Sandra the Fairytale Detective is a Spanish animated television series created by Imira Productions. The series revolves around a young girl named Sandra who solves mysteries that take place in a world of fairy tales with her friend, Fo the elf. Surprisingly, a lot of action tends to happen when Sandra goes about solving the various mysteries. Something of a Spiritual Successor to Lola & Virginia, as it involves a similar animation style (and Sandra even watches the show in one episode
).
This cartoon provides examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy:
- Cinderella's prince is originally portrayed as a Royal Brat who ends up with one the wicked sisters. Later episodes involving Cinderella retcon this, however, presumably because children were upset to not see her get to marry the prince.
- One of the good fairies who helped Sleeping Beauty is revealed to have plotted to steal her prince.
- We also sometimes see the villains get revenge on the heroes. For example, the brothers (who were arguably minors villains, as they refused to help their brother with their inheritance) in Puss-in-Boots frame the Marquis for theft to get him executed.
- Continuity Nod: We get to see the princesses from all the episodes reappear in "School for Princesses." The one from The Princess and the Pea turns out to be something of an Alpha Bitch. The whole thing is the plot of Snow White's Wicked Stepmother to get rid of them all. Weirdly, none of them seem to remember Sandra. Cinderella and Rapunzel both appear, implying that they did actually marry their princes despite what happened in their respective episodes.
- Dance Party Ending: Every episode ends with end credits showing the main characters dancing along with some fairy tale characters.
- Fairy Tale Free-for-All: The show is about a detective who solves mysteries in Fairytale Land. She helps out characters like Cinderella, Pinocchio and Sleeping Beauty.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: Normally, Sandra has to fix whatever "fractured" it; although some episodes merely have Sandra get involved with the plot of the original story. Sometimes, Sandra has to give a fairy tale with a tragic ending a typical happy ending.
- Limited Wardrobe: Sandra kind of stands out, as she's seen wearing the same raincoat that Fo gives her in the theme song everywhere. (She has also taken it off on occasion to reveal underneath is a yellow sweater and blue pants)
- Magical Incantation: Fo says the magic words for Sandra and him to enter or leave the Fairytale land:Fo: Soahc fo lennut!
- Sdrawkcab Name: See the Magical Incantation example above and read it from right-to-left.
- Small Reference Pools: When Sandra meets Pinocchio, all the other characters have their names taken from their Disney counterparts (i.e. Stromboli, Jiminy Cricket, the Blue Fairy...they even the fox and cat are called Honest John and Gideon). Probably justified because Disney Channel airs the show in its homeland of Spain.
- Third-Person Person: Goldilocks.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: For the English dub, Sandra and Fo have American accents (and are voiced by UK-based Americans, Jules De Jongh and Dan Russell). Most everyone else sounds vaguely British or Irish (due to being dubbed in the United Kingdom).
- Sometimes parodied in the dub: Sleeping Beauty sounds like a New Yorker despite everyone else sounding British. The Three Little Pigs, in a reference to their Shrek counterparts, have German accents and tend to say "Ja!" a lot. Now, regarding Tom Thumb... everyone involved with the episode (including Tom's brothers and sisters) has a British accent. Tom himself sounds like a parody of Mickey Mouse.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: Time freezes in the mortal world for Sandra when she enters the fairy tale world. Nearly every episode has her exploit this to solve some mundane problem.
