Western Animation / The Story Store

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The Story Store, The Story Store

Stories surprises and secrets galore!

And dreams that come true are waiting

For you, inside the Story Store

The Story Store is a British children's TV show created by Joe Austen, an artist, writer and entrepreneur from Scotland. It concerns the whimsical adventures of George, the owner of the eponymous magical establishment, his loyal sidekick Pip, and a whole bunch of other anthropomorphic animals from around their neighbourhood.

This show contains examples of the following tropes:

• Actually Not a Banshee: When Granny becomes possessed after drinking some magic water, Bert the handyman mistakes her for a banshee.
• Ambiguous Time Period: The show overall appears to have a Victorian-era aesthetic, but exactly when it takes place is kept purposely vague. The occasional advanced technology like the Double-O Machine, the Relax-O Ray and the Move-O Lever only proceeds to muddy the waters.
• Animate Inanimate Object: The Helping Hands are large sentient gloves which were apparently animated by George to help him out around the shop. The Dog-Biscuit also counts, considering that, similarly to the footstool in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, it is an animated biscuit which acts like a dog.
• Bait-and-Switch: During the episode Who's Minding the Store, after Alfred the Magic Inspector gives his inspection of the shop.
  George: So have I passed?
  Alfred: No, you haven't passed. (cue Oh, Crap! expressions from Granny Clump and the rest of the cast) You've done better than that.
• Bazaar of the Bizarre: The eponymous Story Store is one, albeit a lot more lighthearted and a lot less weird. It sells magical items which the inhabitants of the village use in their everyday lives, such as Vanish-O Washing Powder (which quite literally causes any stains on garments to vanish), Raise-O Flour (which causes dough to rise) and Leg-Lengtheners (magic shoes which can cause people's legs to expand in order for them to reach high places).
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Victoria Plumpkin is this. Because of her weight, she has a habit of accidentally knocking things over whenever she moves. Makes sense because she's a hippo. However, unlike most examples of this trope, she is deeply sensitive about this trope.
• Forced Sleep: The Relax-O Ray causes this to happen.
• Granny Classic: Granny Clump could be considered one. She'll gladly entertain any guests with any story about her bunions and so on. She's also very good at cooking and very close to her grandson...
• Helium Speech: This is what the Speedo powder does when it is used on a person.
• Honorable Elephant: Granny Clump and her grandson Sammy, both of whom are very nice people.
• Huggy, Huggy Hippos: Victoria Plumpkin.
• Hypno Ray: The Relax-O Ray is this.
• Idiot Ball: Sorry, Granny Clump, assigning your young grandson, a child with no experience, the responsibility of keeping the shop tidy, is a very bad idea...
• Idyllic English Village: This is where the show is set.
• The Inspector Is Coming: This is the main conflict of Who's Minding the Store.
• Never Trust a Title: The Story Store sells magical items.
• Not What It Looks Like: When Pip hears George expressing his frustrations with him, he immediately becomes upset and decides to run away out into the wilderness outside the town. The trouble is he didn't hear the rest of what George was saying and thus got the wrong idea.
• Oh, Crap!: During the episode Who's Minding the Store:
  • George has this when he realises the mess that Sammy and Pip made in his absence, and that the Magic Inspector will be arriving soon.
  • Granny Clump when she sees the Magic Inspector coming around the corner.
• Our Clones Are Identical: Pip accidentally uses the Double-O Machine, which is used to increase items by multiplying their number, to create a clone of himself. Said clone appears not to be sentient and behaves more like an automaton than a proper organic being. As you can imagine, chaos ensues.
• Perfectly Cromulent Word: Granny Clump has practically turned this into an artform - examples include "cobbliwobblified" and "tiddlified" among others.
• The Reveal: The Magic Inspector and George are identical twins.
• The Scrooge: Angus Puggle, the miserly monkey. He's so tight-fisted that during the episode Helping Hands, rather than pay Bert the handyman the reasonable price of £10 for his work when his chimney pot is rendered defective during the storm, he simply decides to avoid paying and leave things as they are in the vain hope that the storm will cease, when it in fact grows worse. This need to save money for everything causes him to trick George into thinking that he wants to give the Helping Hands a trial period, and then enslave them, forcing them to perform his menial tasks for him until even they decide that they've had enough and leg it all the way back to the Story Store.
• Serious Business: The unseen government of the world the show takes place in apparently sends out Magic Inspectors to observe magical businesses. These businesses live or die by their inspections, which is why every visit from the local Magic Inspector is enough to worry George.
• Sleepwalking: During the episode The Night and the Music it is revealed that Granny Clump has a habit of doing this. Apparently Sammy wasn't in on this, which is why he becomes worried when Granny Clump goes missing.
• Theme Naming: All the various magical powders and gadgets all end with the letter "O".
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The town where the show takes place is given neither a name nor a location. The usage of "pounds" as currency implies that it's located somewhere in Britain, though.
• World of Funny Animals: The show takes place in one.