An old donkey who can no longer haul heavy loads overhears his master's plan to kill him and eat him. So, he runs away to the town of Bremen to become a musician. Along the way, he meets a dog, a cat, and a rooster who join him.

Due to a devastating famine, two children, Hansel and Gretel, are abandoned in the woods by their cruel stepmother and are lured to a gingerbread house inhabited by a child-eating witch.

A selfish princess learns a lesson in humility and consideration for others from a talking frog.

A little girl on her way through the woods to her grandmother's house is accosted by a sneaky, hungry wolf.

A young simpleton is gifted a golden goose in return for an act of kindness. When three scheming sisters plot to steal the goose, they become stuck to it and every person who tries to free them becomes stuck in turn until they perform an unselfish act.

A clever cat schemes and cajoles to elevate his master's social and financial status.

Two sisters are visited in winter by a talking bear, but he leaves in the spring speaking of riches to protect and an evil spell. Then Snow White and Rose Red keep encountering a helpless but cold gnome, and later a prince seeking his lost brother.

A vain and wicked queen orders the death of her stepdaughter, Snow White, for exceeding her beauty. But Snow White flees into the woods where she meets seven friendly dwarfs who help to protect her when the queen comes to finish the job.

A soldier is unjustly compensated by a money-hoarding king and princess. Forced to fend for himself, he meets five remarkable friends: a strongman, one who can run faster than any other human, one whose bare head can create ice and snow, one whose breath extends for a distance, and one who can see and shoot for miles. The soldier inspires them to follow him, then they decide to stop the cruelty of the country's rulers.

A young prince in line to inherit a kingdom goes on a quest for the Water of Life to save his ailing father, the King's, life. But the prince's older brother, wanting the kingdom for himself, tries to steal the Water to prove his worth to the King and get in his good favor again.

Josephine's dreams of marrying a prince seem to come true when one sends for her in her forest home. Though her brothers are wary of her wedding a man none of them has met, she accepts eagerly - but is startled by his striking beard of blue. The prince, who provides Josephine with every luxury until she becomes haughty, has only one locked, mismatched room in his castle he will not discuss. When he leaves her with his keys and instructions to see that one is not used, Josephine is lured by it to the forbidden room, and a terrible secret.

When Jorinde and her fiancé Joringel visit the woods, its witch they unknowingly encountered earlier draws them to her home and turns Jorinde into a nightingale and takes her as she does every maid she meets. After being unable to move to stop it, Joringel is driven out of the woods by her magic with only a puzzling message from Jorinde, and can't see a way to best the magic to free her.