- Anvilicious: The film’s Green Aesop — a direct response from the screenwriters to the enviromental destruction which was already happening in Sweden — is far from subtle. However Tropes Are Tools, as it actually helped bring more mainstream attention to the subject at the time. It was also Evert Taube’s main reason for contributing to the film in the first place, with his newly written Thematic Theme Tune not only having the message that The World Is Just Awesome, but also outright telling the listeners to stop driving all the forest animals to extinction.
- Awesome Music: Evert Taube was at one point one of the highest paid artists in Sweden, and the soundtrack consists almost entirely of his music. Some specific examples:
- The opening theme, Änglamark, is considered proper Sweet Dreams Fuel by fans. It became a massive hit — arguably overshadowing the movie itself — and is a good contender for the late singer Sven-Bertil Taube’s Signature Song.
- On a very different note, the filmmakers had the bonkers idea to turn the lullaby Byssan Lull into a bombastic jazz piece. The combination turned out to be Crazy Enough to Work, and was also surprisingly catchy.
- Calle Schewen’s Waltz — performed by the cast during the Sudden Musical Ending — is a more straightforward but still solid cover.
- Harsher in Hindsight: Anna and Severin rallying Gustav into stopping the arson — saving both the castle and Sten’s life in the process — became this in 2005, when Anna’s actress Monica Zetterlund died in a house fire. Her last known words — having called the fire department herself, unable to do anything else due to her prior paralysis — were “I don’t know what’s burning. I don’t want to die like this.” By the time help did arrive, it was tragically already too late.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Max von Sydow playing a spirit-summoner a mere two years before playing the title character in The Exorcist.
- Per Grundén playing a Corrupt Corporate Executive trying to assassinate Gösta Ekman’s character will be a familiar setup to fans of Jönssonligan, where they would play the constantly feuding criminals Director Wall-Enberg and Charles-Ingvar Jönsson, respectively. Even better, the hitman’s uniform looks quite similar to the one worn by The Heavy from the second movie onwards. Then in the third film, Birgitta Andersson (Luft-Hanna) would join the series as Doris as well.
- Memetic Mutation: ”... Bulle.” Explanation
- During the shoot, writer/co-star Hans Alfredson told actress Yvonne Lombard that he didn’t know the line even could be delivered like that. Yvonne Lombard would later express annoyance at people randomly quoting it to her on the streets.
- Narm Charm:
- Evert Taube was 80 years old during the film’s production, and while his songwriting skills were still sharp, he was clearly feeling his age as a performer, having to resort to Spoken Word for his two appearances. Still, as the whole film was pretty much a tribute to his music, his presence feels like a fitting tribute, more than anything.
- In general, the Sudden Musical Ending, with its Midsummer’s Eve-inspired ceremony, Calle Schewen’s Waltz being performed, and various mythical creatures being present, borders (ironically) on being the Theme Park Version of Sweden, but the sheer commitment to the whole thing just about makes it loop back around to ”awesome themed wedding.”
- Older Than They Think: A giant extinguishing a burning building by peeing on it. Another example of Hasse & Tage’s Surreal Humor? Or just a Shout-Out to Gulliver's Travels? It doesn’t help that the equivalent scene is often cut from adaptations of the book.
- Special Effects Failure: No matter how much effort the film puts into making the “drake” look enormous, it’s still a blatantly obvious Slurpasaur. More specifically, the one clear shot we get of both it and Hans in frame has a jarring bluish tint due to the effects used for it.
- Visual Effects of Awesome: The Giant Gustav Lindberg. Cinematographer Lasse Svanborg elected to not use Chroma Key to avoid Special Effects Failure. Instead, taking inspiration from the works of Georges Méliès, scale models were built for actor Nils Ahlroth to stand in, with Forced Perspective and some carefully chosen wide-angle lenses being utilized to make his co-stars look small. Finally, the Giant was only shown at night or backlit by the evening sun, hiding potential flaws in the models.
- Values Dissonance:
- One of Severin's disguises (seen mercifully briefly) includes Blackface, something which was still given some leeway in The '70s.
- Eberhard Lindberg’s ambiguous disorder being mostly Played for Laughs might also raise a few eyebrows, even if he is portrayed as a genuinely clever Genius Ditz. Made more complicated by The Reveal that he’s actually the water spirit Näcken, which runs headlong into a different trope.
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