#yoyo the creative coyote

[camtoons16]

Cringetober Day 13!

Heyyyy ya'll! I was super busy yesterday because it was my mother's birthday! Plus I had zero ideas for yesterday's prompt of "Mary Sue" And then today we have "Rare pair/ crossover ship" and I had next to no ideas, except for one that caught me off guard, and I've been busy at a party all day so…. Moshi-Monsters Tiny Fox Yoai. yeah.

As always, prompt sheet by @icryink and posted by @beau-bearr

[princesssarisa]

Cinderella September-through-November: "Simsala Grimm: Cinderella" (2000 cartoon series episode)

Here we find yet another Cinderella episode of a fairy tale anthology cartoon series. Simsala Grimm was a German-Austrian-French-Irish co-production, which originally aired twenty-six episodes in 1999 and 2000, and then was revived for another twenty-six in 2010. Its recurring protagonists are two small animal characters: Yoyo, an adventurous and slightly arrogant blue coyote-like creature, and his nerdy, sensible friend Doc Croc, a pink and red striped lizard. At the beginning of every episode, a magical red storybook with pictures of the Brothers Grimm on the cover flies them through a portal in the sky to "the enchanted land of Simsala, the place where all the fairy tale characters really lived." Each episode takes them into a different story (usually from the Grimms' collection, but sometimes a Hans Christian Anderson tale or a well-known English or French tale instead), where they meet the protagonists and serve as their sidekicks throughout.

Unsurprisingly, the series' version of Cinderella is based on the Grimms' Aschenputtel. There are three balls, and Cinderella receives her gowns for each of them from a magical tree at the urging of a friendly talking dove, who also leads a flock of other doves in helping her to sort lentils from the ashes at her Stepmother's order. It's a simplified version of the Grimms' tale, though. Cinderella's father is nowhere in sight: he's apparently away on a journey, as the dove assures Cinderella that when he comes back everything will be fine, but he never does appear. And while the dove is first seen perched on a grave marker, presumably that of Cinderella's mother, and the magic tree stands next to that grave, the backstory of the planted hazel twig growing into the tree is cut. Nor, thankfully, do the stepsisters Agatha and Beatrice cut their feet to make the glass slipper fit or have their eyes pecked out by the doves in the end.

Despite the episode's short length, it also finds room for creativity. Cinderella is introduced hiding behind a bush near the palace, watching the Prince play badminton, apparently already in love with him from afar. He discovers her when he goes to retrieve a stray birdie, and though she flees, he's instantly smitten by her beauty. This leads him to insist that his father extend the ball invitations from only noble maidens to every maiden in the land. Meanwhile, the flabby, pompous Stepmother and the obnoxious Agatha and Beatrice go out of their way to treat Cinderella horribly, the sisters forever accusing her of trying to poison them with her "terrible" cooking. At the first ball, the Stepmother suspects the "mystery lady" of being Cinderella, but can't be certain, and at any rate wants to eliminate the competition. So at the second ball, she slips a sleeping potion into the Prince's wine, then accuses the "mystery lady" of casting a spell on him. The King believes this and at the third ball orders Cinderella arrested as soon as she arrives. But the Prince can't believe the worst of his love, so he coats the palace steps with pitch, claiming that if she's a witch she'll magic herself free, but if she sticks, it will prove that she's human. Of course her slipper sticks and the Prince accepts this as proof of her innocence, then sets out to find her. But the Stepmother and sisters lock Cinderella in the dovecote before he reaches their house. Fortunately, the ever-faithful dove leads the Prince to the dovecote in the end.

Yoyo and Doc Croc interact with Cinderella and help her throughout the story. They're the ones who summon the doves to help Cinderella pick the lentils out of the ashes, and later they warn her when her stepfamily is leaving the first ball, so she can leave too and get home before they do. And at the climax, they free her from the dovecote just as the dove leads the Prince there.

As a whole, I wouldn't call this cartoon anything particularly special. The animation is basically Saturday morning quality – although 2000 Saturday morning cartoons are of higher quality than they were in the 1970s or '80s – with slightly quirky character designs that are neither ugly nor especially appealing. The quality of the writing is about the same as the animation, and worst of all is the episode's one song, "She Is A Mystery," an angsty late '90s/early 2000s-style pop ballad sung melodramatically by the Prince after Cinderella flees from the first ball. Still, the colorful fairy tale world does have its charms, and the colorful audience surrogate characters of Yoyo and Doc Croc are genuinely likable.

Of the animated fairy tale anthology series' I've seen so far, I'd definitely recommend Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child or the anime Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics above this one. Still, I can see how Simsala Grimm would appeal to children and it isn't without endearing qualities for adults either. For fairy tale lovers, it's at least worth a glance.

@ariel-seagull-wings, @superkingofpriderock

[lazloorpington]

yoyo the creative coyote