Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids

Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids (or Grizzly Tales) is a series of books by Jamie Rix and a TV series produced for ITV. The original TV series was based on the award winning collections of cautionary tales by Jamie Rix. Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids, Ghostly Tales for Ghastly Kids, Fearsome Tales for Fiendish Kids and More Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids. The series was narrated by Nigel Planer and animated by Sara and Simon Bor of Wolves Witches & Giants fame.

In all, six series and a New Year's special ran from 2000 to 2007 on ITV and Grizzly Tales was consistently one of the highest rated children's animation shows on the channel. In 2011, a new 26 re-invention of the show was produced for Nickelodeon UK and NickToons UK. It was awarded Best Children's Programme at the Broadcast Awards 2012.

The BAFTA-nominated show has picked up many other awards including Animated Series and Children's Choice at the British Animation Awards, and Children's Animated series at Cartoons on the Bay.

The show is available on DVD through ITV in the UK, Porchlight in the USA and Time Life in Australia. Orion Audiobooks have also released full CD recordings of the books, read by Rupert Degas. Audio Go have re-released the original Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids audio book on CD and download.

The series is produced by Grizzly TV.

In 2010 Nickelodeon UK and NickToons UK started broadcasting the original series. The re-invented series airs from 2011 on Nickelodeon UK and Nicktoons UK.

Focus

The series is a collection of morality tales which also has insinuations of a horror story; gruesome punishments happen throughout. The stories mainly focus on naughty or horrible children (for example those that are vain, untidy, lazy, or lying) learning a grim lesson. Examples include "The Bugaboo Bear" (in which a little blond girl, buys a "Bugaboo Bear", and treats it as a person, only after a surprisingly short amount of time she gets bored with it, and starts treating it in a horrid manner), and "William the Conkerer" (in which a young lad, who destroys trees, attempts to steal every conker in the village). The programme also focuses on frightening children into believing their parents.

Television series

First debuting in 2000, the show was broadcast on CITV, commissioned by Carlton Television, now part of ITV plc. It was a co-production between Elephant Productions and Honeycomb Animation, Jamie Rix co directing the series with Simon & Sara Bor. On most of the early series, a stopmotion sequence involving a creepy cinema owner named Uncle Grizzly (On occasion, the CITV presenters referred to him as the 'Storyteller man') and his pet spider, Spindleshanks would be present. The two would discuss the morals of the tales shown, often ending with Spindleshanks getting badly injured, e.g. squashed or splatted.

These sequences were later removed, possibly to shorten the cartoon's length. More recently, only Uncle Grizzly is shown welcoming you to the show. Spindleshanks was removed too. They also had a different theme song.

Many of the episodes between Seasons 1-4 were adaptations from the books also written by Rix, although they usually edited out or altered many parts of the stories to fit the time slot. In 2006, the series went from hand-drawn animation to digital, starting with "A Grizzly New Year's Tale: The Crystal Eye". The latest seasons of stories were later published in book form, in a new format and known as the Grizzly Tales Series. Each of these books focused on various themes (such as "Nasty Little Beasts", "Gruesome Grown Ups" and "Freaks of Nature") and contained six stories each.

Each tale is normally set in a different location. However, many of the character designs and backgrounds were reused and altered to make different characters and settings.

Nigel Planer was the narrator for this series and played Uncle Grizzly. He also narrated Fearsome Tales for Fiendish Kids on audiobook. Bill Wallis narrated More Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids and Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids and Ghostly Tales for Ghastly Kids were both read by Andrew Sachs.

After Grizzly Tales ended in 2007, it was announced that Grizzly Tales would return for a brand new series for Nicktoons UK in May 2011. The series location moved from the Squeam Screen, to the Hot-Hell Darkness. Uncle Grizzly made way to his half brother, The Night Night Porter, who took over as storyteller, but retained Nigel Planer's voice.

Grizzly Tales will air a brand new series on 7 April 2014.

Episode list

Books

Nearly every story Jamie Rix has written for Grizzly Tales are adaptations from his books:

Grizzly Tales for Scary Kids!!

1. The New Nanny
2. The One Tailed, Two Footed, Three Bellied, Four Headed, Five Fingered, Six Chinned, Seven Winged, Eight Eyed, Nine Nosed, Ten Toothed Monster
3. The Spaghetti Man
4. The Princess's Clothes
5. The Black Knight
6. Glued To The Telly
7. The Barber of Civil
8. The Man with a Chip on his Shoulder
9. The Giant Who Grew Too Big For His Boots
10. The Wooden Hill
11. The Litter Bug
12. Goblin Mountain
13. Sweets
14. The Top Hat
15. The Childhood Snatcher

Ghostly Tales for Ghastly Kids

1. Grandmother's Footsteps
2. Burgerskip
3. Tag
4. The Locked Door
5. A Tangled Web
6. The Well
7. An Elephant Never Forgets
8. School Dinners
9. The Big Sleep
10. Bogman
11. The Broken-Down Cottage
12. Guilt Ghost
13. A Lesson From History
14. The Ghost of Christmas Turkeys Past
15. Rogues Gallery

Fearsome Tales for Fiendish Kids

1. The Cat Baurglar
2. Mr Peeler's Butterflies
3. Fat Boy With A Trumpet
4. The Chipper Chums Go Scrumping
5. Prince Noman
6. Death By Chocolate
7. Well'ard Willard
8. Athlete's Foot
9. The Matchstick Girl
10. Simon Sulk
11. The Dumb Clucks
12. Doctor Moribundus
13. The Stick Men
14. Little Fingers
15. Bessy O'Messy
16. Jack In A Box

More Grizzly Tales for Scary Kids!!

1. Knock Down Ginger
2. The Upset Stomach
3. The Gas Man Cometh
4. The Urban Fox
5. Spoilsport
6. Dirty Bertie
7. The People Potter
8. It's Only a Game, Sport!
9. Fast Food
10. Sock Shock
11. Revenge Of The Bogeyman
12. Crocodile Tears
13. The Pie Man
14. Burp Boy
15. Spit
16. The Grass Monkey
17. Superstitious Nonsense
18. Head in the Clouds
19. When The Bed Bugs Bite
20. The Decomposition Of Delia Deathabridge

Nasty Little Beasts

1. The Grub A Blub Blub
2. Monty's Python
3. The Lobster's Scream
4. Wolf Child
5. The Fruit Bat
6. The Clothes Pigs

Gruesome Grown Ups

1. Jamie's School Dinners
2. Silence Is Golden
3. The Old Tailor Of Pelting Moor
4. Her Majesty's Moley
5. The Soul Stealer
6. Nobby's Nightmare

The "Me!" Monsters

1. The Apostrophic Expositor
2. Kiss And Make Up
3. The Kingdom of Wax
4. The Blood Doctor
5. The Ugly Prince
6. Big Head

Freaks of Nature

1. Frank Einstein's Monster
2. Recyclops
3. The Weather Witch
4. William The Conkerer
5. Hear No Weevil, See No Weevil
6. Tom Time

Terror Time Toys

1. The Butcher Boy
2. The Bugaboo Bear
3. Why Boys Make Better Burglars
4. Puppet On A String
5. The Death Rattle
6. eBoy

Blubbers and Sicksters

1. The Piranha Sisters
2. The Crystal Eye
3. Cat's Eyes
4. The Hair Fairies
5. The Watermelon Babies
6. The Nuclear Wart

The Naughty Gnomes of NO!

1. Tinkerbell
2. The Long face
3. The Dragon Moth
4. Sick To Death
5. Message In A Bottle
6. Lazybones

Super Zeroes

1. Fatal Attraction
2. Little Angel
3. The Flat-Pack Kid
4. The Worm
5. The Little Flower Girl
6. The Rise And Fall Of The Evil Guff

A Grizzly Dozen

1. The Grub A Blub Blub
2. Monty's Python
3. The Lobster's Scream
4. Wolf Child
5. The Fruit Bat
6. The Clothes Pigs
7. Jamie's School Dinners
8. Silence Is Golden
9. The Old Tailor of Pelting Moor
10. Her Majesty's Moley
11. The Soul Stealer
12. Nobby's Nightmare

References

External links

• Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids