HBO Storybook Musicals is an animated musical television series originally directed by the late Michael Sporn, who animated the first short film of the series, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile: The Musical, which premiered on November 18, 1987 on HBO. The last entry of the series was released on December 8, 1993. While majority of the episodes were animated by Michael Sporn's own studio, Cinar (now WildBrain, formerly DHX Media) animated the episodes branded under the "The Real Story of..." title. Other companies include Klasky-Csupo, who animated the 6th episode, Nelvana who animated the 9th episode, and Random House who co-produced the last episode.
From 1994 to 1998, the specials aired on the main HBO channel, when they were moved in 1999 to HBO Family. When they were moved to HBO Family, a newly animated intro sequence with an animal orchestra was added, as it's a possibility that when the episodes originally aired on HBO, they didn't contain any introductions. The episodes still air today on HBO Kids, but not too often.
Background[]
When Doctor DeSoto was nominated for an Academy Award for best animated short film, HBO hired Michael Sporn to make animated specials for them. HBO also oriented on family-friendly programs and never financed/produced a children's television series. Michael Sporn directed and produced Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile: The Musical, HBO's first animated television special and aired on November 18, 1987.[1][2] Then, HBO presented a few animated specials, such as The Story of the Dancing Frog (aired in October 1989), The Red Shoes and Earthday Birthday, which aired in early 1990. The specials combined illustrations with songs.
History[]
In August 1990, HBO launched its animated special programming, called Storybook Musicals and the first special of this program was Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (produced and directed by Michael Sporn), which aired on September 10 of that same year. Canada's Nelvana Limited and Klasky-Csupo were hired to produce for HBO two different animated specials, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and The Tale of Peter Rabbit, while HBO provided development funding for its projects. HBO also added The Real Story of... animated short series to Storybook Musicals.
Two animated specials, Lyle, Lyle Crocodile: The Musical and The Story of the Dancing Frog were included in this series, which were not debuted in it before launch the program.
The series ended with eighteenth episode, The Country Mouse and the City Mouse: A Christmas Tale, which aired on December 8, 1993.
Synopsis[]
Each episode is an animated version of a well known children's storybook or story tale, most of the time even designed to match the illustrated pictures from the original books they are based off of. Also added to each episode is a set of original songs. Some of the episodes from the "The Real Story of..." series tend to be based on nursery rhymes.
Episodes[]
| No. | Title | Based on | Summary | Air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lyle, Lyle Crocodile: The Musical | The House on East 88th Street | A family grows fond of a crocodile left in their new home by its previous owners. | November 18, 1987 |
| 2 | The Story of the Dancing Frog | The Story of the Dancing Frog | George the Dancing Frog brings joy to Gertrude, a lonely widow.
Note: No longer aired; distributed by First Run Features (home video only). |
October 3, 1989 |
| 3 | The Red Shoes | The Red Shoes | A little girl learns the value of friendship with help from a pair of magic slippers.
|
February 7, 1990 |
| 4 | Earthday Birthday | It Zwibble and the Big Birthday Party | The Zwibble-Dibbles are star-touched dinosaurs who live in an idyllic woodland. Dismayed by the pollution of the planet, they plan a birthday party for the Earth. | April 22, 1990 |
| 5 | Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel | Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel | When newfangled equipment threatens to put Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel Mary Anne out of business, they take on the challenge of digging a cellar in one day. | September 10, 1990 |
| 6 | Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day | Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day | All day long, Alexander has unlucky events happen to him. | October 2, 1990 |
| 7 | The Marzipan Pig | The Marzipan Pig | A marzipan pig falls behind a sofa and is lost. In his loneliness, the pig's feelings of love reach out to others.
|
November 5, 1990 |
| 8 | The Little Match Girl | The Little Match Girl | The Hans Christian Andersen classic is given present-day relevance and an upbeat ending in this story of Angela, a homeless child who sells match sticks to survive.
|
December 6, 1990 |
| 9 | The Tale of Peter Rabbit | The Tale of Peter Rabbit | A mischievous rabbit named Peter can't resist going into Mr. McGregor's garden and almost ends up in a pie, much like his father. | June 11, 1991 |
| 10 | The Ice Queen's Mittens | Three Little Kittens | Freezelda the Ice Queen needs warm mittens, so three kittens look out for them.
|
October 2, 1991 |
| 11 | Spider Junior High | Itsy Bitsy Spider | The students at Spider Junior High, located in the walls of a school building, try to scare their human counterparts.
|
October 16, 1991 |
| 12 (10 in regular order) | Ira Sleeps Over | Ira Sleeps Over | Ira has been invited to stay overnight at his best friend Reggie's house. | November 6, 1991 |
| 13 | The Prince's Rain | Rain, Rain, Go Away | A selfish prince is taught a lesson about caring and love when he tries to fool Mother Nature.
|
November 13, 1991 |
| 14 | The Runaway Teapot | I'm a Little Teapot | A blue teapot and his lover cup run away from the Mad Hatter's tea party.
|
December 4, 1991 |
| 15 | The Rise and Fall of Humpty Dumpty | Humpty Dumpty | Humpty Dumpty tries to save a princess from an evil witch.
|
December 18, 1991 |
| 16 | Happy Birthday to You | Happy Birthday to You | Olivia wants a special song for her birthday, but either a tone-deaf caretaker or a new talented friend will write it.
|
January 4, 1992 |
| 17 (11 in regular order) | A Child's Garden of Verses | A Child's Garden of Verses | Childhood illness has confined young Robbie to bed, but it cannot confine his remarkable imagination, which he uses to experience life. | April 3, 1992 |
| 18 | The Country Mouse and the City Mouse: A Christmas Tale | The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse | A mouse named Emily has an adventure when she decides to visit her cousin Alexander in New York City for Christmas.
|
December 8, 1993
|
Songs[]
Trivia[]
- This and Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child are the only two programs that originally aired on the main HBO network and are original programming.
- The The Real Story of... episodes, as well as the series finale, stopped airing in 1998, a year before the series moved to HBO Family. The final times The Story of the Dancing Frog, The Red Shoes, The Marzipan Pig, and The Little Match Girl aired were in December 2012.
- Technically, there are actually 25 episodes in HBO Storybook Musicals, counting all 13 episodes of "The Real Story of..." which were aired on the main HBO network, plus the 11 episodes produced for the Storybook Musicals series itself, and if A Christmas Tale is considered. However, it's worth noting that HBO stopped using the "Storybook Musicals" name for the Real Story episodes around 1994, when the other 6 episodes in the series debuted, so subsequently it can be figured they aired as a separate series.
- Starting in January 2013, each episode aired on a specific weekday due to the order they were aired in and the fact there were only seven episodes in rotation. This only remained true whenever the series aired daily on the schedule.
- The cycle would start with Lyle, Lyle Crocodile on Thursdays, followed by Earthday Birthday on Fridays, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel on Saturdays, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day on Sundays, The Tale of Peter Rabbit on Mondays, Ira Sleeps Over on Tuesdays, and A Child's Garden of Verses on Wednesdays. The cycle would start again the following day.
- The final episode was adapted into The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures, given how both of the characters are named Emily and Alexander.
- A Child's Garden of Verses is the only episode of the series to be rated TV-Y7, while the series is rated TV-Y.
- The theme music used in the intro comes from The Story of the Dancing Frog.
- Some of the shorts featured on the show would eventually be released on DVD through Weston Woods.