Littlest Pet Shop (animation)
This 1995 Animated Show is based on the pre-existing toy line, but goes in its own direction.
In a City with No Name, a kindly eccentric named Elwood P. Harvey runs a pet shop that features miniature animals called the Littlest Pets. Unknown to Elwood, the tiny pets have their own society and experience lots of misadventures. This especially applies to the five main characters:
- Stu: A blue dog who's a well-meaning, lovable bumbler.
- Chloe: A sarcastic purple cat who's been reincarnated many times since she first lived in Ancient Egypt.
- Viv: A musically-inclined pink rabbit who sings, dances, plays various instruments, and speaks with an adorable British accent. Her songs are accompanied by a backing band who live inside her top hat.
- Chet: A macho yellow horse who talks and acts like a traditional Cowboy.
- Squeaks: A banana-loving brown monkey. His main role is helping the other characters, and he communicates with sounds instead of speech, not unlike Zipper from Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers.
If the description makes Littlest Pet Shop sound like a innocuous show for toddlers, you're in for a pleasant surprise. The series isn't modeled after Care Bears, but Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs; it's full of witty dialogue, slapstick humor, pop culture parodies, and even some occasional satire. Much of the series' humor will go over the heads of the small children that it was presumably intended for, and maybe that's why it didn't get the ratings it deserved; it simply wasn't the show that anyone expected it to be.
Despite its flaws (most notably cheap animation and wimpy music), Littlest Pet Shop is definitely a series that Needs More Love. It hasn't even gotten much attention from the Furry Fandom that you would expect to embrace it; fan art of the characters, wholesome or otherwise, is surprisingly rare.
- Accessory Wearing Cartoon Animals: The animal characters wear little or no clothing.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Out of the five main characters, Squeaks is the only one who has a realistic fur color.
- Big Bad: Delilah, a normal-sized monitor lizard whose goal is to eat the other animals.
- Big Eater: Stu.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Chet.
- Cats Are Snarkers/Deadpan Snarker: Chloe.
- Cluster Bleep Bomb: Used in "Bunny Beat", during a sequence parodying an infamous Madonna appearance on Late Night With David Letterman where she engaged in a Cluster F-Bomb. (See what we mean about Parental Bonus humor?)
- Cool Old Lady: Mumsy.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Sarge parodies the trope.
- Egomaniac Hunter/Evil Brit: The villain from "Travels with My Mumsy".
- Evil Twin/The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Both tropes are exemplified by Chloe and her sister in the episode Chloe's Evil Twin".
- Expository Theme Tune: The theme song was originally instrumental, but lyrics and vocals were added later.
- Fake Band: Viv and her "hat band".
- Fake Brit: Viv, Mumsy and some of the incidental characters have British accents, but are played by Canadians.
- The Fool: Stu.
- Four-Fingered Hands: The entire cast.
- Gang of Critters
- Hammerspace: Viv's top hat.
- Limited Animation
- Merchandise-Driven: Not only was the series based on an established toy line, but the show's main characters were made as figures in a Spin-Off toy line...
- Toyless Toyline Character: ...except for poor Chet.
- Mouse World
- Multiple Demographic Appeal: Presumably what the producers were going for, given the unexpected similarities to Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Viv betrays the other pets in one episode when the villians offer her a steady gig, but soon comes to regret it, prompting this lament.
- Nice Hat: Viv's top hat.
- Parental Bonus: The source of much of the show's humor.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Chet is strong enough to lift a piano, which doesn't sound that impressive until you take into account he's only three inches tall.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Delilah.
- Shout-Out: Plenty of them, starting with Elwood's name, a reference to the main characters of Harvey.
- Then there are the affectionate parodies of Star Trek the Original Series and Beavis and Butthead (in "Bunny Beat").
- Stealth Pun: Viv is a rabbit with a magic hat. Get it?
- The Unintelligible: Squeaks.
- Where No Parody Has Gone Before: See Shout-Out.
- The Wonka: Elwood.
- Yet Another Christmas Carol: The plot of "Who Scrooged McRude?".