The Treasure of Swamp Castle

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Cute Kitten

The Treasure of Swamp Castle is the English-dubbed name of the movie Szaffi, a 1985 Hungarian animated film directed by Attila Dargay (the person who also gave Hungarian audiences another beloved cartoon, Vuk the Little Fox). It is based on, and has music from, Johann Strauss II's operetta The Gypsy Baron--which is based on the novel "A cigánybáró" (The Gipsy Baron) 1885 by Mór Jókai. It is little known, but a few of you growing up in the 90s might have gotten your hands on a VHS of the dub. It's funny and beautifully animated, so check it out.

Tropes used in The Treasure of Swamp Castle include:

Document forgery, poison brewing, money forgery, film reviews...

  • Broken Aesop: A mild example: the movie is quite Anvilicious on that the real treasure is not gold but love... and yet the protagonists get the gold in the end.
  • Buried Treasure: The Governor thinks there is some hidden in the castle.
  • BFG: The cannon is so big it takes dozens of men to put the ball in the barrel.
  • Cats Are Mean: Averted, Szaffi the cat is really nice.
  • Coin on a String Trick: The guard is a recurring victim of this trope used as bribery, though it's done without the string.
  • Dreadful Musician: The Baron's daughter drives the flute player to tears.
  • Cute Kitten: Szaffi the cat.
  • Messy Pig: The Baron surrounds himself with a lot of them.
  • Everything's Worse with Bears: The Governor has a Bear Pit.
  • Expy: The protagonist, Jónás looks very similar to the titular character of Ludas Matyi, an earlier animated film of Attila Dargay. In Hungarian, they share the same voice actor too.
  • Fat Bastard: The Baron.
  • Friend to All Living Things: The Szaffi's foster mother, the gypsy, and, later, Szaffi herself.
  • Godiva Hair: Szaffi bathing.
  • Harmless Villain: The Governer's henchman Puzzola has multiple murder attempts fail.
    • Not So Harmless: While clumsy, Puzzola is a lot smarter and probably a lot more mean than the Governor, as he is the one suggesting him to kill the boy. He is admittedly an "intellectual criminal" rather than a murderer. And in the end he turns against his master to claim the treasure for himself.
  • High-Pressure Emotion: The Governor is a Literal Metaphor example--his pressure valve has to be released when he gets mad.
  • Hot Gypsy Woman: Subverted, as Szaffi not actually gypsy - she is a Turkish princess raised by a (probably) gypsy lady.
  • Hot Witch: The protagonist believes Szaffi is this.
  • Karma Houdini: The Baron. While he tells the Governor to kill the boy when he fails to court his daughter, he doesn't get punished.
  • Moses in the Bulrushes: Princess Szaffi is lost in the flood at the beginning, and adopted by gypsies.
  • Of Corsets Sexy: The Baron's daughter. Played for laughs, since she's rather unattractive otherwise.
  • Scenery Censor: Szaffi bathing again, it's a long scene.
  • Roma: The protagonist's surrogate family. Possibly the old lady in the swamp too.
  • We Named the Monkey "Jack": A plot point, since the protagonist thinks the black cat is Szaffi because they share the same name. Subverted in that Szaffi, the girl is named after her baby sneeze, but it happens to be the same as the name of the old lady's cat.
  • Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Puzzola is rather upset when he learns the Governor gave the castle to the protagonist instead of killing him.


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