[1] Backed by the International Lutheran Laymen's League, it has strong Christian themes of unconditional love, self-sacrifice, and redemption, with a substantial Protestant influence.

He explains that trolls live high in the mountains because they fear our world — to them, all that is good is bad, all that is right is wrong and that Christmas is scarier than Halloween.

Bu narrates how his father, the two-headed King Ulvik (voiced by Vincent Price and Jonathan Winters), could grow so angry that storms would sweep across Norway.

Ulvik is shouting at his wife Queen Sirena (voiced by Cloris Leachman) for having given him the insulting news that Bu is failing his lessons at Sinister School.

Summoning his courage, Bu decides to lead the four trolls to People-land in spite of his timidity, facing the trollish fears of humans and those who are different ("Down From the Mountain").

Though the trolls hope Bu will fall (saving them the trouble of actually going to People-land, which they do fear), he makes it safely across and the five continue down the mountain, encountering two rabbits and a squirrel (which, by comparison, are extremely large).

Mistaking them for flattened, cooked trolls, Bu flees the scene in horror, telling his companions to run for their lives.

Horrified, he runs to the window and realizes the king's messenger, Malfred (Alvy Dorman), has been sent by his father to retrieve him.

Manifested as a ruinous, fiery-eyed monster of the wind, Malfred freezes the awaiting Bu and carries him to a cell in the palace prison.

As he finally accepts that Sonja and Kristi must be right, two giant troll guards remove him from his cell and take him to a public trial.

As the crowd accuses him of sedition and mocks his appearance, Ulvik explains that Bu has been brought before the Council of Elders (six identical trolls) to determine whether he is fit to remain crown prince.

Finally Prag concludes that the humans plan to cook and eat the trolls, at which Queen Sirena accuses Bu of trying to kill her "babies".

Agreeing that if Bu has committed heresy then he is guilty, Ulvik encourages his son to prove his knowledge of "Trollship", at which Sirena accuses her husband of favoritism.

Discovering that the former prince has escaped, Sirena fears that he will lead the humans to the Troll Kingdom and begs Ulvik to retrieve him.

Having eavesdropped on their parents' conversation, Borch and Prag find Stav and Ribo and head out armed into the night to kill Bu.

Lost in the wilderness, Bu laments that he has no home since he is neither a troll nor a human ("I'm So All Alone"); he finds shelter by a tree and falls asleep.

Bjørn asks Bu to stay in the valley to help out the other gnomes with their work while his wife provides him with food and a new set of clothes (the outfit he was wearing in the beginning).

Warner Archive released the special along with The Cabbage Patch Kids' First Christmas as a double bill on DVD on October 15, 2013.