''Britannica's Tales Around the World'' (also referred to as ''Britannica's Fairy Tales from Around the World'' and ''Familiar Tales Around the World'') is a direct-to-video animated educational series that was released in 1990.

Premise

''Britannica's Tales Around the World'', written by Douglas Lieberman, teaches kids a familiar

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...

from around the world, followed by two lesser-known stories that share a similar theme. The series opens up in a computer-generated landscape, containing a floating

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

and the planet

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

in the background. Pat Morita would explain the significance of each of the three stories and then the camera zooms to a country on Earth where the fairy tale was traditionally told.

List of videos

Home video

United States

These tapes were released by Kids Klassics and

GoodTimes Entertainment GT Media, Inc. was an American home video company that originated in 1984 under the name of GoodTimes Home Video. Though it produced its own titles, the company was well known due to its distribution of media from third parties and classics. The ...

. *Cinderella and Other Tales *Sleeping Beauty and Other Tales *Beauty and the Beast and Other Tales *Rumpelstiltskin and Other Tales *Hansel and Gretel and Other Tales *Rapunzel and Other Tales These DVDs were released by

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

on their online store. *Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, and Other Animated Tales *Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, and Other Animated Tales *Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, and Other Animated Tales *Aesop's Animated Fables

United Kingdom

These DVDs were released by Pegasus and Brightspark Entertainment. *Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, and Other Animated Tales *Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, and Other Animated Tales *Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, and Other Animated Tales* *Aesop's Animated Fables (*) Re-released by Brightspark under the title "Tangled Up".

Controversy

When Brightspark rereleased episodes of ''Britannica's Tales Around the World'' under the title ''Tangled Up'',

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

accused the company for "misleading consumers with numerous releases that confuse and undermine the trust those consumers have in Disney", especially when the re-release contained a similar title and cover artwork to Disney's 2010 film ''

Tangled ''Tangled'' is a 2010 American animated musical film, musical Adventure film, adventure fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Loosely based on the German fairy tale "Rapunzel" in th ...

''.

References

External links

Britannica's Tales Around the World
' at

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

{{US-child-tv-prog-stub 1990 American animated television series debuts 1990 American television series endings 1990s American animated television series 1990s American children's television series American children's animated education television series American English-language television shows Direct-to-video television series Disney controversies Animated television shows based on fairy tales Encyclopædia Britannica