''Gnomes'' is an American 1980 hour-long animated TV special, based on the book of the same name by Dutch writer Wil Huygen and illustrator

Rien Poortvliet Rien Poortvliet (; 7 August 1932 – 15 September 1995) was a Dutch artist and illustrator. Born in Schiedam, Poortvliet was best known for his drawings of animals and for "Gnomes", a famous series of illustrated books with text by Wil Huyg ...

. The show was first broadcast on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

, on November 11, 1980. It was nominated for an Emmy in 1981 for ''Outstanding Animated Program''. Several years after this film was released, the television series, ''

The World of David the Gnome ''The World of David the Gnome'', originally titled ''David, el Gnomo'' (also known as ''David, the Gnome''), is a Spanish animated television series based on the children's book ''The Secret Book of Gnomes'', by the Dutch author Wil Huygen and ...

'' was created, based on the same book.

Plot

The movie starts by introducing gnomes in general, and a particular family of forest gnomes who live together in a home under a tree. The family consists of a father, mother, grandfather, older son Tor, and a set of young twins, Im and Impy. Tor is about to marry his fiancée Lisa, and the gnomes are busy decorating and preparing for the wedding. In the same forest live a family of trolls: a large and stupid father troll, a somewhat more intelligent mother troll (who wears a snake in her hair and smokes a cigar), their two bumbling older sons and a young troll child affectionately called "Runt". When the father gnome frees the trapped bear cub they had intended to have for their supper, the trolls resolve to get their revenge. The trolls’ intended method of revenge is to set the gnome dwelling on fire, and each member of the troll family marches toward the gnomes’ household, memorably chanting “burn, burn, burn” in unison. Lisa and her parents arrive, carried by a goose from the city. They are "house gnomes" who live among humans and are the "aristocrats" of gnome society. Another less welcome arrival is Uncle Kostya from Siberia who crashes the wedding ceremony, adding extra alcohol to Grandpa's punch and making inappropriate advances to the mother of the bride. Their differences are soon forgotten however when the trolls strike. The movie also contains a handful of vignettes, which use still illustrations from the original book and narration to explain some of the facts about the different sorts of gnomes, and what sorts of duties gnomes perform to help the creatures they live among.

Cast

* Lee Richardson as the Narrator * Arthur Anderson *

Rex Everhart Rex Everhart (June 13, 1920 – March 13, 2000) was an American film and theatre actor. Everhart appeared in such films as '' Superman'', in 1978. He was also known for his role as Enos the Truck-Driver in the horror film, '' Friday the 13th ...

* Anne Francine * Hetty Galen *

Gordon Halliday Gordon Donald Halliday (born 11 November 1950) is a former Scottish cricketer. Halliday was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm medium pace. He was born in Edinburgh, Midlothian. Halliday made his debut for Northumberland in the 19 ...

Bob McFadden Robert McFadden (January 19, 1923 – January 7, 2000) was an American singer, impressionist, and voice-over actor perhaps best known for his many contributions to animated cartoons. His most popular television cartoon characters included M ...

as Uncle Kostya *

Corinne Orr Corinne Orr (born January 6, 1936) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her work on the English version of the anime series ''Speed Racer''. Biography Orr became involved in children's theatre beginning at the age of 10 (with her first r ...

Joe Silver Joe Silver (September 28, 1922 – February 27, 1989) was an American stage, television, film and radio actor. His distinctive deep voice was once described as "the lowest voice in show business; so low that when he speaks, he unties your sho ...

Airing

It was once common to see this film played on cable television movie channels, however it has since become very hard to find as it is not readily available for sale on DVD or VHS.

Copyright status

It is quite popular in Sweden where it has a fairly large fan base, but due to its unclear copyright status (after the production company shut down) further viewing was deemed impossible by Sveriges Television until the status was resolved. Member of the Swedish Riksdag Karl Sigfrid aimed a written question to

Minister for Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

Beatrice Ask Eva Carin Beatrice Ask (born 20 April 1956) is a Swedish politician and a member of the Moderate Party. She has served as Governor of Södermanland County since 1 January 2020. Ask served as member of the Swedish Riksdag for Stockholm Municip ...

how this and similar issues should be resolved.Karl Sigfrid.
Fråga 2007/08:968 Filmen ''Trolltyg i tomteskogen''
Riksdag webpage 14 March 2008. Received 21 June 2008

DVD releases

Despite no official news about the copyright status, a DVD release was released in Sweden on December 1, 2010. The distributor is the Norwegian company CCV.

References

External links

* {{The Secret Book of Gnomes 1980 television films 1980 television specials 1980s American television specials

Gnomes A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its character ...

American children's fantasy films 1980s children's fantasy films 1980s American animated films 1980 animated films 1980 films 1980s English-language films