A look at 6 twisted episodes from the macabre British kids show Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids
“You are welcome to Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids…”
And so begins the malevolent mutterings of Uncle Grizzly, the sadist host of the brilliant and totally twisted British children’s show Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids. Have you seen this show?
My children and I first stumbled upon it while googling something gently macabre to watch before bed a few years ago. It was love at first sight. And very often, the show was anything but “gentle.” In fact, with its demented stories of hideous children and their oblivious parents meeting vulgar ends, Grizzly Tales (aka Fearsome Tales for Fiendish Kids) is downright eerie.
Based on the popular series of books by British author James Rix, the charmingly animated series – which was bookended by stop motion animation for the wraparound and picture book style for the central tales themselves – is set in a grandiose theater, where the leering Uncle Grizzly (deliciously voiced by actor Nigel Planer) torments his poor pet spider Spindleshanks and reveals a series of “cautionary tales for lovers of squeam” to us, the delighted audience.
The series was produced for U.K. channel ITV and ran from 2000 to 2007 and later, on the British version of Nickelodeon in 2011 (albeit with a milder, unfortunately less grand guignol approach that was not based on Rix’s original stories) and was wildly successful. Apparently it also aired on ABC Kids in the U.S., but I’ll be damned if I ever knew it existed. Bless YouTube…
Each story runs under 10 minutes and they’re wonderfully weird, often surreal and almost always supremely nasty morality tales, like EC comics re-written by Roald Dahl and this writer must admit to a shiver or two whilst watching. They’re the ideal entry point for kids and parents looking to introduce their tots to terror.
And while it’s hard to whittle down the best of Grizzly Tales lot, we’ve managed to pick 6 of our favorites, nasty stories that are funny, frightful and more than a bit sick.
Have a look…
6. The Barber of Civil -When a sinister barber rolls into town, a pair of horrible children go in for a haircut and soon discover what those pickled “leeches” are in the jar. A nightmarish little slab of sadism…
5. The Spaghetti Man – Another monstrous tot refuses to eat anything his parents put before him. But when a spindly shadow starts to creep around and the air smells like dough, the evil Spaghetti Man cometh…
4. The Cat Burglar – An awful child (are you seeing a theme yet?) finds a sign for a missing cat and a hefty reward and will stop at nothing to collect that reward, no matter the cost. Feline fans are best to avoid this grim tale…
3. The New Nanny – A pair of malicious children and their “frightfully busy” parents have trouble keeping any nanny who dares enter their home. But when mumsy finds an agency staffed by toothy, vicious animals, those kids best beware…
2. Death By Chocolate – A nasty, gluttonous girl treats her sister like garbage and devours chocolate like a swine. But when a fly lays eggs in one her massive chocolate bunnies, something evil starts to grow…
1. Bessy O’ Messy – A slob-tastic child refuses to clean her room and falls inter pile of laundry. There she discovers a secret race of carnivorous laundry leprechauns…will Bessy get out alive?
