Krisztofóró is a Hungarian mixed-media Stop Motion comedy series consisting of 52 shorts that ran from 1990 to 1996. In each episode, Bőfejű (Plenty-Head) the "heads-aplenty dragon" tells a tale to his three-headed offspring Önfejű (Headstrong) about the medieval misadventures of hapless knight Krisztofóró and his talking steed Treffhetes (Seven of Clubs) in the land of Flangánia, the kingdom of III. Nagy Darab (Burly One the Great, the Third) and his inept Knights of the Pretzel Table.
Produced just as Hungary's animation industry was going under in the early 90s after the collapse of the Soviet socialist system, this show was one of the few successful animated works that kept being renewed for more seasons. Lacking an official release of any kind, it has since fallen into obscurity and survives solely via bootleg TV recordings.
Tropes featured:
- Alien Gender Confusion: The dragon's heads get into an argument about whether they are fathers or mothers, or if their child is a boy or girl. For that matter, they can't decide if they're a "me" or a "we" either, using different pronouns at times in the same sentence.
- Alliterative Family:
- Bőfejű's heads are all named after plants beginning with "B": 1. Bályva (Ballow), 2. Befelejts (Borget-Me-Not), 3. Berbera, 4. Baktusz (Bactus), 5. Bipacs (Boppy), 6. Begfű (Barnation), 7. Bibolya (Biolet), 8. Bulipán (Bulip), 9. Borgona (Bilac), 10 Bargaréta (Baisy), 11. Brizantém (Brysanthemum), 12. Biliom (Bily) and 13. Bankalin (Brimose).
- Önfejű's heads have fruit-based names starting with "Ö": Ökörte (Öpear), Ödönnye (Ömelon) and Öpiszke (Ögooseberry).
- Anachronism Stew: Though set in the magical Middle Ages, random technological conveniences do appear. Krisztofóró takes advantage of this in the very first episode, where he defeats a steam horse by making it fall in love with a locomotive, causing the horse to try and find the machine that hasn't been invented yet.
- Ascended Extra: While the early episodes focus mostly on Krisztofóró and his steed, the role of King Nagy Darab is greatly expanded later on, often getting equal focus to the title character.
- Bizarrchitecture: Most of the castles are designed after the theme of their respective stories. King Nagy Darab himself originally has a castle that stands on clown shoes (in a nod to traditional Hungarian folklore about the "castle spinning on duck legs", an old-timey expression for extra fancy castles) before he replaces it with a more normal one.
- Book Ends: Each episode starts and ends with the 13-headed dragon telling a bedtime tale to his unruly 3-headed kid.
- Butt-Monkey: The middle knight among the Knights of the Pretzel Table, who frequently suffers Amusing Injuries and gets Instant Bandages.
- Continuity: The king's castle is replaced partway in the 1st season in one of the very few bits of genuine continuity.
- Couch Gag: The dragon announces each episode's theme song differently. And each time, his kid finishes off the song by saying something different to set up the episode's story.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Bőfejű (Plenty-Head), the heads-aplenty dragon.
- Excalibur in the Stone: The king wants to prove his worth by pulling the Magic Sword from the Magic Stone that's being sat on by a hairy guardian, only for his (well, Krisztofóró's) efforts to go in vain since some guy named Arthur already took it. He gets to keep the stone once the guard gets down from it.
- Expository Themesong: Sung by the adult dragon's heads. The song actually names the dragon and his kid (Bőfejű and Önfejű), though in the show each head has a different name.
- Flashback: The whole series is about the plenty-headed dragon telling stories about Krisztofóró from long ago, including one time he met the characters in person when he was still a 3-headed youngster. Doesn't stop the stories from occasionally spilling over into the present-day scenes.
- Floral Theme Naming: Bőfejű's heads are all named after plants, with a "B" at the beginning replacing whatever letter the plant would actually start with. They are named Bályva, Befelejts, Berbera, Baktusz, Bipacs, Begfű, Bibolya, Bulipán, Borgona, Bargaréta, Brizantém, Biliom and Bankalin, which would translate to "Ballow", "Borget-Me-Not", "Berbera", "Bactus", "Boppy", "Barnation", "Biolet", "Bulip", "Bilac", "Baisy", "Brysanthemum", "Bily", and "Brimrose" in English respectively.
- Gonky Femme: Malvinka, the king's niece. Guys avoid her because she is a Dumb Muscle. Turns out she's better at being a dragon then the actual dragon, to boot.
- Insane Troll Logic: To keep the dragon from kidnapping Malvinka, one of the knights suggests marrying her off, since dragons only go after unwed maidens. But finding volunteers for fighting the dragon proves easier. In the same episode, Malvinka insists that the young dragon must be a bunny because he can't fly, move mountains or throw a mace like an adult dragon, but having three heads doesn't disqualify him from being a bunny.
- Knight Errant: Early in the series, Krisztofóró wanders the land, visiting random towns and smaller kingdoms. Technically, he's a member of the Knights of the Pretzel Table, but he is on "permanent leave" according to the king. This changes after the first season, as Krisztofóró spends most of the series in the king's castle.
- Knight in Shining Armor:
- Krisztofóró tries to be this when he feels like it, figuratively at least. He hasn't got much in the way of an actual shining armor, but he is usually the only good natured knight in the kingdom who actively tries to help others. Though at times he's forced or accidentally fumbles his way into helping.
- The three other Knights of the Pretzel Table are repeatedly hailed as knights in shining armor by the king, despite being completely useless, unpleasant and idiotic.
- Medieval Morons: Generally everyone, primarily the people of Flangánia, the king and his knights. Krisztofóró and Treffhetes do have their moments of clear-headedness, unless Rule of Funny is in play. Some people they meet are even dumber, such as the residents of Gigantilia, who are so obsessed with giant things that their biggest fear is a tiny mouse.
- Medium Blending: The characters and most objects are Stop Motion puppets, commonly mistaken for clay but actually made of rubberized plastic and fabric. The creators termed the series "plastic animation". Most of the buildings, backdrops and one-off objects are paintings or paper cutouts, and whenever characters are seen running from afar, they are represented by 2D dust clouds.
- Mind Screw: The kingdom of Hydronia is a giant rectangular block of water held in place by nothing that reaches into the sky, with a drain pipe coming from outside in that sucks the water inside out. Once the water is drained out of the nothing, the whole kingdom spills out.
- Multiple Head Case: Bőfejű, the plenty-headed dragon (13 to be specific, or 14-minus-1 according to the creators) and his child, the 3-headed Önfejű.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Nagy Kalamajka (Great Calamity), the man-eating Giant Woman is an elaborate paper cutout figure done in a completely different art style than most characters.
- Punny Name:
- III. Nagy Darab, the king of Flangánia. Nagy Darab (literally "Big Piece") can mean "Darab the Great" or "Burly One".
- Flangánia (aka the Flangán Plains) comes from "flangál", meaning to stroll around casually or aimlessly.
- El Lustulló, the land of the world's laziest knights, comes from "ellustuló" or "getting lazy".
- Talking Animal: Most animals in the kingdom, primarily the horse Treffhetes, who is more eloquent than "her" master.
- Unreliable Voiceover: The dragon's narration doesn't always perfectly match what's going on in the stories, since he likes to paint Kirsztofóró in a more positive light to entertain his kid.
- Vocal Dissonance: Played for Laughs; Krisztofóró finds out to his dismay in the 11th episode that his "stallion" Treffhetes is female. Of course he had no idea, given that she has the a raspy voice of a middle-aged man. Not that it actually matters beyond a throwaway joke.
- Zany Cartoon: The show runs on cartoon logic and absurdities are rarely questioned.
