The Little Troll Prince: A Christmas Parable is a 1987 animated Christmas Special produced by Hanna-Barbera and the International Lutheran Laymen's League, making this one of the former company's few explicitly Christian productions.
It is Christmas Eve in a Norwegian mountain village, children play under the shadow of a sinister mountain. In one small cottage, a gnome named Bu (voiced by Danny Cooksey) is happily decorating his own home, a doll's house, aided by his animal friend mice and birds. The humans of the cottage, two girls and their father return with a Christmas tree.
Bu explains to his animal friends that while humans and gnomes love Christmas, trolls do not. He explains that trolls live high in the mountains because they hate and fear our world. To them Christmas is scarier than Halloween. Trolls have no word for "love". Bu adds that he knows all this because last Christmas he not only lived among the trolls, but was their crown prince. The gnome tells his story as a young troll prince, who sadly was ostracized by the other vile trolls in the kingdom. In an attempt to make his father proud, he ventured into a human village where he learns the true meaning of Christmas and changes him forever.
This cartoon provides examples of:
- All of the Other Reindeer: Poor Bu is clearly nothing like the other trolls in the Troll Kingdom: timid, polite, shy, kindhearted. Everything a troll isn't supposed to be. He's failing his lessons at Sinister School and apart from his pointy ears, large-for-the-face nose, and tail (which are remarked upon as being undersized by troll standards), there's nothing troll-like about his appearance. Both his parents and his brothers are ashamed of him and see him as an embarrassment while other trolls want nothing more than to be rid of him.
- All Trolls Are Different: Here, trolls are small, ugly underground dwelling and Always Chaotic Evil but Bu gains redemption and is turned into a gnome.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Downplayed. While trolls are nasty, violent and cruel, Bu had to have gotten his kind nature from somewhere in the Troll Kingdom. It is heavily implied he takes after his father King Ulvik in this department, though neither head would ever admit it. This implies trolls are more ignorant than truly evil and could become gnomes like Bu if they so choose.
- Ambiguous Situation: There are a few hints that Bu’s kindly nature may have been partially inherited from his father. King Ulvik is notably the most patient with Bu’s behavior and, even after disowning him, he is clearly saddened, potentially even feeling guilty, by his son being gone.
- Artistic License – Biology: One of Bu's animal friends is a baby mountain bluebird. This bird is a migratory thrush species found in North America and is not native to Norway or Europe.
- Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: The trolls here believe in this firmly. Bu explains this to his animal friends (and the viewers) at the beginning of the film before explaining how he became a gnome.Bu: (about the trolls) You see, to them, everything down here is upside down. Right's wrong, good is bad. To them, Christmas is more scary than Halloween.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Played arrow-straight: Being so much kinder by nature than his fellows, Bu is much less monstrous than they, and when he proclaims his belief in Christ, he transforms into a cuddly, completely humanoid gnome.
- Big Ball of Violence: This unfolds when King Ulvik orders the other trolls to "Do what you will" to Bu once he disowns him. Fortunately, they're all accidentally attacking each other, and Bu crawls away unharmed and unnoticed.
- Big Little Brother: Both of Bu's younger brothers, Borch and Prag, are bigger than he is (and that isn't even taking into account that they each have two heads as opposed to the one Bu has).
- Cain and Abel: Prince Bu and his two sinister brothers, Prag and Borch, both of whom hate his guts. The only reason they never tried to get rid of him before the story began was because their father would kill them if they hurt their brother.
- Children Are Innocent: The two young human girls, Sonja and Kristi. They mistake Bu for a gnome, despite his tail and pointy ears. When they tell him about Christmas, Christ, the Bible, and love, this causes Bu's frozen heart to beat for the first time.
- Disappointed in You: At Sinister School King Ulvik explodes into a tirade when Bu thanks him, vile profanity among trolls, for allowing him to sit down. Ulvik curses everytime Bu does something to make him a little bit proud, the troll prince immediately follows up with an act that makes Ulvik ashamed to call Bu his son. Bu starts to cry, further angering the troll king.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: In the end, although Bu is chased out of the Troll Kingdom upon becoming a gnome, he meets a friendly gnome couple in the forest and is happy to realize he's one of them. He's more than willing to accept their offer to stay in the valley, and happily takes up residence in Kristi and Sonja's home.
- Easy Evangelism: Slightly downplayed with Bu learning about Christmas' true meaning, since he has no opportunity to know about it in a society that doesn't even have a word for love. He comes around over a few steps: First realizing that what the trolls claim about humans being the real monsters is completely false (or at best wildly mistaken), second by being shown love by the sisters and being assured that God loves everyone in the same way, and third by his literally feeling better upon learning and accepting the idea, as his heart begins to feel warm and even beat for the first time. What really seals the deal is that happening again while he's in his icy jail cell, as he reads the miniature Bible the girls gifted him. Averted with the other trolls, who are completely unmoved by his declaration of his belief in Christ's love and horrified by his transformation into a gnome.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- While Bu's parents are disgusted by his behavior and want him to be like every other troll, the king and queen, particularly King Ulvik, have never once tried to actually harm Bu for this or do anything more than express disdain. Prag and Borch even bring up how if they ever tried to harm or kill Bu, their father would kill them. This foreshadows the possibility that Bu gets his kindly nature from his father. Even after disowning his son, Ulvik is aware Bu would never do something such as lead the humans to them, and is genuinely heartbroken for having done this.
- Zigzagged when Queen Sirena mocks Bu's non-threatening appearance, comparing his stubby tail to Ulvik's deceased grandfather's, the King angrily rebukes her, before retorting no one in his multi-headed family ever had one single head.
- Fantastic Foxes: Bu's younger hateful brothers, believing their own lies about the now exile-prince allying himself with humans, intend to murder him in cold blood to ensure he never returns to the troll kingdom. Fortunately, a curious fox cub prevents them and chases them back up the mountain.
- Good Feels Good: Throughout his whole life, Bu is taught that being nasty and cruel is the way to go through life, but he can never really behave the way others expect. It isn't until he meets Kristi and Sonja that he understands why he feels this way through the power of faith in Christ as his frozen heart thaws and begins to beat for the very first time.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: That's what the trolls think, anyway. Ultimately inverted: the humans treat Bu far better than his actual kin.
- Hypocrite: Queen Sirena condemns King Ulvik for playing favorites with his eldest son Bu, before immediately fawning over her younger children, Prag and Borch.
- I Have No Son!: During Prince Bu's trial, he tells his father he has a heart filled with love. Not understanding this, the furious King Ulvik claims Bu is no longer his son, nor is he prince of the trolls, leaving him to the mercy of the other trolls. Fortunately, Bu escapes.
- Karma Houdini: Prag, Borch, and their accomplices Stav and Ribo, make several attempts on Bu's life. First by tricking him into going into "People-Land" and leaving him tied to a tree, hoping the humans will kill him. When he is returned to their land to stand trial, they lie that he tricked them. Unfortunately, they are never exposed, let alone punished, for their wrongdoings and, in a way, they succeed in getting rid of Bu considering that he's disowned by his father after turning into a gnome. The worst thing that happens to them is them getting scared off by a fox while trying to hunt down Bu in one last attempt to kill him.
- Magical Species Transformation: While on trial, Bu recites the Golden Rule, his belief in Christ, and speaks of love. He doesn't notice this, but as he speaks, his nose shrinks, his tail starts to disappear, and his ears lose their points. Just like that, he turns into a gnome... Right in front of all the trolls!
- Mouse World: It's not until Bu and the young trolls enter People-Land do we truly see how small in the world they are. The foraging animals of the forest are giants to them, further terrifying them of this strange place that they don't notice the squirrels, birds, and mice mean them no harm.
- Multiple Head Case: Bu's two-headed father, King Ulvik, and his two younger brothers, the two-headed Prag and the two-headed Borch.
- Pet the Dog: In the climax, after Bu escapes the dungeon, Queen Sirena runs to King Ulvik and panics over Bu revealing the location of the troll kingdom to the humans. King Ulvik replies in a dejected tone that Bu would never backstab them and then tells her to drop the matter.
- Punny Name: Bu is pronounced "boo", as in the Jump Scare expression, befitting someone who is supposed to be scary to non-trolls. This amuses the gnomes he encounters in the denouement.
- Straw Hypocrite: Regarding Bu, the trolls hate their crown prince as a snivelling weakling who does not understand 'trollship' in bullying others nor embodies the "Do unto others before they do unto you" Golden Rule. Yet when brought for trial and falsely accused by his brothers of attacking them in the forbidden People-land, the troll denizens are more outraged Bu exemplified their own behavior, rather than breaking the lesser rule of wandering into People-land to start with.
- Torches and Pitchforks: In the denouement, Bu's brothers lead several other trolls down the mountain in hopes of killing Bu before he can (they believe) lead the humans to their lair, bearing torches and weapons. But they're scared off by a sleeping fox and the ice bridge connecting their mountain to the humans' territory collapses behind them as they flee.
- The Un-Favourite: Bu's parents, particularly his mother, Queen Sirena, clearly favor his two younger brothers over him.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: According to Bu, trolls don't even have a word for "love". When he meets Kristi and Sonja, they tell him how Christ was sent to love the whole world. This leads Bu to ask them what love is. King Ulvik later asks the same question when his eldest son says he now has "a warm heart filled with love".King Ulvik: Warm? Love? What's that?
- Your Size May Vary: The size of the animals is notably all over the place between the troll kingdom and People-Land. Where humans live they are giant. Bu has two mice friends the size of large dogs in his doll's house. In Ulvik's castle Queen Sirena is using many mice as makeshift perming hair rods.
