A Tale Dark and Grimm (TV-Y7)

This movie is based on the best selling children's book by the same name written by Adam Gidwitz. The story features many "Grimm" fairy tales and combines them into a dark, gory, twisted, but heartfelt adventure all tied together by the story of Hansel and Gretel. It is the first of three books in the series, though they all feature different main characters and are not strictly chronological; they are styled as "companions." Some dialogue, particularly by the ravens who take the place of the book's narrator as well as performing some of their original function, is either paraphrased or even lifted directly from the book.

The show is written and executive produced by Doug Langdale, who previously worked on fantasy-themed animated series 'Dave the Barbarian' and 'Puss in Boots.'

Any characters given surnames in the series are given names reflecting their jobs: Mrs. Baker, the baker who delivers baked goods to the castle and lives in a gingerbread house; the Bauers, who farm turnips ("bauer" means "farmer" in German, the language of the Brothers Grimm); and the Widow Fischer, who catches and sells fish. Only the Widow Fischer ever comments on this and only once.

The ravens (unnamed in the books) are called Wilhelm/William, Jacob, and Dotty. Wilhelm (the German form of William) and Jacob Grimm are the brothers who collected Grimm's fairytales on which this story is based and their mother's name was Dorothea, for which Dotty is a common nickname. "Dotty" is also a slang word that means "crazy" or "not altogether there."

In the book, all three ravens are male and slightly more involved in the actual story, while the function of the narrator is performed by an unknown (seemingly separate) person.