Line #19 WesternAnimation/BenAndHollysLittleKingdom


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/71lmrcogwnl_ri.jpg]]
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3	''Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom'' is a British [[FantasyWesternAnimation fantasy]] [[WesternAnimation animated]] television series created and directed by Creator/MarkBaker and Neville Astley and produced by Phil Davies (who also make ''WesternAnimation/PeppaPig''). It follows the adventures of Princess Holly and Ben Elf and their caretakers, Nanny Plum and The Wise Old Elf.
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6	!!Tropes seen in ''Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom'':
7	* AlliterativeName: Played with in an episode which features Betty Caterpillar... who of course turns into Betty Butterfly by the end of the story.
8	* AllAnimalsAreDogs: Gaston the ladybird is Ben Elf's dog. (Except when he's Ben's [[AutomatonHorse motorbike]].)
9	** In the episode "Miss Jolly's Riding Club", we discover [[AllAnimalsAreDomesticated All Snails Are Horses]]. Galloping (slowly), neighing, rearing, bucking, needing mucking out, and so on. In ''Chickens Ride West'', we find [[AllAnimalsAreDomesticated All Chickens Are Also Horses]] (or possibly buffalo), and [[AllAnimalsAreDomesticated So Are Ants]].
10	* AlmightyJanitor: Nanny Plum's magic is the most powerful (apart from maybe Granny Thistle and the twins), she can talk to animals and she moonlights as THE Tooth Fairy. She's also the cleaning lady for the Thistles and Holly's childminder.
11	* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: Since everyone in the Little Kingdom is small, the humans (or what the Little Kingdom refers them to: "Big People") are giants compared to them. In the episode "Big Ben and Holly", both Ben and Holly accidentally grow to human size and are giants compared to the Little Kingdom.
12	** Even dwarves and gnomes, while much smaller than humans, are much bigger than elves and fairies.
13	* BlatantLies: In "Queen Thistle's Teapot" when Queen Thistle thinks Nanny Plum broke her teapot she prepares to turn her into a slug as punishment, but once Holly admits she was the one who broke the teapot the Queen lies and claims she wasn't really going to do it, which Nanny Plum clearly doesn't buy.
14	* CallingTheOldManOut: In "Gaston to the Rescue", when they're trapped in a dwarf mine, Mr. Elf and King Thistle wonder where Gaston is, and Ben and Holly rightfully scold their dads for telling Gaston to go away the night before.
15	* CharacterCatchphrase:
16	** Ben Elf often finds opportunities to explain to the fairies why elves do certain things, which he usually finishes with:
17	--->"And I'm an elf!" ''(blows horn)''
18	** Also "Magic always leads to trouble!" Unintentionally amusing to fans of OnceUponATime which has the similar catchphrase "All magic comes with a price".
19	** Nanny Plum's "Whaaat-eever" when someone warns her of something she shouldn't do.
20	** Like with WesternAnimation/PeppaPig, characters often like to say "Hooray!".
21	* CompanyCrossReferences: In Lucy's room, there's a ''WesternAnimation/PeppaPig'' toy. One of the crayon drawings in Daisy and Poppy's room also resembles George's "Mr Dinosaur".
22	* ContrivedCoincidence: Several of them, usually as a DeusExMachina. For example by halfway through the Christmas TwoPartEpisode, King Thistle is stuck in a cracker, the little castle is wrapped up as a Christmas present and the Great Elf Tree is being sold as a Christmas tree. Fortunately it works out that that cracker, that present and that tree all just happen to go to Lucy, the one human girl who already knows about elves and fairies - whose house also happens to be the very last one on Santa's rounds, so he falls asleep in her living room.
23	* DisproportionateRetribution: In "Queen Thistle's Teapot" Queen Thistle almost turns Nanny Plum into a slug for supposedly breaking her teapot. Lampshaded by the King.
24	* ElvesVersusDwarves: Confusingly, the elves are the "dwarves" of this setting (skilled with their hands, hostile to magic, relatively down-to-earth), while the fairies are the "elves" (magical aristocrats). They duly display quite a lot of FantasticRacism towards each other (and towards actual dwarves, who also exist).
25	* FantasticRacism:
26	** The fairies are nothing short of patronizing to the elves (particularly the royals and more specifically Nanny Plum, who can be vocally disdainful of the non-magical using elves). On the other side, most elves (but particularly the Wise Old Elf and sometimes Mr. Elf) seem to scoff at the fairies' lack of manual abilities. This sometimes causes friction between both races and their most... vocal leaders, like Nanny Plum and the Wise Old Elf, who frequently scuffle.
27	** In one episode, Mrs. Elf learns that Mr. Elf has been "sentenced". She immediately starts calling for revolution and shouting slogans like "Down with the King!", before learning that he's been "sentenced"... to take a vacation.
28	* FriendlyPirate: Red Beard the Elf chose to be a pirate as a career but otherwise is very kind. He's also the son of the Wise Old Elf who humorously is ashamed of his son for becoming a pirate.
29	* LiteralGenie: The Magic Basket is capable of creating any kind of food if you ask it, but often you have to specify ''how much'' you want, such as jelly (the wobbly pudding kind), which often leads into the [[RunningGag Jelly Flood]] unless you specifically ask for a tiny bit which creates sensible servings.
30	* MagicVersusScience: Often it's the magic-wielding fairies against the more hands-on elves who build machines.
31	* MushroomHouse: The Fairy Village.
32	* NameAndName: '''''[=Ben and Holly=]'''[='s=] Little Kingdom''.
33	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Granny Thistle gives the twins wands which belonged to their great grandparents: Vlad the Powerful and Sharon the Totally Insane.
34	* NoodleIncident: Whatever happened during the "Monkey Kittens" incident several years ago was horrific enough to have the Wise Old Elf completely abandon his love and use of magic.
35	* OcularGushers: Some characters cry a shower of tears a lot in the show.
36	* ParentalBonus: In the episode "Daisy and Poppy go to the Museum", when the characters see a display about Vikings, Nanny Plum says that she knows that Vikings only ever ate [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus Spam]].
37	-->'''Nanny Plum:''' It's true! Vikings ate Spam. [[http://youtu.be/anwy2MPT5RE It was on the telly]].
38	* PicnicEpisode: The first episode "The Royal Fairy Picnic".
39	* PinkGirlBlueBoy: as in every episode holly wears a pink dress, while well dressed blue.
40	* PlatonicBoyGirlHeroes: Ben and Holly.
41	%%ZCE* ShoutOut: Absolutely loads of them. At least half the episodes are full of references to other works of fiction or genre tropes.
42	* RunningGag: Jelly Flood
43	* SpeciesSurname: The Elf family consists of Ben Elf, Mr. Elf and Mrs. Elf.
44	* StealthInsult: Mrs Fig has made it clear that she has "never had a student quite like [Nanny Plum]". Nanny Plum, however, doesn't get it.
45	* TakeOurWordForIt: There's a monster in the dungeons of the Little Castle. When Redbeard the Pirate sees it, he [[BreakingTheFourthWall looks straight at the viewer]] and says that in all his years of piracy he has never, never, never seen something so horrifying. Then the Queen unceremoniously closes the door after him.
46	* ThemeNaming: All the fairies are named after plants (Holly, Daisy, Poppy, King Thistle, Nanny Plum...) and the elves are not.
47	** {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d in the episode "Spies": Strawberry, pretending to be an elf, gives her name as "Strawberry - I mean Alice" and Barnaby, pretending to be a fairy, gives his as "Barnaby - I mean Bamboo."
48	** Tarquin the fairy and Nettle the elf seem to be the only exceptions.
49	*** Tarquin will have a problem if he needs a new wand, since the Wise Old Elf says fairies' wands come from the plant they're named after.
50	* TookALevelInJerkass: King Thistle and Mr. and Mrs. Elf in "Gaston to the Rescue" when they tell Gaston to get lost just because he tracks mud around both the Little Castle and Great Elf Tree and eats Mrs. Elf's freshly-baked pies.
51	* WitchWithACapitalB: In "Mrs Witch", Nanny Plum calls her a "grumpy old witch". Nanny is turned to stone at the time and talking without moving her lips.
52	* WhamLine: In "No Magic Day", the Elf Engine has broken down for some reason. Ben offers to fix it, but the Wise Old Elf says it cannot be fixed because it's out of fuel. He refuses to tell the others what fuel it uses, because "it's a secret!"
53	-->'''Queen Thistle:''' ''[[FullNameUltimatum Wise. Old. Elf.]]'' What fuel does the engine use!?\
54	'''Wise Old Elf:''' Oh... It's... M... Muh...\
55	'''Ben:''' Mud?\
56	'''Wise Old Elf:''' No, it's... Mmmmmuh… Mmmmmmuh...\
57	'''Elf:''' Mustard?\
58	'''Holly:''' Marsh''mallow?''\
59	'''Wise Old Elf:''' Muh-muh…\
60	'''Nanny Plum:''' [[CloudCuckoolander Melted cheese!]]\
61	'''Wise Old Elf:''' Muh-muhmuhuhmuhmuh MMMMMMMMM[[spoiler:AGIC]]!

Context WesternAnimation / BenAndHollysLittleKingdom