The series consists of 26 episodes, each one adapting a popular fairy tale or a literature classic written by a famous author such as: the
Brothers Grimm,
Charles Perrault,
Hans Christian Andersen,
Carlo Collodi,
Lewis Carroll,
Alexandre Dumas,
Howard Pyle,
Jonathan Swift,
Johanna Spyri,
L. Frank Baum,
E. T. A. Hoffmann,
James Halliwell-Phillipps and
Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. Most of the episodes follow quite closely the original source material, with some changes made to alter unhappy endings or to suit the half-hour episode run. Between 1975 and 1983 Toei had already produced a similar series:
World Famous Fairy Tale Series. Some of these fairy tales had also been adapted by Toei into feature length films (
Arabian Nights: The Adventures of Sinbad,
The World of Hans Christian Andersen, ''
The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots, Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina and Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp''). A variety of different artists from other Toei's popular series worked on the episodes, such as
Sailor Moons director
Junichi Sato and character designer
Ikuko Itoh, It aired in Italy on
Italia 1 from February 4 to March 1, 1995 (
Le fiabe più belle), and in Japan on
Fuji TV and other networks from April 7 to September 29 of the same year. Only 21 episodes were broadcast in Japan, with the last 5 episodes being released on home video. An 8 DVD box containing 24 episodes was released in Japan by Toei Video, skipping episodes 10 and 26. The Italian dub featured different incidental music composed by Enzo Draghi, and it served as a basis for the French, Spanish, Polish, Romanian and Greek dubs as well. The series was also popular in the Middle East, airing on
Spacetoon. == Cast ==