The Talking Parcel is a 1974 children's fantasy book by Gerald Durrell. It has a 1978 ITV animated adaptation.
Three kids, Peter, Simon and their cousin Penelope, find a talking parcel washed ashore on the beach. Upon unwrapping it, they meet Parrot, a highly intelligent parrot from the fantasy land of Mythologia, created by a talented but absent-minded wizard Hengist Hannibal Junketberry (H. H. to friends) as a nature reserve for mythological creatures. Currently, though, the peace of Mythologia is threatened as the Cockatrices have started an uprising. They stole H. H.'s magical books, and their accomplices the Toads threw Parrot and the latter's spider housekeeper Dulcibelle into the sea. Peter, Simon and Penelope decide to accompany Parrot to Mythologia and help H. H. against the Cockatrices.
The Talking Parcelcontains examples of:
- Absent-Minded Professor: H. H. chronically loses his glasses and is rather forgetful in general.
- Action Girl: Penelope eagerly takes part in all the quests in Mythologia and ends up leading the charge on one of the flanks during the final battle. She gets very irritated whenever anyone tries to persuade her to stay in the Crystal Caves."I shall only run like a rabbit when everyone else runs like a rabbit."
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Parrot often uses it, for example, calling Dulcibelle "stupid, superannuated, singing spider".
- Alliterative Name: Many toponyms in Mythologia have it, such as the Golden Goose Island or the Singing Sea.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Mythologia is incredibly bright, colourful and shiny (H. H. makes sure the colours never fade and the plants stay fresh). The Phoenixes, the Cockatrices and the Firedrakes are particularly impressive in that regard.
- Author Appeal: Durrell included many cases of this in the novel.
- His life work was animal conservation. That's what H. H. does as well.
- He loved Greece, so the story begins there and one of the protagonists is Greek.
- He admired toads and spiders, and thought zebras beautiful but boring and bad-tempered. The protagonists' team includes a toad and a spider, while the Unicorns are beautiful snobs who waste their time in butting tournaments.
- Bad Liar: Ethelred, at his first appearance, isn't too good at proving how totally not a spy he is. However, after switching sides, he gets better (it helps that the villains are Stupid Evil).
- Bewitched Amphibians: Ethelred hopes he is an example of the trope. Turns out he isn't.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The fantasy creatures only exist if someone in the neighbourhood believes in them. H. H. solves the problem by bringing them together in Mythologia where they believe in each other.
- Crush Blush: Ethelred is prone to blushing whenever Penelope praises him. On one especially memorable occasion, he goes "as red as fourteen pounds of overripe tomatoes".
- Description Porn: Many of the animals, especially the beautiful and impressive ones (yes, that includes the Cockatrices), get described in great detail.Basically, the Mooncalves were like giant dark green snails with extremely pretty golden and green shells perched on their backs. But, instead of having horns in front, like a snail, each had the fat head of a calf, with amber-colored horns and a great mop of curls lying between then. They had dark, liquid eyes, and they moved slowly over the purple grass, browsing just like cows, but sliding like snails. Occasionally, one of them would lift up its head and utter a long and soulful "Mooooo."
- Dub Name Change: Several in the Russian translation.
- Mythologia was changed to Mythlandia, because "mifologia" in Russian is simply the word meaning "mythology".
- Hengist Hannibal became Hengist Hiram, for the reason that "Hannibal" is traditionally transliterated in Russian as "Gannibal". Instead of H. H., the wizard is called Ha-Ha for short.
- Duke Wensleydale who was almost called Gorgonzola became Duke Roquefort who was almost called Camembert, simply because Roquefort and Camembert cheeses were more familiar to the Soviet reader.
- Dub Species Change: The Russian translation replaces the weasels with stoats.
- Food Porn: The moon-carrot dinner at the Crystal Caves is described in mouth-watering detail.So they all went back into the big room and Penelope helped H.H. to serve up a delicious meal of vegetable soup, roast lamb and green peas, baked potatoes stuffed with cream and butter, followed by fresh strawberries encased in whipped cream and meringue and surrounded by ice cream.
- Gentle Giant: Oswald is an enormous sea serpent but perfectly friendly and harmless (unless, being shortsighted and deaf, he mistakes your boat for a crumpet...).
- The Ghost: The Chief Cockatrice and the Chief Werewolf are talked of but never appear personally.
- Hated by All: By the time of the final battle, everyone passionately hates the Cockatrices.
- Inept Mage:
- H. H. is a highly talented wizard, but, thanks to his absentmindedness, often turns into an example of the trope. For instance, he once made seaweed eternally growing instead of everlasting, and now mermaids have to constantly cut it down.
- The Cockatrices become an example when they try to use the Spell Book. They accidentally turn two of their sentries into a bunch of moon-carrots and a cork-tree struck by lightning.
- Interspecies Romance: One-sided. Ethelred, a Toad, has quite the crush on human girl Penelope.
- Mook–Face Turn: Ethelred switches to the heroes' side pretty quickly. For a whole variety of reasons: the Cockatrices treat him with disdain, the heroes offer him a very exciting spy job, and he falls for Penelope. Later, he brings fifty of his relatives over to the good side as well.
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: The Cockatrices, obviously. Calling themselves the supreme species? Check. Planning to enslave or wipe out the "undesirable" species? Check. Having a very militaristic organisation? Check.
- Neutral No Longer: After their prince is almost kidnapped by the Cockatrices, the previously indifferent Unicorns decide to help H. H.
- Playing Sick: Duke Wensleydale claims to have a dreadful case of lumbago whenever it's suggested he should help in the fight against the Cockatrices.
- Plot Allergy: Turns out the Cockatrices are horribly allergic to lavender, which allows the heroes to include lavender water pistols in their arsenal.
- Proud Beauty: All the Unicorns are very beautiful and extremely vain.
- Scenery Porn: We are treated to many loving descriptions of Mythologia's luscious landscapes.The banks with their purple grass bestrewn with multicolored blossoms; the strange, misshapen cork trees, their upper branches trailing long wisps of gray green luminous moss and great fronds of what appeared to be coral pink and green orchids; the soft sound of the water and the long trailing fronds of yellow water weed and the crabs and the busy beetles she could see beneath the boat. It was a magical experience.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Parrot is Keeper of the Words, which requires him to use long and rarely-spoken words as often as possible, so that the poor things would get some air.
- Supreme Chef:
- H. H. is an expert in cooking all sorts of delicious meals using almost nothing save for moon-carrots.
- Oswald, meanwhile, is also an amazing cook but insists on doing without moon-carrots. He ends up opening a restaurant.
- Took a Level in Badass: The usually timid and fearful Weasels turn into Pint-Size Powerhouse berserkers after a dose of rue.
- Weather Manipulation: H. H. controls the weather in Mythologia, even without the help of the Book of Spells. When the heroes sneak into Cockatrice Castle, he switches off the moon, and when they go to the Werewolf Island, he gives them the necessary wind. Later, he recalls one of the cases of his absentmindedness: he built a banquet hall where celebrations could take place in case of rain, completely forgetting that he was in charge of the weather and there could be no rain unless he wanted it.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Cockatrices (and dragons too) are terribly allergic to lavender.
- Weaponized Allergy: Ethelred and Penelope accidentally discover that the Cockatrices are extremely allergic to lavender. Later, when the army of Mythologia attacks Cockatrice Castle, the foot soldiers are armed with lavender water pistols.
- Where the Magic Went: Mythologia, refuge for the various fantasy creatures that Earth stopped believing in.
The animated adaptation contains examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Ethelred is more impressive than in the book, as he does indeed have many costumes at hand and is able to change them lickety-split. However, it still doesn’t make him a more convincing spy. He is also the one who provides Penelope and Parrot with a dinghy, which he has also been keeping at hand, apparently just in case.
- Adaptational Early Appearance:
- Tabitha, the Griffons, the Unicorns and the Cockatrices are shown when Parrot and Penelope are still aboard Madame Hortense.
- Ethelred encounters the heroes even before Penelope meets H. H.
- Adaptational Explanation Extrication:
- We never learn the backstory of Mythologia, why the Cockatrices are even there, and why the Toads are their allies.
- Oswald's backstory isn't given, either, so to those who haven't read the book his obsession with crumpets remains a mystery.
- Adaptational Mundanity: Inverted with Madame Hortense. In the book, she is a normal train (apart from the fact that she can talk) and there is a real railroad to Mythologia. In the movie, she is a flying train that apparently travels between parallel worlds and doesn’t need anyone to drive her or take care of the boiler.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: The reason why it's hard to rally the Unicorns to fight is that they are peace-loving rather than the snobs they are in the book.
- Adapted Out: Dulcibelle, the Phoenixes, the Mooncalves, the Mermaids, the Firedrakes, and Ethelred's relatives never appear.
- Animals Not to Scale: The Toads, Weasels, and Parrot are more than half the size of Penelope. In the book, the non-mythological creatures are all their natural sizes.
- Ascended Extra: Chief Cockatrice actually makes an appearance and personally attacks Penelope.
- Call to Adventure: Unlike in the book where Parrot takes time to explain the situation in Mythologia to the children and even then only accepts their help when they offer it, here he drags Penelope to Madame Hortense's station right after she unwraps the parcel, barely even telling her anything about Mythologia, H. H. or the Cockatrices. Justified, since in the movie, the level of danger is higher as the Cockatrices have managed to capture H. H.
- Catapult to Glory: The Weasels get into Castle Cockatrice via catapults.
- Composite Character:
- In place of the original's three children, there is only Penelope. Justified, as she is the one with the most well-defined personality in the book, while Peter and Simon are almost interchangeable.
- H. H. takes the place of the three books, being the one to get captured by the Cockatrices and to give the heroes directions about how the Cockatrices can be defeated.
- Demoted to Extra:
- The Unicorns, the Griffons, and Tabitha only appear in the beginning and the battle scene.
- H. H. spends most of the movie locked up in Castle Cockatrice.
- Oswald only appears to bring the heroes to Werewolf Island and then save them from the Werewolves and bring them back again. He doesn’t participate in the battle.
