This article is about the Japanese anime. For the Grimm's Fairy Tales, see Grimm's Fairy Tales

Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics, also known as Grimm Masterpiece Theater in the original version, is a Japanese anime anthology series by Nippon Animation. The episodes are adaptations of a variety of folk and fairy tales, and not limited to Grimm's Fairy Tales.

Premise [ edit ]

Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics comprises two series. The first series, known in Japan as Grimm Masterpiece Theater (グリム名作劇場, Gurimu Meisaku Gekijō), aired from October 21, 1987 to March 30, 1988, for a total of 24 episodes. The second series, known in Japan as New Grimm Masterpiece Theater (新グリム名作劇場, Shin Gurimu Meisaku Gekijō), aired between October 2, 1988 and March 26, 1989, totaling 23 episodes. It was also localized under the series' English name.

The fairy tale anthology was broadcast in North America by Nickelodeon and in local stations throughout Latin America.

Episodes [ edit ]

Series 1 [ edit ]

Series 2 [ edit ]

Cast [ edit ]

Japanese cast [ edit ]

Additional Japanese voices [ edit ]

English cast [ edit ]

Crew [ edit ]

English crew [ edit ]

Music [ edit ]

In Japan, for both seasons, the series used two theme songs; the opening theme, "The Rainbow Bridge" (虹の橋, Niji no Hashi), and the ending theme, "My Town's Merry-Go-Round" (私の町はメリーゴーランド, Watashi no Machi wa Merī Gorando), were both performed by Ushio Hashimoto. Incidental music used in the Japanese version was composed by Hideo Shimazu. The theme tune and incidental music used in the English dub were both composed by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy. Most of the incidental music was in fact recycled from the earlier VHS series My Favorite Fairy Tales.

Releases [ edit ]

Limited episodes were produced in NTSC VHS by Saban International and distributed by Starmaker Entertainment Inc. and Hi-Tops Video/Fisher-Price in 1990 and Video Treasures/HGV Video Productions in 1992. Those volumes included:

Beauty and the Beast (UPC: 0-1313-29408-3)

The Six Who Went Far (UPC: 0-90251-94073-6)

Hansel & Gretel (UPC: 0-92091-4105-3)

Briar Rose

Brother & Sister

The Coat of Many Colors

Jorinda and Joringel

King Grizzlebeard

Marriage of Mrs. Fox

Mother Holle

Old Sultan

The Spirit in the Bottle

The Frog Prince

The Man of Iron

The Secret Heart

The Six Swans

The Water of Life

Grimm Brothers' Scary Fairy Tales

Snow White

Cinderella

A few episodes were released to a single Region 2 DVD titled "Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics - Volume One" under distribution by Fox Kids and Maximum Entertainment in 2004.[1] The episodes included were:

Hansel and Gretel

Little Red Riding Hood

The Golden Goose

Snow White And Rose Red

Beauty and the Beast

The British newspapers Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror released the following episodes on promotional DVDs:

Snow White

Bluebeard

The Frog Prince

Rapunzel

Rumpelstiltskin

Cinderella

Beauty and the Beast

Puss N' Boots

Little Red Riding Hood

The Golden Goose

Hansel and Gretel

The original Japanese version of the series was released as a 5-disc DVD set in Region 2 with 10 episodes from the series.

As with most of the Saban Entertainment library, the rights to the series are currently owned by The Walt Disney Company, through BVS Entertainment International, N.V. and JETIX Europe. Despite a large cult following, none of the English dub has been released on DVD in Region 1 and only limited episodes (listed above) were released in Region 2.

Broadcast [ edit ]