The Sisters Grimm: An Adorable Fairy Tale Show
The Sisters Grimm Is A Strong Little Fantasy Series
The Sisters Grimm is a charming little cartoon that basically succeeds at everything it’s trying to do and does so with a surprising level of detail and consideration.
Like, you know this type of story—it’s just usually a story for older audiences. A person with a destiny moves to a town where some kind of magic is real, and they are destined to keep some kind of balance. It’s Gravity Falls. It’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Sure, this time it’s exclusively fairy tale characters, but I’m sure there’s a series/movie out there with that exact premise already.
The difference here, and it’s the heart of The Sisters Grimm, is that it’s not one person, but two. An orphaned (but not actually) sister duo. And though I cannot speak for certain about a lot of the experiences that these sisters have gone through—including shockingly disturbing hints of abuse from former foster families—the characters feel organic. I believe that these characters are sisters who have gone through a lot and rely on one another. It’s basically impossible not to like these two. The Sisters Grimm turns into a complicated adventure with lots of magical items and characters very quickly, but adorable and/or sympathetic moments never stop happening—and that was the best choice.
The Mix Of Character Work And Adventure Is Great
And to be clear, I also like how The Sisters Grimm is seemingly entirely serialized and has a more complicated story. I only watched the first three episodes, but from what I can tell, the whole first season is one continuous adventure with one quest to solve. Though The Sisters Grimm could’ve easily transitioned into random fairy tale scenarios each episode, it chose a great alternative. The secret magic town actually feels more like a town because of how the story slowly unveils more of its workings organically. Though realistically, there’s only so many fairy tales the show could pull from, it feels like there are endless magical things to discover.
The only issues with the show, so far, are things that could—hopefully—be fixed. The first is that the series only has a few main non-white characters, and all of them are villains. Puck becomes an ally but is still introduced trying to kill the Grimm sisters. And Prince Charming doesn’t even get a redemption. At least from what I’ve seen, he’s entirely willing to murder people to get money and power.
The other issue is lampshaded by The Sisters Grimm itself—but that doesn’t make it not a possible can of worms down the road. In episode three, we learn about magical teleporting shoes. Sabrina (the older sister) stops to ask why they can’t use them to shortcut a plot point, and though the answer given seems sensible in the moment, it actually busts open a whole host of plot holes. I love some whimsy and creative uses of magical items, but the shoes are too powerful. They want to know where the giant will strike next so Jack (yes, that Jack) can fight the giant. The shoes can take you to places, even if you’ve not been there before. So…why not just teleport to the giant?
And that’s only quick thoughts on one magical item. I complimented the series WondLa recently on having really good internal logic—and The Sisters Grimm is an example of how often that can go wrong. But—to be clear—I really like The Sisters Grimm. I subjectively enjoyed it more than a lot of the cartoons I’ve reviewed lately. The characters are just delightful, and I really like how much there’s both a sense of danger and fun. It brings me back to when I read stuff like Artemis Fowl as a kid. It has that same magic. It needs more seasons.
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