‘Hilda’ animated Scandi folk horror on Netflix

One of the series I have been watching on Netflix subcscription is the curious mash-up animation Hilda.

It’s a children’s animation about a strange blue haired girl called Hilda and her mother who move from a stone troll and tiny elf infested wilderness and forest to the urban safety of the nearby town of Trolberg, a city protected by bell towers. Trolls do not like the sound of bells. The city is patrolled by airship and pompous imcompetent Troll Guards. Trolls however have destroyed Hilda’s childhood home.

From its Lofi 80s video game soundtrack to its infusion of Scandi supernatural mythology, this is a strange mixture of 80s retro Stranger Things (young teenage friends on bikes with lots of freedom) and a lively weird kids animation series.

Luke Pearson’s animated series (based on his graphic novel series) has that Harry Potter edge of myth, monsters and witchcraft with dark forests and ‘safe by day, dark things happen at night …’

There are many Scandi folklore elements:

• Nisse tricky house spirits using negative space within this Scandi city or town buildings to hide and travel

• Stone trolls that freeze into stone by day, increasing near the town, but by night …

• Warring tiny Elf communities that can only be seen by some, including a Lost Clan

Some of these tiny elves are planning strategy on a war-games type table, when giant girl Hilda comes to see them in Series 1 Episode 1: Chapter 1: The Hidden People.

You will also find

• Witchy librarians and fantastic libraries with hidden rooms …

• Deer foxes and other curious combinations

• Sea monsters and hellish Wolves

• Mad scientist ladies

• Cool jazz dude The Woodman (made, not surprisingly, of wood and walking boldly into people’s houses to deliver wood for the fire)

• Animated or alive plants and root vegetable creatures

Of interest to my Scouting Wide Games for the Tabletop Project, Hilda joins the local Sparrow Scouts, whose uniform seems based on US Boy Scout or Girl Scout type sashes for badges.

Screenshots from Netflix series for (Uniform) reference and series review only.

You can explore more at:

https://hildatheseries.fandom.com/wiki/Hilda_Wiki

Blog posted by Mark Man Of TIN 21/22 March 2024

B.P.S. Blog Post Script

Hilda / Trolberg has a slight feel of the walled or gated community with a terrible threat outside the walls in the much more adult series of books and TV series by Blake Crouch called Wayward Pines

https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/2022/11/13/wayward-pines-series-1-and-2/

Wayward Things maybe as a fusion?