Lola and Virginia
Lola and Virginia (2006-2007) is an animated series created in Spain by Imira Entertainment. It has since been dubbed into English and is currently[when?] airing in America on the ABC Family Channel's Kid Mango block.
Lola's life is not easy. She comes from a mildly poor family and routinely has to look after her two baby brothers. But she doesn't care, she has two good friends by her side and that's all she needs. Then comes Virginia, a rich, spoiled brat who always gets her way.
From the moment these two girls meet, they rub each other the wrong way. They're always trying to outdo and each get in each other's way. Lola does the best she can to stop Virginia from ruining other people's fun, but she isn't so innocent herself.
The main characters are:
- Lola: Lola prides herself on trying to help people out. She's bold and adventurous and always looking for ways to make a few extra bucks. She is constantly irritated by Virginia's selfish ways, but has been known to act a bit selfish herself.
- Virginia: Formerly a private school diva, this spoiled rich brat was transferred to public school at the suggestion of her therapist. On the surface, she's a polite girl who routinely gets good grades. But it's just a ruse to hide the selfish, mean-spirited girl underneath. Virginia is ruthless and will do whatever it takes to get her way. On top of that, she considers tormenting Lola to be a personal sport.
- Haide: Haide is Lola's best friend. She's into magic charms, horoscopes and mysticism.
- Poppy: Poppy is Lola's second best friend. A hard-rocking punk tomboy, who's one of the best athletes in school.
- Beatrice: The school's resident gossip. A consistently sour girl, Beatrice is Virginia's lackey and possibly her only real friend.
- Charlie: A boy who's into skateboarding. Lola and Virginia both have major crushes on him, but he seems uninterested in their affections.
Tropes used in Lola and Virginia include:
- Big Ol' Unibrow: Poppy has one.
- Butt Monkey: Beatrice. When she isn't suffering the fallout of Virginia's schemes, she's the series resident Chew Toy.
- Black and Gray Morality: Lola is clearly portrayed as the good girl, while Virginia is the bad girl. But Lola is hardly an angel: She routinely gives as good as she gets when it comes to Virginia's schemes. And in one episode, Lola got hold of a bracelet that Charlie was using to cheat at math, there was a chart written on the inside. Does she give it back and tell him to stop using it or give it to the teacher? No, she uses it to blackmail Charlie into kissing her live on a webcam.
- Crowning Moment of Awesome: Poppy gets one in the episode "Olympic Torch". Because she's such a good athlete, she's chosen to light the torch at the school Olympics. And she does so via skateboard jump.
- Fridge Logic: The show makes it clear that Lola comes from a poor family. She wears the cheapest clothes and can only afford the cheapest snacks and sodas for her birthday party. And yet, somehow, she can afford a cell phone and a monthly plan that includes texting.
- In the course of their feud, Lola and Virginia have both done things that, by all rights, should have gotten them arrested. In "A Moped For Two", Lola persuaded Haide to dump a bunch of rubber balls in front of a delivery truck, so she could sneak in the back and take collector cards out of boxes of cereal.
- But that pales in comparison to "30 Minutes Flat". Virginia is trying to stop Lola from delivering sushi, long story. To do this, first she causes a traffic jam by impersonating a road worker. A real road worker actually catches her, but she just casually walks away. Then she tells a bunch of people that a store is giving away free merchandise for ten minutes, when it's not, effectively conning the people into committing theft. Then, to top it off, she actively tries to physically assault Lola with a rowboat oar. Fortunately, Lola is able to defend herself. And yet, despite all of this, there doesn't seem to be any consequences.
- In the course of their feud, Lola and Virginia have both done things that, by all rights, should have gotten them arrested. In "A Moped For Two", Lola persuaded Haide to dump a bunch of rubber balls in front of a delivery truck, so she could sneak in the back and take collector cards out of boxes of cereal.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: This series was made in Spain, so is a little lighter on the censorship. Still, there are a couple of moments that make you wonder how they got away with that. In one episode, Lola's dress gets caught in a car door. It gets ripped off, leaving Lola in only her underwear, in public.
- The biggest example of this comes from the first episode, "The Onion Trick". Lola, Haide and Poppy are in the girls' bathroom, discussing a trick they can use to get Lola the lead role in the class play. Beatrice overhears this, because she's sitting on the toilet in one of the stalls. We actually see Beatrice on the toilet, her arm is the only thing hiding her crotch from view.
- An even bigger example comes in the episode Oh No, Not Her. Lola hosts a foreign exchange student named Chinchita. First the girl sleeps in the nude. She strips offscreen in front of Lola. Then Chinchita plays a prank on Virginia. She puts live lobsters into Virginia's bathtub, while Virginia is taking a bath. We actually see Virginia hopping out of the tub, with nothing covering her but soap suds.
- The biggest example of this comes from the first episode, "The Onion Trick". Lola, Haide and Poppy are in the girls' bathroom, discussing a trick they can use to get Lola the lead role in the class play. Beatrice overhears this, because she's sitting on the toilet in one of the stalls. We actually see Beatrice on the toilet, her arm is the only thing hiding her crotch from view.
- Another example comes in Rollercoaster. Lola and her friends are trying to get tickets to opening day at a theme park. But, Virginia bought all the tickets to give to the students in an attention grab. Virginia for once is in a reasonable mood and is willing to give Lola and her friends tickets. Lola gets ticked off and basically tells Virginia that she can stick the tickets up her ass.
- In the episode Uniforms Lola's school gets uniforms and she's sick of it. So, she, Haide and Poppy protest by locking themselves on the school roof, in their underwear. They even pelt Virginia with bits of their uniforms.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Lola has them, but they don't appear on her shoulders. Instead they're shown in a fantasy sequence and are completely silent, except for the bad angel chuckling. In the episode "Frozen Hearts", Lola goes to one of Poppy's karate classes and suggests that they arrange a demonstration for Virginia, who has the cheating bracelet. Poppy flatly refuses, stating that karate students don't go around beating people up. Lola says that's not what she had in mind at all. She puts on an innocent smile, but actually changes into the bad angel for a moment.
- And in the episode Roller Coaster Virginia gets her own version. Though again it's a subversion. Instead of Virginia being undecided about something, the Angel and Devil are used to represent her giving away tickets to opening day at a theme park to get attention.
- Informed Ability Despite being on of the shortest characters on the show, Lola is the captain of the school's girl's basketball team.
- Rich Bitch: Virginia
- Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: Virginia and Lola
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money: Virginia seems to think her money allows her to do anything.
- Slapstick Knows No Gender: Beatrice routinely winds up on the wrong end of Virginia's schemes.
- Swallow the Key: Virginia pulls this in the episode Uniforms.
- Thirty Minutes or It's Free: Lola held this policy during her brief career as a sushi delivery girl.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Poppy and Haide