian), Salvador Nájar and Óscar Bonfiglio (Latin-American Spanish), Antonio García Moral (European Spanish)
- Audience Surrogate: As the character whose POV is the dominant one.
- Brainy Brunette: Can more or less keep up with Maestro's brainstorming, and some episodes show him as a skilled inventor or mechanic on his own right.
- Broken Tears: He weeps after Jumbo is killed in the Crusades episode.
- Demoted to Extra: An exaggerated version of this trope, he is the main character in the first series, then a member of the supporting cast in the second one, he barely appears in the third one, and onwards the hero almost systematically has the traits of his son and not his.
- Dub Name Change: For some reason, he is called "Bert" in Episodes 10, 11, and 13 of the English dub. He's also called "Adam" in the German dub.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: His original character design is only kept in Once Upon a Time... Man, onwards he keeps his Once Upon a Time Space design with some tweaks from time to time.
- The Everyman: He is the average man. He is called the “standard” by the narrator in the Cro-Magnon episode.
- Good Parents: To Pierrot and, when she's there, Little Pierrette. (Though at times he's a bit overprotective to the latter.)
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Him and Le Gros, yes.
- Nice Guy: Tends to be pleasant to everyone, unless the plot calls it.
- Official Couple: Pretty much all of his incarnations are Happily Married to Pierrette.
- Perpetual Smiler: As his character image can attest.
- Walking Shirtless Scene / Mr. Fanservice: His Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon incarnations.
Pierrette
Slight design changes from Life
- Voiced by: Annie Balestra (original French), Marianne Lutz (German), Alida Cappellini (Italian), Gloria Rocha (Latin-American Spanish), Ana María Saizar (European Spanish)
- A Day in the Limelight: In the French Revolution episode, she gets to lead the town's women into The Bastille. In the Belle Epoque one, she is shown as a promising seamstress and designer. She takes the lead during the Russian revolution as well, pretty much doing the same as her French revolution incarnation. She is also in charge of the Confederation of Omega in the "Space" series.
- Dub Name Change: She is named “Flor” in the Spanish dub and "Eva" in the German dub.
- Girl Next Door: Her incarnations tend to fit in here.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: A sweet and plucky Nice Girl with curly blond hair.
- Plucky Girl: She's not without her backbone, specially in the French Revolution and more modern times.
- Women Are Wiser: A rather practical lady, also tends to poke Pierre when he's Not So Above It All.
Pierrot
Design changes from Life
- Voiced by: Vincent Ropion (original French), Patrick Elias (German), Fabrizio Manfredi (Italian), Eduardo Tejedo (Latin-American Spanish), Conchita Núñez (European Spanish)
- Ascended Extra: He becomes the main character in the second series.
- Dub Name Change: He's called "Hans" in the German dub.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Basically, Pierre with slicked-back hair and freckles. In the Viking episode, he shows up as an adult and looks exactly like Pierre.
- Youthful Freckles: Whenever the series remembers that he has them
Petite Pierrette
Design changes from Life
- Voiced by: Annie Balestra (original French), Antonella Baldini (Italian), Alma Nuri (Latin-American Spanish)
- Ascended Extra: Since Once Upon a Time... Life, she seems to appear more frequently.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Like her father, her original character design was only kept in the first series.
- Out of Focus: She barely gets any screentime until Life. She would randomly disappear from the household in several episodes of the first series as if she never even existed.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Since Pierrot resembles their dad, she's pretty much a younger Pierrette.
- Tender Tears: In the Cro-Magnon episode, she cries over finding a cow feeling sad and lonely.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the Tomboy: occasionally mischievous, obtuse and flapper-like; to Psi's Girly Girl: who is more calm and intellectual
Le Gros
- Voiced by: Yves Barsacq (original French), Michael Chevalier (German), Gabriele Carrara (Italian), Álvaro Tarcicio (Latin-American Spanish), Joaquín Vidriales (European Spanish)
- Acrofatic: He is shown to be surprisingly fast in the Cathedral Builders episode.
- The Big Guy: His nickname literally means "The Big One".
- Boisterous Bruiser: He's big, he's a Fiery Redhead, he's strong, and he loves being like that.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: Sometimes, he accidentally slams Pierre to the ground, to Pierre's annoyance.
- Dub Name Change: For some reason, he is called "Lurch" in Episodes 10, 11, and 13 of the English dub. This is especially odd since, in all other episodes, he is called "Jumbo."
- Dumb Muscle: Tends to be a little slow on the uptake, contrasting with Pierre.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Every incarnation of his is good friends with Pierre's.
- Kindhearted Simpleton: While he's still a Dumb Muscle, he's portrayed in a much more positive light than other characters who are deemed unintelligent.
- Manly Tears: At the end of Episode 18 when Maestro dies of old age, he and Pierre gaze at him with tears running down their faces.
- No-Sell: Almost nothing that hits him ever hurts him. When it doesn't work, it's quite the Mood Whiplash.
- Satellite Character: His role is mostly just to be Pierre's best friend and muscle, even though his POV is eventually explored.
Petit Gros
Design changes from Life
- Voiced by: ?? (original French), Eduardo Tejedo (Latin-American Spanish)
- Ascended Extra: He was a minor character in the first series but since Pierrot took the lead instead of his dad, he became a supporting character. Even if most of the time you can't really tell if the hero's best friend is suppose to resemble his father or him.
- Childhood Friends: He and Pierrot tend to be shown as this.
- Oxymoronic Being: He's "the little Big One".
- Strong Family Resemblance: He resembles HIS dad as well.
Mercedes / Psi
- Voiced by: Annie Balestra (original French)
Young Psi featured in Life
- Ambiguously Brown: With her dark skin and Hispanic true name, it's not clear what is her ethnical bakground in the series. The official website, however, claims she's from Brazil.
- Breakout Character: Being an original character to Space, she didn't appear on the first series, where everybody else in the cast debuted. However, she was added to the ensemble in Life and has remained a part of the franchise since, even being ascended to Pierrot's official Love Interest.
- Dub Name Change: For some reason, she is called "Claire" in the UK dub of Life and "Kira" in the Spanish dub of Space.
- Implied Love Interest: Space contains a fair bit of Ship Tease between her and Pierrot, but he states several times they are Just Friends. Other series qualify as well, as she is still his default love interest even if nothing comes from it.
- In-Series Nickname: "Psi", the name by which she's always called is actually a nickname given to her by her friends because of her psychic abilities in Space. Psionics abilities are called “dons psis” in French. Her real name is Mercedes.
- Non-Standard Character Design: She usually has a more Animesque design than the other characters, including bigger, more detailed eyes and a cuter face shape.
- Official Couple: With Pierrot in Life, where they even have a baby.
- Psychic Powers: In the second series, she's a psychic, hence why she's called "Psi". Her powers are mainly Telepathy and Precognition.
- Token Minority: She is the only non-Caucasian in the Universal-Adaptor Cast.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the Girly Girl, being calm and intellectual, to Little Pierrette's Tomboy, who is occasionally mischievous, obtuse and flapper-like.
- Women Are Wiser: She shares this trope with Pierrette. In Space, she shows she's much more pacific and understanding than Pierrot.
Le Teigneux / The Pest
- Voiced by: Claude Bertrand (original French), Arnold Marquis (German), Gino Pagnani (Italian), Narciso Busquets (Latin-American Spanish), Javier Martín (European Spanish)
- Adolf Hitlarious: Appears as Adolph Hitler in one of the episodes of Discoverers.
- Antagonistic Governor: He is the tyrannical leader of Cassiopeia in Space.
- Big Guy, Little Guy: He's the big guy to Nabot's little guy. The two of them are a pair of bullies who often play the role of a Bumbling Henchmen Duo.
- The Brute: He is the evil counterpart of Le Gros, the justice-driven big guy who beats him up for being a bully.
- Butt-Monkey: Is always at the wrong end of Jumbo's fist.
- Character Development: In the later "Discoverers" series, he and the Dwarf appears as kids listening to Maestro's tales.
- Dub Name Change: Is called "Stroppy" in the UK dub of Life.
- Evil Duo: With Nabot. He's the brutish and dumb villain paired with the small and cunning Nabot.
- Gag Nose: Has a large red schnoz.
- Hero Killer: In the Vikings episode.
- Monstrous Germs: In "Life", bacteria are portrayed as blue, bulky humanoids with Teigneux's face.
- Non-Standard Character Design: He and Nabot do not have the Black Bead Eyes that nearly everyone else has, and their faces are more cartoonish than the others.
- Perpetual Frowner: He doesn't usually smile.
- The Rival: Often portrayed as one to Pierre.
- They Killed Kenny Again: Dies in at least five episodes of Man alone, including "The Age of Vikings" (where he is put to the sword by Pierrot) and "The Quattrocento" (where his drink is poisoned by Nabot).
- Too Dumb to Live: Multiple times, most notably in the Life episode about the human heart, in which Teingeux complains about angina. His doctor advises him to give up tobacco, alcohol, and excessively fatty foods, but Teigneux ignores the doctor's advice without a second thought. As you would expect, he suffers a Hollywood Heart Attack.
Le Nabot / The Dwarf
- Voiced by: Patrick Préjean (original French), Klaus Miedel (German), Gianni Bonagura (Italian), Álvaro Tarcicio (Latin-American Spanish), José Moratalla (European Spanish)
- Big Guy, Little Guy: He's the little guy to Teigneux's big guy. The two of them are a pair of bullies who often play the role of a Bumbling Henchmen Duo.
- Butt-Monkey: His plans almost never work...
- Dub Name Change: For some reason he is called "Foxy" in the UK dub of Life.
- Evil Duo: With Teigneux. He's the small and cunning villain paired with the brutish and dumb Teigneux.
- Evil Redhead: Has reddish hair and opposes the heroes alongside Teigneux.
- Gag Nose: Has a long pink schnoz.
- Monstrous Germs: In "Life", viruses are typically portrayed as yellow, worm-like creatures with Nabot's face.
- Non-Standard Character Design: He and Teigneux do not have the Black Bead Eyes that nearly everyone else has, and their faces are more cartoonish than the others.
- Smug Snake: Arguably the bigger one of the duo, since he often enables Teigneux's bullshit.
- Vague Age: Averted. In one episode, he states that he's 38 years old.
- Would Harm a Senior: Episode 14 of Man has him start a vendetta by killing an elderly man.
