Line #40 Main/StorybookOpening


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4	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/FracturedFairyTales_7073.jpg]]]]
5
6	-> ''"Oh, no, no, not the book. How many have seen "opening the book" before? (screech) Close the book; we're not doing that."''
7	-->-- '''Buck Cluck''' [[SelfDeprecation mocking past uses of the trope]] by Creator/{{Disney}}, ''WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle''
8
9	A common device to start a story, especially fairy tales, is with a storybook opening up, usually accompanied by OpeningNarration, and then the book's (usually illustrated) pages are replaced with the film's scenes of the story itself being played out, giving the impression of the narrative coming to life. [[BookEnds Usually the story will finish with the book being closed.]]
10
11	The TropeMaker here is the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon, which has used it since the very beginning with ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs''.
12
13	With the advent of comic-book film/TV adaptations, the use of comic art was introduced as a variant of this trope. Comics count as books too.
14
15	A subtrope of FramingDevice. A sister trope of the one where the book is shown [[IShouldWriteABookAboutThis as it is being written]]. See also MythPrologue.
16
17	Not to be confused with PlotTriggeringBook, when a book becomes a plot element InUniverse.
18	----
19	!!Examples:
20
21	[[foldercontrol]]
22
23	[[folder:Advertising]]
24	* One Empire Today commercial (boasting dialogue inspired by ''Literature/{{Goldilocks}}'') does this with a book of carpet samples, reading "Once upon a time..." on the front.
25	[[/folder]]
26
27	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
28	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfMarkTwain'' begins with a [[PlayingWithATrope variant]] where the contents of an opened storybook spill out and form the world.
29	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingMaurice'' opens like this ... except the story is ''Mr Bunnsy Has an Adventure''. After a few sentences, CharacterNarrator Malicia slams it shut and says [[ThisIsNotThatTrope this isn't a story about cute bunnies]], it's a story about RATS! While Malicia reading ''Mr Bunnsy'' is returned to on several occasions, the last scene is Maurice closing ''Literature/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents''.
30	* ''WesternAnimation/TheChristmasTree'' is a textbook example. The storybook doesn't have words or even word-shaped scribbles, just the kind of colored VideoGame/{{Tetris}}-like blocks that frequently showed up in low-budget animation before the AllCGICartoon became common.
31	* ''[[ComicBook/DCTheNewFrontier Justice League: The New Frontier]]'' starts like this. It's a very dark version, as the storybook is about the monster that's coming to destroy humanity, and the writer finishes by [[RRatedOpening committing suicide]].
32	* ''Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon'' examples, in chronological order:
33	** As mentioned above, ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' is the TropeMaker.
34	** ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}''.
35	** Both segments of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfIchabodAndMrToad''.
36	** ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}''.
37	** ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty''.
38	** ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone''.
39	** ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967''.
40	** ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood1973''.
41	** ''WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'' [[NoFourthWall constantly reminds you that the characters are in a book.]] From bumping into the words on the page, to hopping from one page to the next. When Tigger gets stuck in a tree, he's [[InteractiveNarrator saved by the narrator,]] who simply turns the book sideways, allowing him to slide down the letters.
42	** ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' uses a variation, with stained-glass illustrations on the Beast's castle windows instead of a book.
43	** ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}'' opens with artwork on parchment that transitions into the animation, and it ends the same way in reverse.
44	** ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'' has another variation, with Greek pottery art that comes to life.
45	** ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'''s variation involves the main titles being represented as the scene painted on traditional Chinese watercolour art. There were plans to do a more straightforward (though extremely elaborate) use of the trope involving shadow puppetry, but it was scrapped for being too costly.
46	** The trope's usage was {{defied\|Trope}} and {{lampshade\|Hanging}}d by ''WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle''; the film opens with Buck Cluck deciding how best to begin the story. When the storybook appears, [[DefiedTrope he rejects it as too cliched and moves on]]. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Ironically, the storybook opening was originally going to be used for the movie, but was cut for apparently the same reason.]]
47	** ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'' was originally supposed to begin in a storybook style, as shown in the Extras on the DVD and also in the "Art Of" book, but was changed to the voiceover they used in the film.
48	* ''WesternAnimation/FantasticMrFox'': The film opens with the Roald Dahl novel, which fades into the opening scene.
49	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hoodwinked}}'' uses it not only to begin the film, but also for [[TheRashomon each of the versions of the story as told by the various characters]].
50	* Another Creator/DonBluth film, ''WesternAnimation/ThePebbleAndThePenguin'', actually did this with a songbook.
51	* At the very beginning of ''WesternAnimation/RockADoodle'', just right after we see Chanticleer quitting his job at the farm of waking the Sun up with his crowing and moving to the city after the other farm animals make fun of him after seeing the Sun rise without him one day, the camera pulls back to show that the entire prologue (which is animated) is just a storybook a mother is telling to her young son Edmund (both played by live actors) when the evil owl is introduced for the very first time.
52	* ''[[ComicStrip/RupertBear Rupert]] and the Frog Song'' opens with a live-action scene in which Music/PaulMcCartney is rummaging through a trunk of old ''Rupert'' [[TheChristmasAnnual annuals]], apparently from his childhood. He leafs through one of the books, and the scene transitions to Nutwood.
53	* ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}''
54	** Subverted by ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'', which opens with the title character reading a FairyTale... and then [[OnlyUsefulAsToiletPaper ripping out a page as toilet paper]].
55	** Played surprisingly straight in ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'', but even that turns out to be a setup for a gag that kicks off the rest of the film's plot.
56	** Used again in ''WesternAnimation/ShrekForeverAfter'', with multiple pages being ripped off in frustration by the villain, Rumpelstiltskin.
57	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfsAndTheMagicFlute'' starts off with a book page that the narrator reads "once upon a time" until he decides to tell the story without resorting to using a book and just turns the page to the picture of the king's castle that the camera zooms into.
58	* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseTheMovie'' opens on a storybook recapping Steven and his mother's history with the gem Homeworld through ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse''. [[ProsceniumReveal It turns out the book was being shown in-series]] on an intergalactic broadcast, which is how [[BigBad Spinel]] found out [[spoiler:Pink Diamond [[ForgottenFriendNewFoe wasn't coming back for her]]]]. [[{{Defictionalization}} An actual version of the storybook]] was made as a tie-in, [[SelfAdaptation written by the series' creator]].
59	* ''WesternAnimation/StrangeMagic'' starts with a scroll being opened to show the map of the Fairy Kingdom and the Dark Forest while the opening narration explains the setting.
60	* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGoToTheMovies'' opened this way, parodying the Marvel logo with Teen Titan comic pages, zooming out to reveal a pigeon reading a Teen Titan comic.
61	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Wizards}}'' opens with a live-action shot of a hardcover book opened to its first page, which reads "An illuminating history bearing on the everlasting struggle for world supremacy fought between the powers of technology and magic." This segues into an illustrated prologue drawn by Mike Ploog. Strangely, the book's page is printed using the [=E13B=] font, a machine-readable style that predates optical character recognition.
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
65	* In 2002, Marvel debuted a production logo made of flipping comic pages. The comic intro has proven extremely popular, with the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' making its own version that incorporates scripts and concept art.
66	* ''Creator/DCComics'' utilized a production logo with comic art from 2005 to 2011 for its films in those periods (the ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'', ''Film/SupermanReturns'', ''Film/JonahHex2010'', ''Film/TheLosers'' and ''Film/GreenLantern2011'').
67	* Disney's ''Film/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'' opens in this style.
68	* Used in the Laurel and Hardy version of ''Film/{{Babes in Toyland\|1934}}'', but cut from many prints. Mother Goose sings a song about Toyland and flips the pages of a book that shows all the main characters in live action, ending with Stan and Ollie.
69	* ''Film/BedtimeStory1964'' opens with a popup book showing some of the movie's locations, with Freddy shown as a wolf spying on a woman from behind a tree.
70	* The Creator/DisneyChannel original movie ''Film/{{Descendants}}'' "modernizes" this using a computer tablet in its opening.
71	* In the extended version of Creator/DavidLynch's ''Film/Dune1984'' one of the first shots after the opening credits is a shot of a copy of the original book by Frank Herbert.
72	* ''Film/{{Elf}}'' not only has a storybook in its prologue, opening credits, and closing scene, but the menus on the DVD resemble pop-up books.
73	* Used in ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'', for both the opening and the closing. Fittingly, the song that ends the movie opens with a line about "storybook endings".
74	* ''Film/{{Godmothered}}'': In the beginning, a book called "The Joy of Fairy Godmothering" opens to a page with clouds on it, which then part to reveal the film's first scene.
75	* Used in the 1937 Shirley Temple version of ''Heidi'' for the opening credits and first paragraph.
76	* The 2016 version of ''Film/{{The Jungle Book\|2016}}'' doesn't have a storybook opening, but it does have a storybook closing, with the book being [[BookEnds the very same one that opened the original animated classic]].
77	%% Needs context * The extended edition of the ''Film/LordOfTheRings'' DVD menu.
78	* Oddly used in ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''. It doesn't happen at the beginning or end, but about twenty minutes into the film, with the description of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table.
79	* ''Film/TheQuest'' doesn't have a Storybook Opening, but ends with a Storybook ''Closing'' for some inexplicable reason.
80	* ''Film/TheReturnOfSherlockHolmes'' opens with a shot of ''[[Literature/SherlockHolmes The Return of Sherlock Holmes]]'' by Sir Creator/ArthurConanDoyle, which opens to display the cast list for the film.
81	* In ''Film/TheSmurfs2'', Narrator uses a pop-up book to tell the story of how Smurfette came to be at the beginning of the movie.
82	* ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheThreeStooges'' opens this way, with the Stooges having fun at points.
83	* ''Film/ThirteenWomen'' begins with a copy of the novel on which it is based opening to show a page explaining about the power of suggestion, complete with references to a psychology journal. The movie proper then starts.
84	* Each of the segments in the Anthologyfilm ''Film/TwiceToldTales'' begins with a pair of skeletal hands opening opening a book to reveal the title of the story while Creator/VincentPrice starts a narration as the page fades into the actual scene.
85	* Creator/WesAnderson utilizes this method a lot in his films, eg ''Film/TheFrenchDispatch'' using different issues of a newspaper and ''Film/TheGrandBudapestHotel'' being a book that opens the narrative. Also see ''WesternAnimation/FantasticMrFox'' above, which Anderson co-directed.
86	[[/folder]]
87
88	[[folder:Literature]]
89	* The ''Literature/CliffordTheBigRedDog'' television series opens and closes each episode this way. Justified as the TV series is actually based on a set of books.
90	%% Needs context * Used in a flashback in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''.
91	[[/folder]]
92
93	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
94	* During the 1970's and 1980's, this was the [[https://youtu.be/qby37xuo9mU introduction]] to the SoapOpera ''Series/AllMyChildren'', only it was a photo album rather than a book. The 1990's updated it with a slew of photographs falling into the album before ''closing'' it.
95	* In the second season of ''Series/{{Evil}}'', each episode is framed by a page from a children's book called "The Pop-Up Book of Terrifying Things", which is alphabet themed, with each pop-up presenting a different letter. Each episode takes its name from one of the entries.
96	%% Needs context * The ''Series/{{Highlander}}'' episode, "The Stone Of Scone" has this.
97	* ''{{Series/Hustle}}'' does it with the season 4 episode "A Designer's Paradise", although the book doesn't appear until partway into the episode when Albert starts explaining the con in terms of the fairytale "The Emperor's New Clothes".
98	* ''{{Series/Monk}}'' uses this for the summation in the last episode of season 3, "Mr. Monk and the Kid"
99	* The intro to ''Series/MySpecialBook'' features Book Girl emerging from behind a giant book, the main setting of the series, and inviting the viewers to join her before opening the book.
100	* The "Gingerbread" episode of ''{{Series/Taggart}}'' used this. (The story was loosely inspired by Hansel and Gretel).
101	* ''Series/WonderWoman1975'' used comic art in its title sequences.
102	[[/folder]]
103
104	[[folder:Theatre]]
105	* When it first opened, the 2013 musical adaptation of ''Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' had an animated opening sequence about the making of chocolate that began this way (the book a large, purple one with a golden ''W'' on the cover). The narrator began with the lines "This is a story about the most important thing in the world: Chocolate." This sequence was cut in 2014 with the first cast turnover, possibly for pacing reasons.
106	[[/folder]]
107
108	[[folder:Video Games]]
109	* The opening cinematics of ''VideoGame/ArabianFight'' depicts a bound book resembling a Quran opening. Cue the game starting.
110	%% ZCE * ''VideoGame/AtelierMarieTheAlchemistOfSalburg''
111	* ''VideoGame/BatenKaitosEternalWingsAndTheLostOcean'': The intro cutscene shows a book, titled "The History of Baten Kaitos: Endless Wings and the Lost Sea", which opens to briefly go over the world's backstory.
112	* ''VideoGame/BramStokersDracula'' for the SNES and Genesis has the player opening a book titled "Vampyres" and turning to a new page between levels. However, there are no cutscenes.
113	* ''VideoGame/BraveHeroYuusha'': The storybook is called The Hero & The Demon.
114	* ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania 64}}'' starts with the book already open on the a page holding the file select menu. Starting a new game results in your signature appearing on the document, and the pages flipping backwards to reveal it's a copy of [[spoiler:the Necronomicon]].
115	%% ZCE * ''VideoGame/ChronoCross''
116	* ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'' opens with a live-action storybook cutscene explaining Cuphead's situation, and closes out the same way.
117	%% ZCE * ''VideoGame/DarkCloud''
118	* ''VideoGame/EternityTheLastUnicorn'' begins with the Alfheim Grimoire opening, followed by the backstory's narration before it segues into gameplay.
119	%% ZCE * ''VideoGame/GrandKnightsHistory''
120	* The old Crystal Dynamics game ''VideoGame/TheHorde'' does this.
121	* ''VideoGame/KirbysEpicYarn'': Every cutscene is presented as a storybook, with anything not from the yarn world presented as a paper cutout. It's also narrated by a calm and soothing audiobook-style voice.
122	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfTianding'' has a {{Manhua}} opening with the game's poster recreated on the front of a comic book. It then opens and segues into the first stage.
123	* ''VideoGame/LordsOfMagic'' starts off with a book opening that narrates the rise of the dark lord Balkoth and how he disrupted the previously peaceful land of Urak.
124	%% ZCE * ''VideoGame/MaceTheDarkAge''
125	* ''VideoGame/MapleStory'' originally had a login screen which was the first page in a book.
126	* ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' has a variant; Atrus narrates as the Myst book tumbles through a starry void, before landing in front of you on a...surface. Open the book, touch the picture, and the game begins. Since you're supposed to be in a library as the FramingDevice, one can assume that it was actually falling off a shelf, and the player picks it up to begin. The book is actually falling through a starry void, having been dropped into it as explained in the sequel Riven. [[spoiler:If you've played your way through the entire Myst series including Uru, you'll know that the book fell through the Star Fissure, and that the "surface" mentioned above would be the ground in the New Mexico desert. A funny FridgeLogic twist is that, if you've also read the books, you'll know that you could have picked up the Myst book, entered the Crevice nearby, and navigated your way through the caves to D'ni just like Ti'ana did in Myst: The book of Atrus. Then you could hand the book directly to Atrus where he sat, avoiding the entire first game and "winning" without ever having linked anywhere nor visited Myst island.]]
127	* ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'': The game's story is contained within a series of books a young girl is reading one afternoon. Each character's NewGamePlus is simply Alice closing the book at the end and starting again from the beginning.
128	* ''VisualNovel/RadicalDreamers'': This Platform/SuperNintendo Stellaview game uses it as well. One of the few examples where the story is related through (it is implied) the text of the book itself. ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' does the same thing, only since it isn't a text-based game, the example isn't quite as unusual.
129	* The events of ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureQuestForBooty'' are told via a book from Rusty Pete towards Captain Slag, both of whom narrate the story.
130	* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilVillage'' opens on a story titled "Village of Shadows", framed in the context of Mia telling the story to Ethan and their infant daughter, Rose. [[spoiler:This story is rife with {{Foreshadowing}}, as the locations and the monsters reference the Four Houses and their lords and how the daughter being kidnapped by the witch references Miranda's kidnapping of Rose. The ending of the game finishes this story by showing the fight between the father and the witch that culminates in the former giving up his life to protect his daughter, mirroring how Ethan fought Miranda and his HeroicSacrifice destroying the Megamycete to protect Rose and Mia.]]
131	* ''VideoGame/{{Skully}}'' starts with a book with Skully on it's front cover flipping open, which leads to the title screen. [[spoiler:After Skully's HeroicSacrifice and with Terry making amends with his siblings, the book then closes before the credits]].
132	* ''VideoGame/{{Slashout}}'' has a Storybook ''Closing'', capping on a screenshot of the four victorious heroes after the credits finish rolling.
133	* ''[[VideoGame/SoulCalibur Soul Edge]]'''s 'Edge Master Mode' had each character's journey represented as the pages of a book. Rather than the ending videos as shown when Arcade Mode was completed, it would be shown via illustrations in the book.
134	* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros''
135	** ''VideoGame/YoshisStory'' features a pop-up storybook. The opening scene presents the first several pages introducing the story. During gameplay, the page turns for each new world. At the end, the storybook reviews all six worlds, the final pages present a happy ending, and the book closes.
136	** ''VideoGame/PaperMario'': The first four games begin with a book opening and the narrator informing the player what "Today's story" is going to be. ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPaperJam'' played with it by revealing the ''Paper Mario'' world really is held within a book in the regular Mario universe ... and having the characters [[RefugeeFromTVLand escape]].
137	** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' shows one of these when starting a new file, and during the credits. At the end, it is revealed that [[spoiler:Rosalina had been narrating it as well as the whole game]]. The end scene also transitions into the Green Star Challenge.
138	* ''VideoGame/UltraversePrime'', befitting an arcade game based on a comic book, starts with a shot of the book's cover featuring the titular hero. The game then enters the book when the player hit start.
139	* ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' opens this way, and uses the book as a menu interface throughout. At the end, [[spoiler:Ellet, the reporter following Squad 7]] turns out to be the writer.
140	%% ZCE * ''VideoGame/WildArms''
141	[[/folder]]
142
143	[[folder:Web Animation]]
144	* ''Webanimation/StupidKids'': ''Ahol a méreg sem segít'' (''Where even poison does not help'') begins with a picture book opening along with a {{narrator}}.
145	* ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'' did this with the review of ''VideoGame/RedFactionGuerrilla''.
146	[[/folder]]
147
148	[[folder:Western Animation]]
149	* Used in ''WesternAnimation/TheBackyardigans'' episode "The Secret of Snow", the only episode to not begin with [[EstablishingShot an aerial of the backyard]].
150	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'': The opening credits, only instead of a storybook, it's a ''cookbook''.
151	* ''WesternAnimation/FerdinandTheBull'' didn't have one originally, but it was retroactively added in the 1950s when it was broadcast on [[Series/WaltDisneyPresents Walt Disney's television show]].
152	* ''WesternAnimation/HazbinHotel'' begins with [[AntiAntiChrist Princess Charlie]] reading [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0tobM9b_9I ''The Story of Hell''.]]
153	* The 30-minute adaptation of ''Literature/TheLittleEngineThatCould'' opened and closed this way.
154	* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': ''[[WesternAnimation/TheThreeLittleBops Three Little Bops]]'' opens with a shot of the cover of the storybook of ''Literature/TheThreeLittlePigs'', before cross-fading into showing the Pigs as bebop jazz musicians "playing music with a modern sound".
155	* ''[[WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh Winnie the Pooh]]'': Disney's short subject versions take this to its logical conclusion by actually taking place in the book itself.
156	* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
157	** The first episode opened with one, telling the "old pony's tale" that sets the events of the series in motion.
158	** The show's final episode ends with the same book from the first episode closing at the very end of the song, "The Magic of Friendship Grows". After the book closes, it shines with a ding sound effect.
159	* The first SeasonFinale of ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' starts with one of these, as King reads aloud from an illustrated book about Emperor Belos' rise to power.
160	* ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'': As pictured above, The "Fractured Fairy Tales" segment used this, but played with it, with the fairy first having difficulty turning the pages due to her small size, then having the book slam shut on her.
161	* The ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'' episode "Lyle The Kindly Viking" opens with Archibald reading the story from a pop-up book.
162	[[/folder]]

Context Main / StorybookOpening