Wolves, Witches and Giants | |
---|---|
Genre | Animation Fantasy |
Written by | Ed Welch |
Directed by | Sara Bor Simon Bor |
Narrated by | Spike Milligan |
Composer | Ed Welch |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 4 |
No. of episodes | 53 |
Production | |
Executive producer | John Marsden |
Running time | 9 minutes |
Production company | Honeycomb Animation |
Original release | |
Network | ITV (CITV) |
Release | 9 October 1995 – 21 October 1998 |
Wolves, Witches and Giants, narrated by Spike Milligan, is a children's cartoon series of humorous adaptations of classic fairy tales, featuring a collection of villains including the wily wolf, a wicked witch and an enormous giant. It was written by musician Ed Welch, based on an LP, also performed by Milligan. [1] The directors and producers were Simon & Sara Bor of Honeycomb Animation. There were 4 series of 13 episodes and 3 specials produced for ITV from 1995 to 1999. Reruns ran on Discovery Kids (UK) until its defunct in 2007 and later, on CITV from July 2005.
It included adaptations of many tales such as Little Red Riding Hood , Sleeping Beauty , Hansel and Gretel , Cinderella , and The Three Billy Goats Gruff . [2]
It was made by the same producers that made the original Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids (and its new series), Tube Mice , Binka, and Funky Valley. [3] [4]
Although being based in Medieval times, it has featured some modern equipment, such as the Wily Wolf driving a blue sports car, a tailor playing on a handheld game console, Little Red Riding Hood's bed-ridden grandmother watching an Australian soap on her TV, or the Wicked Witch using a microwave.
All the series was animated in hand-drawn cel animation, but the title sequence itself from the 4th series uses digital-ink-and-paint animation.
Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan was an Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright and actor. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British India, where he spent his childhood before relocating in 1931 to England, where he lived and worked for the majority of his life. Disliking his first name, he began to call himself "Spike" after hearing the band Spike Jones and his City Slickers on Radio Luxembourg.
The Big Bad Wolf is a fictional wolf appearing in several cautionary tales, including some of Grimms' Fairy Tales. Versions of this character have appeared in numerous works, and it has become a generic archetype of a menacing predatory antagonist.
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Little Red Riding Hood is a European fairy tale about a young girl and a sly wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th-century European folk tales. The two best known versions were written by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm.
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Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales for Our Life and Times is a 1994 book written by American writer James Finn Garner, in which Garner satirizes the trend toward political correctness and censorship of children's literature, with an emphasis on humour and parody. The bulk of the book consists of fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood, the Three Little Pigs and Snow White, rewritten so that they represent what a politically correct adult would consider a good and moral tale for children.
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The following is a list of events relating to television in Ireland from 1996.
The following is a list of events relating to television in Ireland from 1997.
Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids is a British animated horror television series based on the generic trademarked children's book series of the same name by Jamie Rix. After the first three books were published from 1990 to 1996, Carlton Television adapted the short stories into ten-minute cartoons for ITV, produced by themselves, Honeycomb Animation, and Rix's production company, Elephant Productions. It aired on CITV between January 2000 and October 2006 with six series and 78 episodes, as well as a New Year's Eve special that was over 20 minutes longer than other episodes. The series returned in a new format for Nicktoons with 26 episodes split into two series under the name Grizzly Tales, which aired between May 2011 and November 2012.