"He is a child, but he's older than his parents. When Marbas will lift his hand at him, he will be left alone with himself, duel with himself, and lose that fight. Then, a hand many times smaller than his hand will turn Hellberg upside-down, and it will cease to be The Reversed Mountain."
— The prophecy of Marbas' downfall.
The Reversed Mountain, or Dreadfully Titled Movie (pl. Odwrócona Góra, albo Film Pod Strasznym Tytułem) is a Polish animated movie created in 2000 by Jerzy Niemczuk and Leszek Gałysz. It is a movie version of their 13-episode long animated series from 1996, which itself is based on their book, Dreadfully Titled Tale. It tells the story of a magical shapeshifting creature called Wił, and his struggle to defeat the evil knight-like Marbati. Escaping from captivity with the help of a gigantic tornado, Wił and three little creatures called Plonki get cast to the farmhouse of Mamuna, Tatun, their son Sonek and grandpa Lesawik. But the situation becomes dangerous. Hearing of an ancient prophecy that a child will defeat him, Marbas, the leader of the Marbati, orders all children from the land he conquered to be captured and delivered to his castle Hellberg.
The book, series and movie contain the following tropes:
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Played for laughs: Once Wił has his anti-shapeshifting collar removed, he transforms into Lesawik and then into Mamuna, because she was greatly disturbed by his form of a talking dog and refused to accept two Lesawiks. He assumes that she wouldn't mind seeing herself, which makes her complain about her own looks. Finally, he agrees to transform into Sonek, so that the latter and his friend Topek have a companion for kids' games (so it's much more "a form you can play with").
- Alchemy Is Magic: Marbas utilizes Magic Potions to turn his soldiers into various animals. Lesawik also uses magical mixtures, but they have many different effects of questionable utility.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: The captured children belong to all kinds of fairy-tale races of various skin colours.
- Ambiguously Human: Sonek and his family are the only humans in the story. Were it not for their purple hair...
- Animorphism: Wił can change into many different animals, while Marbas is able to change others into beasts with his magic potions. It is important to note that outside of military purposes, Marbas forces his soldiers to drink his concoctions just so he can fight and defeat their powerful, beastly forms.
- Applied Phlebotinum: Substances invented by Lesawik. Also doubles as Magitek.
- Artistic License – Biology: Sonek's family keeps hens in their farm. The hens have teeth. Some of them talk.
- Comic Trio: Plonki. Toko, Pinek and Chobołt. They are mouse-like little people who spread mischief everywhere.
- Cool Old Guy: Lesawik, Sonek's grandpa, is probably the most energetic member of the family. He builds crazy inventions all the time (he even managed to create a fully functional flying machine!) and invents miraculous substances that can make things (and people) disappear, shrink or bloat. One of his ointments can even harden the surface it is applied on, which allows Wił to defeat Marbas.
- Cool Sword: Marbas wields a large, magical one that can fire energy blasts.
- Erudite Stoner: Latar, Lesawik's old friend, is an elderly blue moose-like creature with a magic light glowing between his antlers, dressed in an old-fashioned professor's suit. His manner of speaking makes him sound like he's after some substance use. His absent-minded face doesn't make the situation any better.
- Evil Counterpart: Marbas to Lesawik. Both of them utilize alchemy and technology to a great extent, but Marbas uses it to kill and destroy, while Lesawik tries to invent things which can help others.
- Evil Overlord: Marbas.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
- Sonek and his family resemble 19th-century Polish peasants.
- The Marbati are based on Vikings, with their stereotypical horned helmets. Residing in a castle, however, gives some vague resemblance to German raubrittern, bandit-knights.
- Fish People: Topicha, Topek, and the Chlapa twins are a family of peaceful fishlike creatures who live in the river near the farmhouse. They have blue skin, frog feet, and create puddles of water everywhere they go. Their appearance is probably based on the water spirits of slavic folklore (rusalkas and vodyanoyi).
- Gentle Giant: Gig.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: The Marbati, with their red, cat-like eyes. Also their spy, Omenter, being a small, hooded, rat-like figure, has a pair of black-and-red eyes that give little children nightmares.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Hellberg- The Reversed Mountain, fortress of the Marbati. Couples with what Wił says about his having been imprisoned there - Marbas may be the Marbati commander, but the true lord of the castle is fear.
- Large and in Charge: Marbas, the commander of the Marbati, who dwarfs his subjects.
- Large Ham: Marbas, with a castle-shaking Evil Laugh and No Indoor Voice.
- Lighter and Softer: The book version of the story is considerably more serious, and contains many direct references to death. The movie tones them down a bit, presumably because it was originally released in the form of bedtime story episodes aimed for young children.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Purslas, fed up with how bad Marbas treats his own soldiers, wants to redirect his bloodlust. First, he lies to him that the Giants of Tytanis want to attack Hellberg, which leads to a raid on the city. Then, he makes up a prophecy to keep him busy.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: Marbas' actions turned out really bad for him.
- Our Demons Are Different: Played with. The Marbati soldiers resemble horned devils, and their leader Marbas is named after a very specific demon described in the Ars Goetia (The Lesser Key of Solomon). More importantly, the demon in question posesses wisdom and knowledge in mechanical arts, and can change men into other shapes- both of these traits are exhibited by the movie version of Marbas.
- Prophecy Twist: Wił in Sonek's form is a child older than his parents. Marbas fights himself, because Wił takes his form. Marbas loses because of Lesawik's ointment which Wił applies on his sword. And finally, hand many times smaller than his which turns Hellberg upside-down is Gig's, who was shrunk by Lesawik's potion (even when shrunk, Gig still had a mass and strength of a giant).
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: Valefar, Abiger and Foran are Marbas' most trusted generals, and Purslas is his personal advisor. Together, they form a war council.
- Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Wił cannot change his dog form after being captured, because of magical collar put around his neck by the Marbati. He can still talk though.
- Sycophantic Servant: Omenter is blindly loyal to Marbas, and tries to stay in his good graces by spying, constantly repeating his orders, and hanging out by his side most of the time. Ultimately, he is the only one to not abandon his master when Hellberg is being destroyed.
- Talking Animal: Lesawik taught one of hens to talk. Wił can also talk in his animal forms.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Wił can change into any creature or person, with no apparent limitations. As he himself puts it: "Everything changes: trees, people, animals. But Wiłs change the most." Interestingly, his mother (briefly present at the start of the movie) was even able to turn herself into an object, an ability which he never shows in the story. Their default form resembles a translucent, bluish creature with a single horn on its head.
