Animated Tales of the World was an animated series that aired on HBO Family in 2001 and it contained several stories from around the world including Australia, Russia, England and Africa. The series had won two Primetime Emmy Awards in 2001 including Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation and Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for Peter Macon.
Episodes:
- The Tree with the Golden Apples (Holland)
- Cap O'Rushes (England)
- The Magic Paintbrush (China)
- Podna and Podni (Pakistan)
- The Two Brothers (Russia)
- The Green Man of Knowledge (Scotland)
- King March (Wales)
- Raven Steals the Daylight (Alaska)
- Ewenn Congar (France)
- Fionn (Ireland)
- The Three Sisters Who Fell Into the Mountain (Norway)
- The Flower of Fern (Poland)
- Bad Baby Amy (Australia)
- The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep (Denmark)
- The Enchanted Lion (Germany)
- The Myth of Persephone (Greece)
- John Henry (U.S.A)
- The Tyrant and the Child (Burkina Faso)
- Shepherd Boy Tumur (Mongolia)
- King Solomon and the Bee (Israel)
- The Crown and the Scepter (Arabia)
- Redhill (Singapore)
- Timoon and Narwhal (Canada)
- How Tortoise Won Respect (South Africa)
- Ummemo (The Echo) (South Africa)
- Omuninyan (Namibia)
- Aunt Tiger (Taiwan)
- The Chief and the Carpenter (The Caribbean)
- Frau Holle (Germany)
- The Multicolored Jackal (India)
Animated Tales of the World provides examples of:
- Animated Anthology: Contains several animated episodes of stories that come from around the world.
- Aside Glance: In "How Tortoise Won Respect," Fudukazi briefly gives one when she comments, "When will [Nogwaja and Jakalasi] ever learn?"
- Be Careful What You Wish For: In Flower of Fern, Pavel wishes to be a rich man, but this ended up costing him his own family when he forgot that they existed.
- Bittersweet Ending:
- In The Myth of Persephone, even though Persephone is able to spend more time with both Hades and her mother Demeter, Demeter ends up covering the world in snow until Persephone comes back to her.
- In The Chief and the Carpenter, the villagers ended up losing their homes and their trees in order to build the tallest tower for the chief to touch the moon with. But, after the tower falls down and injures the chief, the Chief learns his lesson and the villagers are on the road to rebuilding their homes.
- In The Flower of Fern, Pavel's parents died while he was staying in his new rich home, but he was able to reunite with his sister.
- Body Horror: This happens to Gongqongqo in How the Tortoise Won Respect when the Tortoise releases a hive of bees inside the monster's body, and he ends up getting giant welts all over him.
- Cinderella Plot: Omuninyan is motherless, and is abused by her stepmother and stepsister, but receives help from a spirit who appears to her at her mother's grave. One key difference is that her father is still alive in the story, while Cinderella's father died early on.
- Cap O' Rushes ends up leaving her family behind to work as a maid in a lord's house. The story even has in common the three balls and Cap O' Rushes changing into more elegant clothes to woo the young gentleman.
- Damsel in Distress: Inez in Ewenn Congar when she was kidnapped by a wicked magician.
- Darker and Edgier: More so than HBO Family’s other animated TV shows, as it shows many characters getting killed or has various villains who threaten the protagonists with death.
- Disney Acid Sequence: Occasionally shows up in some of the stories, such as in the song number of The Magic Paintbrush.
- Downer Ending: In Redhill, even though the adviser and his men ended up being killed when the hill opened up, Nadine and his grandmother never returned to the village.
- Fairy Tale:Cap O’Rushes, The Enchanted Lion and The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweeper.
- Fat Bastard: The Adviser in Redhill as he manipulated the Rajah’s decisions for the village for his own gain.
- Lighter and Softer: Aunt Tiger and King Solomon are the lightest stories in this series as they have a more comedic tone than the other stories.
- Medium Blending: All of the stories have different types of animation such as CGI animation, 2D animation and Stop Motion animation.
- Promoted to Love Interest: In The Myth of Persephone, Demeter is Zeus' wife rather than just one of his flings, and no mention is made of Hera. Doubles as slight Bowdlerization.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: This is the case with How Tortoise Won Respect as the music sounds really cheerful despite the fact that the animals are being threatened by the monster Gongqongqo throughout the whole story. This becomes even more evident during the scene where Fudukazi, the tortoise, releases a hive of bees inside the beast and the welts start appearing on his body in graphic detail.
- Spared By Adaptation: In The Flower of Fern, the original tale has Pavel's entire family, both parents and numerous siblings, die toward the end, and Pavel makes a final wish to be obliterated himself.
- Stop Motion:The Myth of Persephone, The Three Sisters Who Fell into the Mountain,, The Chief and the Carpenter, The Tyrant and the Child, The Enchanted Lion, The Tree with the Golden Apples, Aunt Tiger, King March, Bad Baby Amy, The Crown and the Scepter, Frau Holle, and Cap O’ Rushes.
- Taken for Granite: What happened to the Troll in the story The Three Sisters Who Fell into the Mountain when he was exposed to the sun and turned to stone.
- Also happens to Gongqongqo in How Tortoise Won Respect; as he falls dead into the river after being stung by the bees, his skin hardens, turning his abdomen (which is all that rises up out of the water) into a boulder.
- Transformation Sequence: Happens in several stories such as Hans’ transformation from a lion to a human being in The Enchanted Lion.
