I enjoy reading the non-Disneyfied versions of fairy tales. When I saw there was a Grimm brothers-related series coming to Netflix this year, I was pretty darn excited. But did it live up to my own internal hype?

A Tale Dark & Grimm is an animated series based on a book of the same name. Hansel (Andre Robinson) and Gretel (Raini Rodriguez) run away from home only to find themselves involved in a number of other stories. Each story somehow gets worse for them, though this makes them stronger as people. And they will need their combined strength when their kingdom is attacked by a dragon!

The series lasts for 10-episodes, which feels way too few for all of the stories the writers are trying to fit in. Each episode is a separate story, for the most part. The last half of the series ditches the stand-alone story format in favor of tying everything together for the big ending. While I appreciate the writers doing their best to bring all of the characters together, I was really enjoying the stand-alone stories. It was interesting to see Hansel and Gretel take part in other stories unrelated to them.

That said, A Tale Dark & Grimm was a highly enjoyable series. It did keep the dark aspect of each story but it handled the more gory parts of the story in a way that wouldn’t frighten children. Usually in a shadow puppet-type of way. Not that this is intended for small children. It is rated TV-Y7, meaning it’s aimed at children older than 7, which is fair but I would probably go with a 9-10 year range instead. There are a few teasers and trailers on the Netflix website. I would recommend watching those first and deciding if your particular child can handle the content.