Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends: Difference between revisions

''Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends'' (2004-) is a CGI-animated series targeted towards preschool audiences that is seen on Nick Jr. (formerly Noggin) in the United States and Treehouse TV on Canada. The series began with the film ''Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Kids'', which was itself based on a popular series of books by David Kirk. It features the adventures of a spider Mom and Dad and their family of eight children-- five spiders and three adopted "buglets" -- a dragonfly named Dragon, a jewel beetle named Shimmer and a bedbug named Bounce. Miss Spider is described as being a "fruit spider" and she and her musician husband, Holley, try to teach their children to "Be Good to Bugs."

 

* [[Adaptation Distillation]] / [[Recursive Adaptation]]: Many stories from the show were released in the numbered series ''Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Library''. Others were released as 8 x 8 paperback books and still others as large picture books in the style of the original books. These are all generally well done, but being picture books, they simplify the plots of the stories.

* [[All CGI Cartoon]]: Debuting the same year as ''[[The Backyardigans]]'', this was one of Nelvana's first all-CGI offerings.

* [[A Day in The Limelight]]: Since Squirt and the adopted bugs were really the main characters most of the time, the other kids tended to get side-episodes dedicated to them--such as one revolving around Pansy and Snowdrop's musical aspirations.

* [[Dreadful Musician]]: Pansy proves to be one of these in one episode... {{spoiler|Unless she duets with her twin Snowdrop, in which case, the two of them sound pretty good together.}}

* [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin]]: Stinky the stinkbug

* [[Expository Theme Tune]]: "To the Hollow Tree, a family on wings and strings and floaty things / Coming home for hugs-- Be Good to Bugs!"

* [[Halloween Episode]]: Though as is so often the case with shows like this, they called it something else-- Bug-a-Boo Day

* [[Happily Adopted]]: One of the major points of the series, stemming straight from the original books. Miss Spider herself was adopted and later adopted Bounce (a bedbug), Dragon (a dragonfly) and Shimmer (a jewel beetle.) A later episode features Stinky and Whiffy adopting Grace the ladybug.

* [[Hold Your Hippogriffs]]: A number of different phrases are used as "bugspeak," including "mayfly-day," "honey-bug," "bugging out" and, wait for it... "hold your horseflies."

* [[Love At First Sight]]: Miss Spider & Holley, Spiderus & Spindella

* [[Men Don't Cry]]: Subverted, hard, in "Cry Buggie," in which both Squirt and Dragon learn that "Big bugs do cry, when they need to."

* [[Pilot Movie]]: The series originally began with a film, which covers Miss Spider and Holley's wedding, the birth of their spiderlings, and the adoption of Bounce, Dragon, and Shimmer.

* [[The Power of Friendship]]: "Bug buddies, bug buddies, we're best bug buddies!"

* [[Secret Identity]]: Squirt, who quite accidentally creates himself his own superhero outfit and becomes "Captain Sunny Patch"

* [[Shout Out to Shakespeare]]: In one episode where Spiderus plays a king in one of Miss Spider's bedtime stories, he uses lines from Shakespeare.

* [[The Stinger]]: In ''The Prince, the Princess and the Bee'', the ants Ned and Ted try to get Miss Spider to bring them home a sweet treat from Mushroom Glen, but aren't successful. The closing credits show them trying Stinky's awful cowpies, but deciding that they don't want them.

* [[Talking Animal]]: The entire cast. There are no human characters, or even characters with human-like physical features.