YMMV / The World of David the Gnome

• Adaptation Displacement: Many Tropers who grew up watching this show probably weren't aware that it was based on a series of books, or that the first one is considered rather seminal in its native Netherlands.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: David shooing Swift away in the final episode: sparing the fox's feelings or not wanting Swift to see him and Lisa dying?
• Awesome Art: The background art is realistic looking.
• Awesome Music:
  • Swift's leitmotif.
  • Also, both nostalgia-tear-inducing opening and closing themes; Soy un gnomo and David. And the two alternative ending themes in original Spanish; Corre Swift and Slitzweitz ^note Was used in the first broadcasting of the last episode.
  • The English opening is awe-inspiring.
• Common Knowledge: The Wisdom of the Gnomes is NOT a sequel to this series, it only happens in the same universe. This especially caused confusion in Finland, due to the title being same for both.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Pretty much nobody who watched the original likes The New World of the Gnomes, if they know it exists at all. The animation is cheaper, the colors are saturated, the character designs are different and less realistic, the setting is clearly The '90s rather than the vague period feel of the original, and the script is even more anvilicious (the new David is not a doctor, but a "knight of the environment").
• First Installment Wins: The Wisdom of the Gnomes is not popular even in it's home country Spain. Doesn't help that it had more repetitive episodes and didn't bring in much new content. Then again it's still a better-received sequel than The New World of the Gnomes.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: The notorious final episode completely recontextualizes all of David and Lisa's fourth wall breaking lectures about gnome culture and the lessons they want people to learn. Both of them are well aware they're close to the gnome age limit, and the whole show is them passing on all the wisdom they've learned in their long lives before they go.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • While the Grand Finale is sob inducing, David and Lisa both Go Out with a Smile, knowing that they'll always have each other, even in death.
  • Swift making friends with Christopher and Agnes (who he appears to have romantic feelings for and vice-versa). It's clear that, while Swift is understandably sad about David's death, he'll be just fine.
• He Really Can Act:
  • Both Tom Bosley and Jane Woods have downright heartbreaking performance in the final episode when they are saying their final goodbyes to Swift and later to each other.
  • David's Spanish voice actor, José María Cordero, also had heart wrenching moment when David says goodbye to Swift; he clearly tries not to cry for real.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: David's Finnish voice actor, Rainer Kaunisto, voiced another doctor character whose best friend is a red fox a year later.
• It Was His Sled: People outside Spain or who didn't watch it on Nick in the 80s only know about the show for its tear-jerking finale.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "How about I slap your shit?" in the U.S.
  • In Mexico, it's "OBLIGAME, PRRO!"^note Literally translated as "Force me, you d(o)g!", but it can be idiomatically translated as "Try me, bitch!"
• Sequelitis: The Wisdom of the Gnomes
• Superlative Dubbing: All of the various Davids across languages were memorable, but Tom Bosley's turn as the English David is virtually iconic for Nickelodeon kids of a certain generation. We also did mention that the English narration was provided by Christopher Plummer, right?
• The Woobie:
  • Swift the fox in some episodes; he got his leg caught on bear-trap in one episode and got poisoned by Holley in another. Not to forget that in the finale episode he sees David and Lisa dying along with Casper.
  • Poor Gina, the gnome girl from Italia, got badly poisoned after she ate some strawberries which contained pesticide.
  • "Young Dr. Gnome" has a little fawn that got shot by a hunter. Poor thing had a lot pain before David removed the bullet.

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