Monstres et merveilles

Although the Soldier's story was the best - they were all marvellous. Good stories, well told, and despite the animatronics, taken seriously by the actors.

It was tucked away on Channel 4 in the UK. I missed one or two of them, but where as most rubbish gets repeated ad nausium - Storyteller wasn't. Typical.

Do not miss out. If this is on - tape it !

i loved this series when i was 6 and now i own it on dvd i love it even more.The key to this(and all the other jim henson fantasies)is that if they had recreated all those monsters with a computer, it might have looked okay then but by now it would of been laughed at by any critical viewer.The stories are all so beautifully created they are extremeley hard to forget, and who said the title music was corny!! my favourite of all the stories is probably the three ravens in a close tye with the soldier and death. the only episode i dont like is hans my hedgehog, this can be forgiven as it was made as a pilot and probably had smaller budget, the camera is shakey storytellers makeup is different and hans mum and dad are two terribly annoying actors but all the rest are great buy and enjoy edward

This series is wonderful. It was bought for me when I was little, and I still love watching it. I know all the stories by heart, but I still get carried away in the magic and beauty of it all. It's hard to pick a favourite episode, but I'd have to say Sapsorrow is way up there. I guess I've always loved the pretty dresses and the mysterious way the beautiful princess transforms into a hideous creature. And the two bad sisters!- you can't help but love to hate them, and Jennifer Saunders is brilliant!

And whoever said that this series is 'insane' must be insane themselves, and have absolutely no idea about culture or about the magical world of stories.

Beautiful art direction, excellent editing and wonderful stories make this some of the best television ever produced. The fact that it was relatively short lived is sadly reflective on the state of television. I highly recommend snatching these up as they're released, you'll love them.

I remember watching this show as a kid. It made quite an impression on me, to be honest I was absolutely spellbound.

Quite recently I obtained a DVD-release and was somewhat amazed: It was just as good as I remembered it! This is not simply a bad case of nostalgia, this show is definitely something above the ordinary. We might have struck gold here..

The show is in nine stand alone episodes based on nine old folktales. (Mostly Russian or German) Not so "kidified" as most recent versions, just a little bit cruel, but always with a happy ending (with 2 exceptions)

The special effects (especially the creature effects ) still look really good even in this time of photo-realistic computer animation. If you take into account that this is a TV-production from 1987 the effects are absolutely outstanding! They give a much more living impression than many computer generated creatures I have seen of late.

The actor performances are maybe not always of academy award winning standard.. but I can live with that, and most probably so can you. Not all nine episodes are masterpieces either, but some come very close to being just that. "The Soldier and Death" is in my opinion one of the best and appears to be the first choice of most other reviewers. "Sapsorrow" (their version of Cinderella) is also worth mentioning. Maybe not for it's greatness but for the most enjoyable Disney reference. Very amusing.

When this was aired it had the added title: "Stories for grown up children" and that is a good description of what this is. Maybe not for the very youngest but perfect for anyone else. Especially anyone interested in folktales or anything fantasy-like.

Highly recommended.