Potatoes and Dragons

"Hey ho, away we go, get the dragon, get the dragon Hey ho, away we go, get that nasty dragon!"

- Lyrics in the theme song.

"Calm reigns over the kingdom of the potatoes. A castle, rolling hills and ... THE DRAGON'S CAVE. There is a curse on Hugo III, king of the potatoes. To put an end to this calamity, Hugo III calls upon all knights specialized in dragon slaying, promising his daughter's hand to the successful candidate. From that moment on, all manners of knights, for the most part unratified, try to vanquish the beast and win the royal beauty."

- Lifted directly from its homepage.

Potatoes and Dragons (2004) is an animated series, produced by the French studio Alphanim and Cookie Jar Entertainment (that one's Canadian.) The show's about a kingdom, run by the moderately competent King Hugo III, with a dragon living in it. The dragon makes a regular game of torching the king; thus, the king hires knights from all over the world (read: whoever shows up gets the job). The king's daughter Melodine, the jester Riri, and a little kid called Juju all know the dragon is harmless, and defend him from the competent knights (and lady knights).

Run in Australia, the UK and the USA, it's short, sweet and rather cute.


 * Bilingual Bonus: Juju's name is (spelling aside) the nursery word for 'toy' in French. Likewise, Riri's name is derived from "ris ris", meaning "laugh laugh".
 * Everything's Better with Princesses: Melodine
 * Freaky Friday Flip: "It's Wasn't Me"
 * I Call It Vera: Sir Splash's (magic!) hose is called 'Fido'.
 * Instant Ice, Just Add Cold: Happens to King Hugo in "Ready Yeti?", and the Dragon in "King Of The Potato Frontier".
 * Jerkass: One could argue that the dragon and King Hugo are both examples of this, and the whole show revolves around watching the two of them harass each other. King Hugo is a bad-tempered, egotistical royal pain of a king, who often acts like a brat despite his age. In comparison, the dragon's idea of fun is to wander on over to the castle and burn King Hugo and/or his belongings to cinders whenever he feels like it, even when the king is minding his own business -- which of course is why the king wants to chase the dragon out of the kingdom.
 * The Jester: Riri
 * The Lancer: Subverted; while Harry does seem to be the King's second in command, he's completely incompetent.
 * Mama Bear: Harry's mom.
 * Mummy: The Curse
 * My Name Is Not Durwood: It's Fast Freddy, not Fat Eddie, nor Bad Teddy.
 * New Age Retro Hippie: Fried Green Potatoes
 * Only Sane Man: Both played straight and inverted; usually, only King Hugo is close to insane. Other times, it flips between Melodine, Riri and Juju.
 * Running Gag: Dragon torching King Hugo.
 * Surrounded by Idiots: The idiots being King Hugo, Harry, and about half the knights.