1001 Nights

**1001 Nights** is a Canadian animated television series developed and produced at Big Bad Boo Studios in Vancouver, based on stories from One Thousand and One Nights. The show is created and co-directed by Shabnam Rezaei and Aly Jetha. Borrowing from the original premise of the classical tales of One Thousand and One Nights, the TV series features Scheherazade, the storyteller, in a Persian court with her sister Donyazad, King Shahryar, Prince Shahzaman and a playful monkey named Maymoon. The show premiered on Teletoon in Canada on December 25, 2011 and on Radio Canada in French-speaking Canada. In the United States, the show premiered on Disney Channel on January 2, 2012. This is the first time a media company has serialized the books of One Thousand and One Nights into an animated TV series for children.

This show also aired in Turkey and Pakistan on Cartoon Network (Turkey) and Geo Entertainment (under title, Alif Laila) respectively.

## Summary

Another day at King Shahryar's court and another problem presents itself. Does Shahryar have a toothache? Is Maymoon "borrowing" Shahzaman's pistachios? Scheherazade always has a delightful story that will entertain and teach everyone a great lesson. She will often use the court characters in her stories. There are also a number of recurring characters such as Sinbad and Dina, Mujab and Samir and Harun al-Rashid. A red herring is presented in each episode such as a flying carpet which leaves room for the stories to continue.

## Why It Rocks

1. Likeable characters, such as Scheherazade (or Shahrzad in some networks and sites), Shahryar, Shahzaman, Donyazad, Majid, and Maymoon the monkey.
2. The stories in this show tend to teach life lessons and can be very entertaining. For example, "The Joke's on You" teaches to never pull practical jokes on others or one day you would recieve the same treatment, "King Bitehard" teaches that rules must be enforced, but justice must be reasonable and the lesson of having a sense of humour, "Sinbad and the Valley of the Giant Serpent" teaches that hard work always pays of and to have determination, "Manjab's Just Desserts" teaches that stealing and gluttoning would lead to bigger messes, "King for A Day" teaches that being king (or even a country leader) doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want, "Bigger, Badder, Badr" teaches that all leaders must accept criticism, and there's a lot more.
3. Some episodes will have the main characters of the show appear as characters in Scheherezade's stories. Whenever there is an episode focusing on a family, the entire cast plays the role of the family (Shahryar the father figure, Sheherezade/Shahrzad the mother figure, Donyazad the daughter/sister figure, Shahzaman the son/brother figure, and Magid as the grandfather figure), Donyazad and Maymoon apprear as Dina and Peanut in the Sinbad stories, Manjab's Just Desserts has Shahzaman play as Manjab, and some other episodes.
4. The flash animation is very colourful, bright, and amazing.
	* The fast pacing in the first season was cool and fun, but sadly it toned down since the second season, while it was still great.
5. "The Tale of the Haunted Palace" is the only one that focuses on the main characters.
6. Donyazad is a likeable, intelligent, plucky, and determined girl, although she tends to be a bit tense, feisty, and sensitive.
7. Sherezede/Shahrzad is a great moralizer to the crew.
8. The voice acting is decent and okay.
9. The designs of the characters are cool.
10. Whenever they refer to death in some episodes, most of the references to death are mentioned such as getting decapitated or even characters mentioning the word "die", "dead", or even "kill/killed". However, when death is physically shown, sometimes it's offscreen or onscreen, such as in "Which Way Is Up", when the father of Joshua and Daniel's father passes away after explaining there is a place up in the mountains, in "Abu Kasim's Smelly Shoes" where the elderly man who was the former owner of the shoes passes away in bed, and in the Haunted Palace episode, Danoosh explains how Prince Davood died by falling off his tower when he thought his magician granted his wish of flying (when he fell down, it only showed the tower and the magician in it while Davood was offscreen when he crashed down).

## Bad Qualities

1. The series sadly lasted for 2 seasons.
2. King Shahryar can be a bit agressive, short-tempered, high-strung, arrogant, pompous, spoiled, childlike, unintentionally selfish, and kind of has little experience or knowledge of what it takes to make a good king. In fact, when he played as Nadeem's strict father in "The Boy and The Panther", his behaviour could be similar to that of Hugh Test from Johnny Test.
	* The other characters in the show could also seem similar to the characters in Johnny Test. Sheherzede could be similar to Lila because of her devoted and tolerable behaviour, Donyazad could be similar to both Susan and Mary because of her intelligent and determined personlaity (with her tense and feisty side being similar to that of Susan's), and Shahzaman could be similar to Johnny himself because he can be playful and into things he considers fun just like how Johnny does.
	* The flash animation could also be similar to the one in Johnny Test as well. Hence, both shows were broadcasted on Teletoon and are Canadian shows (although Johnny Test is also partly American).
3. The scenes where Shahzaman and Donayzad fight and argue over small things in some episodes can be annoying and mean-spirited and could get on your nerves.
4. Sinbad seemed to have been flanderized in the episodes that featured him from the point that he is portrayed as a dim-witted character with less inteligence. Even when Shehrzede narrates his story, she states that he has done many things to make him a great merchant and sailor when as depicted in the story, its the other way around.
5. Although Donyazad tends to get feisty and tense for reasons, it can lead to her getting a bit touchy and stingy for some viewers.