Trivia / Hilda

Miscellaneous

• While Hilda isn't exactly a musical, multiple original songs have been written for the show:
  • "The Life of Hilda", an Image Song written, composed, and sung by Hilda's voice actress, Bella Ramsey (first released as a standalone video before Season 2, then later used in the show proper during the end credits of "The Beast of Cauldron Island")
  • "Don't Let Your Love Fly Away" (the tune David listens and sings along to in "The Eternal Warriors")
  • "This Is Nowhere" by Orville Peck (the end scene and credits music for "The Windmill")
  • "Another Road" by Rachel Aggs and Vice Cooler (the end credits music for Hilda and the Mountain King)
• Luke Pearson used to work on comics and storyboard for a few episodes in Adventure Time.
• While recording for the season 2 episode, "The Deerfox", Bella Ramsey was actually crying while recording her lines during the scene where Hilda had to let Twig go.
• The typeface for the opening credits, as well as the credits for the episode in the title card, is a hand regular font. The typeface for the closing credits at the end is Helvetica Neue LT Pro 47 Light Condensed.
• According to an interview with Children's Media Company, Hilda executive producer Kurt Mueller reveals that he enjoys watching another Netflix show titled, City of Ghosts.

Trivia tropes

The Graphic Novels

• Creator Backlash: While Pearson doesn't hate it, he considers the original Hildafolk to be the weakest of the graphic novels. He attributes this towards failing to recapture the spirit of The Moomins, his main influence while writing the first book, rather then establishing with his own style, as stated in this 2013 interview.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Of the graphic novels, Luke Pearson in one Q&A considers Hilda and the Midnight Giant to be the one he's most proud of and the most thematically consistent and satisfying story he's written in the series, despite having elements he isn't fond of in hindsight (such as the art style).

The Netflix Series

• Acting for Two: Rasmus Hardiker voices both Alfur and Tontu, the two of whom also interact with each other pretty often.
• All-Star Cast: Bella Ramsey, Ameerah Falzon-Ojo, Daisy Haggard, Rasmus Hardiker, Lucy Montgomery, John Hopkins, and Kaisa Hammarlund all play cast regulars in the show.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: Andy Serkis has a role in "The Yule Lads" as Kertasnikir, the leader of the title characters. Season 3 adds Miriam Margolyes as Great-Aunt Astrid.
• Completely Different Title: Known as Hilda no Bouken (Hilda's Adventure) in Japan.
• Content Leak:
  • The third season was accidentally confirmed to be in the works in April 2021 by the show's dialogue editor on Facebook, before Ako Mitchell (Woodman's voice actor) would post about being in the recording studio the following June. It was officially confirmed later that November as the final season.
  • In February 2023, the tie-in novels were leaked to show some of the episode plots in the third season before they were officially revealed.
• Creator Cameo:
  • An animated version of Victoria Evans appears as a parade member in "The Bird Parade".
  • An animated version of Kurt Mueller appears as one of the parents in "The Troll Rock"
  • Luke Pearson has a brief voice role in "The Tide Mice" as a customer at the hardware store. In the same episode, two of the Warbler members are voiced by Kurt Mueller's two children: Anisha and Roshan Mueller.
• The Danza: The Librarian is revealed to be named Kaisa, which is also the name of her voice actress, Kaisa Hammarlund.
• Dark Horse Casting: Unlike Bella Ramsey and Ameerah Falzon-Ojo, Oliver Nelson is a newcomer actor with David was being his first role in a TV series.
• Dark Horse Victory:
  • The show, in a surprise upset, won 3 Annie Awards. One for "Best Character Animation", one for "Outstanding Writing", and one for "Best TV/Media for Children" for "The Hidden People", the show's very first episode, in 2019. This beat out Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Tangled: The Series, and Spongebob Square Pants. All three, that lost to "Hilda", are popular shows rather than sleeper hits.
  • In 2021, about a few months after Season 2 was released, the show, in a another surprise upset won, another 3 Annie Awards. One for "Best TV/Media for Children" for "The Deerfox", one for "Best Editorial in TV/Media", and one for "Best Character Animation". This beat out She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and The Owl House, which were both more popular shows rather than sleeper hits.
  • In the same year, "Hilda" teamed-up with fellow Hulu series, Animaniacs (2020), to win big at the 2021 Daytime Creative Emmy Awards. Both shows beat out The Owl House, which was a more popular show than "Animaniacs" and "Hilda". While "Animaniacs" took home, "Outstanding Voice Directing for an Animated Series", "Outstanding Original Song for a Preschool, Children's, or Animated Program", "Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program", and "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation", "Hilda" managed to crush "The Owl House" by taking home the award for "Outstanding Children's Animated Series". For the topping of the cake, both shows took home the award for "Outstanding Editing in an Animated Series". And thus, a friendship with one another is born.
• Dawson Casting: Bella Ramsey was 13 when she started recording the voice of 11-year-old Hilda back in 2016 and has continued to voice the character into her late teens.
• Died During Production: In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, Ana Lucia Menezes—who voiced Hilda—died of a stroke on April 20, 2021.
• Fake American: British Rasmus Hardiker uses an American accent for Tontu.
• Fandom Life Cycle: Currently at Stage 2, and is likely to develop further given that the cartoon continues.
• He Also Did: This show is basically a CBBC crossover. Bella Ramsey (Mildred Hubble) from The Worst Witch stars alongside Ameerah Falzon-Ojo (Jas Salford) from So Awkward. In addition, both keep in touch on Instagram, despite not meeting each other in person.
• The Merch: GUND has made plushies out of Hilda, Twig, and the Woff, but they're pretty pricey. As of 2023, they are sold out, with no plans for any more due to GUND no longer having the license to the show, and the series itself ending.
• Non-Singing Voice: For "The Tide Mice", David's singing voice is provided by Ilan Galkoff instead of David's voice actor Oliver Nelson. It was averted in Season 2, with the song "Don't Let Your Love Fly Away" performed by Oliver Nelson.
• The Other Darrin: For the Audio Adaptation of the tie-in novels, most voice actors from the animated series reprised their roles, but some got replaced, with Arthur Smith Galiano taking over as David, Sanchia McCormack as Johanna, and Edward Molony as Trevor.
• Outdated by Canon: After Season 2 came out, a popular fan theory formed that the nameless Keeper of the Bell is Hilda's father. This theory even made it's way into several fanfics. With the release of the tie-in novel "Hilda and the Faratok Tree" and season 3's "The Job", which features the first appearance of Hilda's father, Anders, this theory has officially been debunked.
• Production Nickname: According to Andy Coyle, while David's Marra (the one with twintails) lacked a name in the script, the production crew called her "twintails".
• Release Date Change: Season 2 was originally scheduled for release in September 2020, exactly 2 years after the first season. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, it was delayed to December of the same year.
• Recycled: The Series: Online marketing for the Netflix show calls the show Hilda: the Series. On Netflix itself, its simply called Hilda.
• Screwed by the Network: Netflix gave the third season very little promotion, with the trailer for the season not premiering until a week before the season dropped unceremoniously. On top of that, according to Luke Pearson and Andy Coyle, Netflix had also cut down the season's planned length from 13-14 episodes to only 8.
• Self-Adaptation: Luke Pearson who wrote the comics, also wrote for the animated series.
• Series Hiatus: The first season was released in September 2018, and the second season premiered in December 2020, totaling a hiatus of two years. And then a year hiatus between season 2 and The Mountain King. The third season is scheduled for a December 2023 release, making it a two year hiatus yet again for the final time (three if one doesn't count Mountain King and instead exclusively just the seasons).
• Sleeper Hit: The Netflix series is definitely this. Although the comics were acclaimed, they were somewhat obscure. Excellent word of mouth surrounding the show prompted many viewers to check it out, resulting in it becoming such an unexpected hit, both critically and commercially, that Silvergate Media is now planning a licensing program for it in response, with Netflix announcing a second season within weeks and an extra-length special set to release later on in 2021. An additional season was eventually commissioned as well.
• Shrug of God: When Luke Pearson was asked about Hilda's Disappeared Dad by a fan in a 2018 interview, he vaguely stated "he's somewhere, just not a part of Hilda’s life at this time." He would eventually become a part of her life in season 3.
• What Could Have Been: Has its own page.

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