"You are welcome to Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids,
     a series of cautionery tales for lovers of squeam!"
 

    Welcome to Uncle Grizzly's creepy theatre, the Squeam Screen, wherein
    are projected cautionery tales to make your hair curl and your toes twist
    with terror. In these badtime bedtime stories, naughty children get their
    come-uppances, silly boys and girls are made to squeal, and scheming
    brothers and sisters fall foul of their merry mischief in decidely
    'orrible ways.

    Each episode opens with a stop-motion introduction. We follows an unwitting
    boy in to the creepy theatre to see the latest tale of terror. Uncle Grizzly stalks
    around his projection box, as the boy's popcorn over-runs with bugs and we
    are drawn to the film. The tales that follow unspool in two dimensions, though
    there is a third dimension still on offer in the form of Nigel Planer's fun-tastic
    voiceover. He narrates from start to finish with hand-rubbing glee, building
    each sorry story to its ghastly conclusion, before the lightning fueled theme
    music kicks in once more...

     

    Those "Grizzly Tales" have all sprung from the insane mind of author Jamie
    Rix, and brought to life by the folks at Honeycomb Animation, who also brought
    us those fabulous Wolves, Witches and Giants. Of course, the stories aren't
    that gruesome, they're just great fun. The Guignol is never too Grand, the fear
    factor never too high, but each tale is told with a glint in the eye and great gleeful
    side-portions of relish. Which explains why the series has won a gruesome
    number of aplaudits, most notably two nominations at the Children’s
    BAFTAs 2005, the prize for Best Children’s Series prize at The British
    Animation Awards 2004 and a rather lovely Pulcinella.

     » Ealing Animation animated the 3D inserts for the first couple of series.

    » The series was first broadcast on CiTV in January 2000. There
        have been six seasons produced thus far, and one special.

    » The book "Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids" was first published
        in 1992. Author Jamie Rix brought us fifteen cautionery tales.

    » For brevity's sake, the title is now often simplified to "Grizzly Tales".

    » Speaking of brevity, those naughty folks at CiTV inexcusably cut
        the 3D intro from Series 4, when it was first broadcast in 2004.
        A visit from Uncle Grizzly soon righted the wrongdoing...

 

     Grizzly Awards

     2004 British Animation Awards - Best Children's Series 
     2000 Cartoons on the Bay - Pulcinella, Best Series for Children (6 - 12)
     2000 Bradford Animation Festival - Best TV Series for Children
     2000 New York Festivals - Intl TV Programming, Gold World Medal

 

     Gruesome episodes

    The Spahgetti Man         The Bugaboo Bear 
    Death by Chocolate        The Butcher Boy
    The Wooden Hill             The Fruit Bat
    A Tangled Web               Monty's Python
    The New Nanny              The Grub a Blub Blub
    Grandmother's Foosteps   Wolf Child
    Doctor Moribundus          The Weather Witch
    The Princess' Clothes       Kiss and Make Up
    Sweets
    Burgeskip
    The History Lesson
    The Barber of Civil

 

     Grizzly Tales on DVD

     Grizzly Tales: Monty's Python and Other Ghastly Tales
                Region 2 / Granada Ventures / April 2006

 

     based on the books by Jamie Rix

     directors:         Simon & Sara Bor
                           and Jamie Rix
     producers:       Simon & Sara Bor
                           and Clive Hedges (Series I, II)
                           and Sarah Muller (Series III - VI)
     exec prods:      Michael Forte (Series I, II)
                           David Mercer (Series IV)
     writer:              Jamie Rix
     music:                 Ed Welch
     animation:         Jon Miller, Daniel Mitchell,
                           Oliver Knowles, Victoria Goy-Smith,
                           Liam Williamson, Karen Elliott,
                           Christopher Bowles
     stop-frame
     animation:        Richard Randolph, Nick Herbert
     prod co-ord:      Gareth Conway
     tech co-ord:      Graham Hayter
     prod account:    Melanie English
     prod sec:          Emma Booth
     bar-sheeting:    Lincoln Anderson
     editor:              Peter Beswick
     sound:              Bjorn Swinton-Berry
     narrator:           Nigel Planer

 

      On the web

      
      Honeycomb Animation
      The official studio site with info on all of their productions
      past and present...

      Ealing Animation
      And here's Ealing, with all their series info...


 
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