Storybook Opening: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A common device for starting a story, especially fairy tales, is to begin with a book opening. The [[Opening Narration]] goes on as normal, but as it goes on the book opens and we fade to see the story itself being played out. Just as if it came from the book itself. Usually the story will finish with the book being closed.

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Kämpfer]]'': The very silly episode 12 did this.

 

* Disney's ''[[Robin Hood]]'' does it as well.

* ''[[Shrek]]''

* ''[[Tangled]]'' was originally supposed to begin in a storybook style, as shown in the Extras on the DVD and also in the "Art Of" book, but was changed to the voiceover they used in the film.

 

* Used in ''[[Enchanted]]'', for both the opening and the closing. Fittingly, the song that ends the movie opens with a line about "storybook endings".

* Oddly used in ''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]''. It doesn't happen at the beginning or end, but about twenty minutes into the film, with the description of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table.

* ''[[Elf]]'' not only has a storybook in its prologue, opening credits, and closing scene, but the menus on the DVD resemble pop-up books.

 

* Used in a flashback in ''[[Harry Potter]] and the Chamber of Secrets''.

 

* ''[[Monk]]'' uses this for the summation in the last episode of season 3, "Mr. Monk and the Kid"

* ''[[Hustle]]'' does it with the season 4 episode "A Designer's Paradise", although the book doesn't appear until partway into the episode when Albert starts explaining the con in terms of the fairytale "The Emperor's New Clothes".

 

* The old Crystal Dynamics game ''[[The Horde (video game)|The Horde]]'' does this.

* ''[[Radical Dreamers]]'': This [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|Super Famicom]] Satellaview game uses it as well. One of the few examples where the story is related through (it is implied) the text of the book itself. ''[[Chrono Cross]]'' does the same thing, only since it isn't a text-based game, the example isn't quite as unusual.

* ''Bram Stoker's Dracula'' for the SNES and Genesis has the player opening a book titled "Vampyres" and turning to a new page between levels. Unfortunately, there are no cutscenes.

 

* ''[[Zero Punctuation]]'' did this with the review of ''[[Red Faction|Red Faction: Guerrilla]]''.

 

* ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]'': Disney's short subject versions take this to its logical conclusion by actually taking place in the book itself.

* ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'': The "Fractured Fairy Tales" segment used this, but played with it, with the fairy first having difficulty turning the pages due to her small size, then having the book slam shut on her.

* ''[[Chowder]]'': The opening credits, only instead of a storybook, it's a ''cookbook''