Left to right: Samppa, Hanna, Pukari, Pate, Tuukka, Tiina, and Ella.
Ella and Friends (Finnish: Ella ja kaverit) is a Finnish children's book series created by Timo Parvela. The books are about the adventures of elementary schooler Ella and her friends who go to the same class at school and their unnamed teacher.
The series has two film adaptations, Ella and Friends (2012) and Ella and Friends 2: Paterock (2013).
Provides examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: In the books, it's never mentioned where Anna got her horn from. The first movie mentions that she stole it from her father, who is angry about it as it was given to him by his late wife.
- Bully Turned Buddy: In the first book he appears in, Pukari beats up the other kids. In the later books, he's friends with them, though he still occasionally threatens them, but usually doesn't go further than that.
- Butt-Monkey: The teacher gets humorously abused a lot.
- Clothes-Eating Wager: A variation: Near the end of "Paterock", the teacher tells disguised Elviira the he'll eat her beard if she's really Elviira. The next chapter reveals that he did indeed eat it.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: Pate is often eager take off his clothes, showing his underpants which are usually covered with pictures of rockets.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The teacher is only ever called "teacher" and his real name is unknown.
- Held Back in School: The entire class gets held back at least twice due to failing to learn the multiplication tables. First they have to repeat second grade, and then they move up to "grade 2½".
- Hidden Depths: Ella calls Tiina "so ordinary" a lot, like there's nothing special about her. But "Ella aalloilla" reveals that she has "saltwater brain" and is extremely competent at the sea, being able to steer a ship in a storm to safety despite being eight years old.
- Mad Libs Catchphrase: Pukari loves to threaten others by saying "I'll X you in the Y if you [do something he doesn't want them to do]".
- Odd Friendship: Pate the Kindhearted Simpleton and Pukari, who is constantly threatening to beat people up, are best friends.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Pukari's real name is Pertti, but the kids and teacher always call him Pukari ("Roughneck").
- Opening Narration: Most books start with Ella saying "I'm Ella. I'm on the Xth grade. We have a nice class and a nice teacher."
- Paper-Thin Disguise: A lot of the books have the kids try to disguise themselves as adults by putting on fake beards made of cotton, which never fools a single adult.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: In "Ella ja Äf Yksi", the kids race Äf on a bus pulled by dogs. As that would likely be hard to film, in the movie the dogs fail to pull the bus, and the way Äf loses is different.
- Prone to Tears: It's very easy to make Samppa cry.
- The Smart Guy: Tuukka, but only by elementary schooler standards. The other kids call him a genius, though.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: In "Paterock", the hobo that the kids meet turns out to be Elviira disguised as a man.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Tuukka's plans usually go as follows:
- 1. X is in danger.
- 2. We couldn't think of anything for this part.
- 3. The world will be saved.
- Women Are Wiser: The teacher's wife is a lot wiser than her husband and tells him off for his antics a lot.
