History Literature / JimButton

* MixAndMatchCritters: Half-dragons. Nepomuk, for example, is half-dragon and half-hippo.

* PerpetualMotionMachine: Invented by the protagonists of the second book. Essentially, their version is based on a magnet which you can switch on and off, which pulls their locomotive.

* DubNameChange: While there are many examples of mere translations, Luke's homeland still had to rhyme with "Sorrowland" ("Kummerland" in the German original) and be different by only one letter, so "Lummerland" became "Morrowland". Also, the change from "Alfons" to "Alfred" cannot be justified by translation.

* HappilyAdopted: Jim. Though he is surprised and momentarily distressed to find out that Mrs Whaat isn't his real mother, the distress doesn't last for long.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Jim and Luke.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Dragons. [[spoiler:Or so we're told, but it's ultimately subverted when Mrs. Grindtooth reveals that dragons are evil by nature but are unhappy because of it, and that they act as terrible as they can in the hope that someone will defeat them and turn them good -- upon which they become Golden Dragons of Wisdom.]]

* QuintessentialBritishGentleman: Mr. Sleeve, despite being a Morrowlander and not actually English, is portrayed as a stereotypical Englishman. He's unfailingly polite and well-educated, and is most often seen taking a stroll, wearing a bowler and carrying an umbrella.

The ''Jim Button'' books were Michael Ende's first novels and are still regarded as beloved classics. They have received a number of adaptations over the years -- the most well-known screen adaption is the {{Puppet Show|s}} by the Creator/AugsburgerPuppenkiste from the 1960s and 1970s, but there was also an anime (which took a lot of liberties with the story) in 1974, a Creator/SabanEntertainment-produced cartoon show (which stuck closer to the original story but added a lot to it in order to ger 52 episodes) in 1998, and most recently a live-action movie in 2018.

The ''Jim Button'' books were Michael Ende's first novels and are still regarded as beloved classics. They have received a number of adaptations over the years -- the most well-known screen adaption is the {{Puppet Show|s}} by the Creator/AugsburgerPuppenkiste from the 1960s and 1970s, but there was also an anime (which took a lot of liberties with the story) in 1974, a Saban-produced cartoon show (which stuck closer to the original story but added a lot to it in order to ger 52 episodes) in 1998, and most recently a live-action movie in 2018.

* LologicalFallacies:

The second book is set a year later and sees Jim and Luke off on another adventure. This book ties up all the plot threads left loose by the original book, and explore's Jim's past and background more thoroughly as he discovers who he really is and where he came from.

* FantasticRacism: Dragons forbid "racially impure" dragons from entering the Dragon City, leaving the half-dragons to a miserable existence in the Land of the Thousand Volcanoes.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Nepomuk. This is a pretty big problem for him, since dragons are ''supposed'' to be evil, and as a half-dragon Nepomuk stribes to be like the pure-blood dragons... but to his frustration, he just isn't that bad a guy and seldom manages to be more than just rude and impolite.

The most well-known screen adaption is the {{Puppet Show|s}} by the Creator/AugsburgerPuppenkiste. There has also been an AnimatedAdaptation.

In 2018, a Live-Action adaption of the first book was released.

* SheIsTheKing: Well, Li Si was considered for the position of King of the Sky Kingdom but she turned it down. Anyway, her father is the Emperor of Mandalia and it's not clear if she'll become Emperor or Empress once she inherits the throne.

* NoExportForYou: Only the first Jim Button book has been translated into English; the translation was published over 20 years ago, hasn't been reprinted since, and goes for about $250 on Amazon.

!!The 1986 animated series provides examples of:

* AdaptationExpansion: The 1996 animated series has the same main characters and basic plot as the books, but is padded with a lot of added characters and subplots.
** It also gives Mrs Grindtooth an extra motivation for imprisoning the children in the first place, which is based on a lot of misunderstandings and misconceptions about the nature of humans. She's growing old and, having misunderstood the saying that "Laughter makes you younger," she kidnaps a bunch of children so that they can teach her the power of laughter. When the children don't feel much inclined to laugh being imprisoned in Sorrowland, she decides to torture them until they cooperate -- and having heard that human children find school to be torture, she starts the mock-school.
* AscendedExtra:
** Pi Pa Po, the EvilChancellor of Mandala is a fairly minor nuisence in the book and is quickly disposed of, but in the animated series he's a major antagonist, constantly following Luke and Jim to thwart them, and is even the one who arranged for Princess Li Si to be kidnapped.
** Li Si and Ping Pong likewise have much larger roles.
* BigBadEnsemble: Mrs. Grindtooth and Pi Pa Po during the first story arc. The Wild 13 and again Pi Pa Po during the second story arc.
* CannotTellAJoke: Mrs. Grindtooth, largely because she has no concept of humor.
* CanonForeigner: Dozens of them. Perhaps most central are Mrs. Grindtooth's half-dragon EvilMinions (directly contradicting the book's statement that full-blood dragons refuse to deal with half-dragons) and Pi Pa Po's SycophanticServant Mei Wen Ti.
* JerkAss: Pi Pa Po and Mrs Grindtooth
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Nepomuk, the "heart of gold" part emphasised even more than in the book. Here, he is barely even a jerk and even other half-dragons shun him because he's "too nice".
* LethalChef: Mrs. Grindtooth, though partly this might be because of dragons' unique diet. Her pastries are so lethal that the Wild 13 successfully use them as cannonballs when they've run out of real cannonballs.
* MacGuffin: Li Si's locket.
* MixAndMatchCritters: The half-dragons; much more obviously so than in the book, where the only half-dragon we actually meet is Nepomuk. Here we meet tons of them, all of which are more or less obvious mixes of dragons and various animals.
** In fact, Nepomuk himself is almost a {{Subversion}} of this, as he's the only half-dragon we meet whose non-dragon parentage isn't immediately obvious (his mother was a hippo, but beyond some vague hippo-like facial features he doesn't look much like one).
* NeverSayDie: The English dub in particular gets ''ridiculous'' with the euphemisms the characters resort to in their total unwillingness to say "die" or "kill."
** Making it even more of a shock the first time it's averted, by the Emperor's line to Ping Pong: "I may look like I'm alive, but with Li Si gone, and Jim and Luke, I feel as if I were dead."
** And in the season one finale, the words "die," "dying" and "killed" are used several times, [[spoiler:by and about the defeated Mrs. Grindtooth. Of course, she is spared death at the last moment, due to experiencing joy for the first time in her life -- and as in the book, transforms into a Golden Dragon of Wisdom.]]

* LehtalChef: Mrs. Grindtooth, though partly this might be because of dragons' unique diet. Her pastries are so lethal that the Wild 13 successfully use them as cannonballs when they've run out of real cannonballs.

* DividedForPublication: ''Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver'' was supposed to be just one book, but the editors felt it was too long for a "kiddie book", and made Ende split it in two. (This was long before JKRowling.)