Doc McStuffins
Doc McStuffins is a preschool-targeted CGI-animated children's series on Disney Junior featuring a child doctor who runs a clinic for stuffed animals and toys. The series was one of the first announced for Disney Junior, which replaced Playhouse Disney, though it did not begin airing until Valentine's Day, 2012 with the premiere of the 24/7 Disney Junior network in the United States. In each episode, the titular Doc uses her magic stethoscope to bring toys to life and then diagnoses and heals a sick or damaged toy. With its complex characters and willingness to buck the general format of similar shows currently[when?] on the air, the program has been described as "Cheers for prechoolers" and has amassed a sizeable audience.
Tropes used in Doc McStuffins include:
- Adorkable: Stuffy the dragon. In spades.
- All CGI Cartoon
- Bindle Stick: Pickles the bunny creates one using a paintbrush in "The Bunny Blues" when she believes that her owner has decided to sell her in a yard sale.
- Blind Without'Em: Hallie the hippo claims to be blind without her glasses, though a point-of-view shot establishes the actual fuzzy nearsightedness.
- Cuddle Bug: Lambie
- Edutainment Show: The main thrust of the program is to show children what happens at the doctor's office and make them less fearful of a checkup, but there are also the general pro-social lessons often included with this type of show.
- Expressive Ears: Seen on Pickles the bunny in "The Bunny Blues"
- Five-Man Band:
- The Heroine: Doc McStuffins (also The Medic)
- The Lancer: Stuffy
- The Smart Girl: Hallie
- The Big Guy: Chilly
- The Chick: Lambie
- Hypochondria: One of the main characters is a hypochondriac stuffed snowman named Chilly who regularly fears melting (he's not made of real snow), getting broken bones (he's a stuffed toy) and catching various illnesses that aren't contagious.
- Keet: Stuffy again.
- The Messiah: Lambie.
- Non-Interactivity: Consciously avoided in the main show, as the creator didn't want to make a show like this with so many of them already out there, but used in the segments in the closing credits in which the titular Doc quizzes the viewer on a subject related to hygiene or health.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: "Doc" McStuffins doesn't go by any other name - even her parents call her "Doc."
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Chris Nee was inspired to create the program because her son has asthma and there have been a lot of scary doctor's visits. Her son refers to the program as "my show."
- Sliding Scale of Living Toys: The toys on the show seem to fall somewhere between Level 2 and 3. They are brought to life by Doc's magic stethoscope, but they only ever speak to her and other toys, and Doc alerts them to "go stuffed" if anyone else approaches.
- Title Theme Tune