The film is a sub-story to Kirikou and the Sorceress rather than a straight sequel. The movie is set while Kirikou is still a child and Karaba is still a sorceress. Like Princes et princesses and Les Contes de la nuit, it is an anthology film comprising several episodic stories, each of them describing Kirikou's interactions with a different animals. It is however unique among Michel Ocelot's films, not only in that it is co-directed by Bénédicte Galup (who has previously worked with him as an animator) but also for each of the stories being written by a different person (in all other cases, Ocelot has been the sole writer and director of his films).
Sur le même principe que Kirikou et les Bêtes sauvages, Kirikou et les Hommes et les Femmes regroupe cinq aventures de Kirikou enfant indépendantes les unes des autres et racontées par le grand-père de Kirikou. Ces aventures se déroulent pendant les événements de Kirikou et la Sorcière, au temps où le village est toujours terrorisé par la sorcière Karaba et ses fétiches animés. Tandis que Kirikou et les Bêtes sauvages mettait en avant des animaux, Kirikou et les Hommes et les Femmes se concentre sur les relations des villageois entre eux ou avec les étrangers de passage.
Demons once ruled mankind under Akivasha, Sorceress Queen of Acheron, until overthrown by the god Valka. The kingdom of Valusia was built on the ruins of Acheron, and Valka left a single flame of Acheron there to burn for eternity as reminder of "godless times".
During the Christmas holiday season, Greenwich Village witch Gillian Holroyd (Kim Novak), a free spirit with a penchant for going barefoot, has been unlucky in love and restless in life. She admires from afar her neighbor, publisher Shep Henderson (James Stewart), who one day walks into her gallery of African art to use the telephone (after Gillian's aunt Elsa Lanchester put a spell on his phone). When she learns he is about to marry an old college enemy of hers, Merle Kittridge (Janice Rule), Gillian takes revenge by casting a love spell on Shep, and she eventually falls for him herself. She must make a choice, as witches who fall in love lose their supernatural powers. When she decides to love Shep, Gillian's cat and familiar, Pyewacket, becomes agitated and leaves.
Ippolita is a paralyzed young woman with serious mental problems stemming from the death of her mother. Her crisis of faith and the intervention of a well-meaning psychologist lead Ippolita to remember her past life as a witch during the Inquisition. Eventually, Ippolita becomes possessed and starts seducing local men, only to kill them. An exorcism seems to be the only solution to stop the madness.
The three Rawlins children, Charlie, Carrie, and Paul are evacuated from London during The Blitz to the remote village of Pepperinge Eye. They are placed in the reluctant care of Miss Eglantine Price, a reclusive woman who agrees to the arrangement temporarily. The children attempt to run away back to London, but change their minds after observing Miss Price attempting to fly on a broomstick. Miss Price reveals she is learning witchcraft through a correspondence school with hopes of using her spells in the British war effort, and offers the children a transportation spell in exchange for their silence. Miss Price casts the spell on a knob that the youngest child, Paul, has removed from the bed in the children’s shared bedroom, and she adds that only Paul can activate the spell.
While preparing to leave the forest moon of Endor, the Towani family (Jeremitt, Catrine, Mace, and Cindel), the Ewok village is attacked by a group of marauders (originally crash landed from Sanyassa) led by Terak and his witch-like sorceress Charal. Many Ewoks are killed. Cindel escapes, but is forced to leave Jeremitt, Catrine and Mace to their probable doom, both parents having already been hit by enemy fire. Their fate is not explicitly told in the film, but Cindel later assumes that they have been killed.
When the wealthy count Waldemar Daninsky kills a wolf on his grounds, it transforms into a gypsy upon death, and he finds himself cursed by a vengeful gypsy witch who is angry about him killing one of her band. The witch orders a young, beautiful gypsy girl to seduce Daninsky and then, while he is sleeping, bite him with the skull of a wolf which she smuggles into the count's mansion. When she presses the skull's fangs into his skin, Waldemar becomes a werewolf (without a doubt the most original of all of Waldemar's various "origins" in the series).
Twin sisters Sarah (Mika Boorem) and Lindsay (Summer Glau) are excited to attend Temple Hill University, where they will likely join Alpha Nu as their mother Trina Goodwin (Morgan Fairchild) was a previous member. Sarah finds herself immediately drawn to Finn, a student adviser that invites them both to Pi Epsilon Delta's rush week party. At the party the sisters are introduced to the Alpha Nu President, Corrine (Joanna Garcia), but Sarah ends up leaving the party in tears after accidentally spilling a drink on Corrine. Lindsay follows Sarah and accidentally breaks her ankle. They're brought into the Pi Epsilon Delta house, where Dr. Eugenia Hunter (Jennifer Tilly) introduces herself as a friend of their mother. The sisters are surprised to find that Lindsay's ankle has been healed. The following day Corrine ingratiates herself to Lindsay during a meeting at Alpha Nu, during which time Corrine takes the opportunity to take an eyelash off of Lindsay and pocket it.
After many childless years, King Stefan and Queen Leah, his lovely and beautiful wife, happily welcome the birth of their daughter, Princess Aurora. They proclaim a holiday for their subjects to pay homage to the princess and celebrate her birth. At the gathering for her christening she is betrothed to Prince Phillip, a small boy who is the only son of King Hubert, King Stefan's friend, so that their kingdoms will always be united.
Early morning in 1692 Salem, Massachusetts, some young village girls meet in the woods with a Barbadian slave named Tituba (Charlayne Woodard). One of the girls, Abigail Williams (Winona Ryder), kills a chicken and drinks the blood, wishing for John Proctor's wife to die. They are surprised by Abigail's uncle, Reverend Samuel Parris (Bruce Davison), who discovers them. As the girls run away, Parris' daughter, Betty (Rachael Bella), falls over unconscious.
Toutes les nuits, Laura, fille unique du Comte Ludwig Von Karnstein, fait le même cauchemar. Elle imagine qu'elle est la réincarnation de la sorcière Sheena, son ancêtre, qui a été condamnée au bûcher par les siens car elle s'adonnait à la sorcellerie. Avant d'être brûlée vive, elle lança une malédiction sur ses proches, annonçant qu'une Karnstein naîtrait, qui serait son portrait craché et le bras de sa vengeance... Dans ce sinistre château, la gouvernante Rowena, adepte de la magie noire, utilise les dons de médium de Laura pour tenter de faire revenir Sheena...
Oliver Greening is rejected from a coveted performance in a musical version of A Tale of Two Cities for simply not being a bankable performer. After Oliver's daughter Annabel attempts to get her brother Charlie to believe that the tooth fairy exists, Murray, a clumsy fairy godmother, appears after Charlie has gone to sleep. Annabel wants to wish for her father to get the role, but Murray suddenly remembers he is late for an important engagement and promises to return to grant her wish later.
Count Christian von Meruh (Udo Kier) is a witch hunter and apprentice to Lord Cumberland (Herbert Lom) in early 18th-century Austria. He believes strongly in his mentor and the ways of the church but loses faith when he catches Cumberland strangling a man to death for calling him impotent. Von Meruh begins to see for himself that the witch trials are nothing but a scam of the church to rob people of their land, money, and other personal belongings of value and seduce beautiful women. Eventually, the townspeople revolt, and Cumberland escapes but von Meruh is captured by the townspeople. This film contains very strong graphic torture including a women's tongue being ripped out of her head, nuns being raped, and multitudes of beatings.