Tabaluga

Tabaluga, a small green dragon, is the protagonist of a franchise of the same name.

He was created in 1983 by German singers Peter Maffay, Rolf Zuckowski, and Maffay's songwriter Gregor Rottschalk. Originally only created for one conceptual album, the franchise has spawned so far: three conceptual albums, two musicals, the Game Show Tabaluga tivi, an animated series, audio drama adaptations of this series, several books, Board Games, and an award for charitable work (the "Golden Tabaluga").

To make matters more complicated, the concept albums and first musical (Tabaluga und Lilli) have a completely different continuity than the rest of the franchise, while the second musical (Tabaluga und das verschenkte Glück, "Tabaluga and the Shed Luck"), features both characters from the first musical and the series, in addition to a boatload of original characters never appearing in any part of the franchise again.

The only connection between the continuities are Tabaluga, the ghost of his father Tyrion, and the villain Arktos.

Tropes used in Tabaluga include:

General Tropes

• Early Installment Weirdness
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: Evil Overlord Arktos lives in an palace in Iceworldand is (naturally) very fond of the cold.
• Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: Tabaluga is a Petting Zoo Person. The rest of the animals are Civilized Animals or Partially Civilized Animals.
• Shadow Archetype: Ice-themed Arktos to Fire-themed Tabaluga.
• Snowlems: Arktos
• Spirit Advisor: Tabaluga can communicate with the ghost of his father in his dreams.
• Our Dragons Are Different

Tabaluga und Lilli

Musical about Tabaluga`s struggles to free Arktos` "daughter" Lilli.

• Absurdly High Stakes Game: Tabaluga wagers his dragonfire to get Lilli`s winder in a game of dice against Arktos. Unfortunately Arktos is not a good looser...
• An Ice Person/ Artificial Human/ Clockwork Creature: Lilli was made by Arktos out of ice and needs to be wind up like a clock. Until the very end
• Final Love Duet: A reprise of "Ich fühl wie du".
• The Gambler: Arktos
• Love At First Sight
• Keet: Tabaluga. At least in the beginning.
• Shallow Love Interest: Lilli
• The Power of Love
• Villain Song: "Der Schüssel zur Macht" ("Key to Power")

The Game Show

Two teams of 4 to 6th graders participate in mostly action-oriented minigames (a quiz-round was introduced later). The team winning more games has to win the final round to win the Grand Prize. (Roller skates/a skateboard/ a bike + the latest gaming console + a T-Shirt). Later they also played for money for benevolent institutions.

• Confetti Drop
• Consolation Prize: a T-Shirt, a basket full of merchandising and a board game
• Dueling Shows: Tabaluga tivi vs. Tigerenten-Club. Both gameshows for children about a popular franchise (Tabaluga and Janosch) interrupted twice for episodes of popular kids shows.
• Game Show Appearance: A variation. A Tabaluga-animatronic was one of the hosts.
• Sound Proof Booth: Used for a while in the very first round: The kids had to answer questions about their teammate, who

was in a Sound Proof Booth, then they swapped places. Replaced later with a "typical" quiz in the very last round.

The Animated Adaption

• Bratty Half-Pint: Tabaluga shows shades of this. As does Happpy. Also Happy's cousin, Bobby.
• Expository Theme Tune: The english version
• Harmless Villain: Arktos
• Ho Yay: Arktos` butler James seems a bit too concerned about his master`s wellfare
• Minion with an F In Evil: Vulture by far
• Never Say "Die": Averted hard. E.g. the plot of a whole episode is driven by the fact, that Happy might die of fever.
• Panty Shot: Happy in Spades.
• Platonic Life Partners/ Not Love Interest: Tabaluga and Happy
• Seers: Shouhou is held captive by Arktos for his ability to see to faraway places using a crystal ball
• The Chick: Happy
• The Mentor: Nessaja, Shouhou and Tyrion. If Tabaluga would listen to them...
• The Jeeves: James
• Trademark Favourite Food: Chocolate ice cream for Arktos, carrots for Happy and sunflower seeds for Tabaluga.
• What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: Fans of the musicals weren't too fond of the series for its less philosophical, more humorous, more lighthearted and, well, in general more kid-friendly take on Tabaluga.