The Littles (TV series)

The Littles is an animated television series, originally produced between 1983 and 1985. It is based on the characters from The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John Peterson, the first of which was published in 1967. The series was produced for the American broadcast network ABC by a French/American/Canadian animation studio, DIC Entertainment, and as standard practice for TV cartoons of the period, the animation production was outsourced overseas to the Japanese studio TMS Entertainment. It was post-produced by a Canadian Animation studio, Animation City Editorial Services.

Family tree
In the television series, the family tree is mostly clear. Frank and Helen are the parents of Tom and Lucy, Grandpa is the father of Helen, and Dinky is a cousin (presumed first cousin) of Tom and Lucy. In the books, the family tree is never explicitly identified. Occasional references to relationships indicate a family tree, but the references are conflicting. The Littles that often appear are Tom, Lucy, Dinky and Grandpa.

Differences from the books
Besides the family tree, other notable differences between the television series and the books included:


 * Henry knowing about the Littles was unique to the television series and the movie, Here Come the Littles. The first season never revealed how Henry met the Littles; during the opening credits Henry simply tells the audience that he has "a very special secret" – that he's the only one who knows about the Littles. During the second season, the opening credits said that Henry first met the Littles when Tom and Lucy fell inside his suitcase as he was moving, and they jumped out when he opened the suitcase. In the movie, however, Tom and Lucy still get trapped inside Henry's suitcase, but Henry doesn't discover the Littles until much later; he first sees Grandpa and Dinky in his uncle's yard, while Tom and Lucy later befriend him when they need his help. Henry took great care to keep the Littles' existence a secret, even from his own parents. Although he betrayed them in one episode ("Dinky's Doomsday Pizza"), the entire incident and its resulting fallout turned out to be only a dream that Dinky was having.


 * Characters unique to the television series. Most notable are the two villains, Dr. Hunter and his assistant, Peterson. Hunter is a scientist who has been trying to capture a Little to prove his theories, but has been unsuccessful, although he came close at times. Peterson, Hunter's assistant, may be a nod to John Peterson, who wrote the books on which the series is based.

The Little Family

 * Tom Little - The older of the two Little children. He has brunette hair covered with a big red cap and wears dark blue overalls. He participates at all the adventures and is up for challenges, with being very active. It's important for him to help the humans, even if they don't know of the Littles' existence and as being the big brother he often protects and cares for his sister Lucy.
 * Lucy Little - The younger of the two Little children and the only girl in the group who has this many adventures. She has ginger hair worn in two ponytails. She is very funny and kindly. Even if she's a little afraid and can slow the others down she's very important to them, they'd never let her down. Most time she spends with her brother Tom, together they hang around at home, outside or with friends and regularly help the humans who are in trouble.
 * Grandpa Little - The oldest member of the family. He's Helen's father and the grandfather of Tom and Lucy. He takes part at all the adventures of the Littles' and is the most practical of them all. He has grey hair, wears a brown coat and always carries an acuate cane.
 * Dinky Little - A cousin of the family (as in the books, where he is always presented as 'cousin Dinky'). He's very tall (for his little height), has blonde hair, wears an orange coat and a cap with googles. He is well known for his big ambition of flying a plane, even if he nearly always ends the flight with a crash landing. He is very clumsy (much to the chagrin of Grandpa) and a little dimwitted.
 * Frank Little - the father in the family. He has black hair and a moustache.
 * Helen Little - the mother of Tom and Lucy and the daughter of Grandpa Little. She has blonde hair, dark blue eyes and wears a long skirt. As the role of the mother she cares a lot for her children.
 * Ashley Little - A second, younger cousin of the family. Introduced in season 2 (later becoming a regular in season 3), Ashley is portrayed as a spoiled brat, who often tries to sabotage any of his older cousins' good deeds, only to feel bad about it (and try to correct what he's done with help from the others) by the end of each episode.

Other main characters

 * Henry Bigg - a blonde boy and one of the very few humans who knows about the existence of the Littles. They live in his house and are his best friends, when there is some bigger work to be done he's always there for the others. Together with his small turtle Slick he protects his friends of becoming discovered or caught by the evil, doctor Hunter.
 * Slick - a little turtle and Henry's pet. He often visits the Littles in their small home and takes part on the adventures.

Villains

 * Doctor Hunter - the bad guy in the series. He has never seen a Little with his own eyes, but is very sure they really exist. His job is to find some evidence and build machines that can detect these tiny humans to prove to the others and himself that the Littles really exist. However all of this hard work always ends with failure.
 * Peterson - the other bad guy and Dr. Hunter's assistant. He is very well-known with computers and uses them wisely.

Humans

 * Mr. and Mrs. Bigg - Henry's parents. Both archeologists, they often go on journeys (as revealed in season 3, where Henry travels with them, and the movie "Here Come the Littles", where dialogue mentions their planecrash in Africa). Despite numerous close calls throughout the series, Henry keeps the existence of the Littles a secret from his parents.
 * Marie - Henry's classmate and close friend. Marie appeared in only two episodes ("A Little Fairytale" and "A Little Gold").

Episode themes and structure
During the first two seasons, many of the episodes contained moral lessons or addressed specific issues, such as running away from home ("The Little Fairy Tale"), drug abuse ("Prescription for Disaster") and jealousy ("Lights, Camera, Littles" and "Twins").

The first two seasons also featured simple arts and crafts at the end of each episode ("Little Ideas for Big People"), with the second season using suggestions sent in by viewers. During the third season, a segment called "A Little Known Fact" highlighted historical or geographic trivia that was related to the episode.

Cartoon voices

 * Jimmy E. Keegan as Henry Bigg
 * Alvy Moore as Grandpa Little
 * Gregg Berger as Frank Little
 * Patricia Parris as Helen Little
 * Donavan Freberg as Tom Little (Seasons 1–2)
 * David Wagner as Tom Little (Season 3)
 * Bettina Bush as Lucy Little
 * B.J. Ward as Ashley Little (Seasons 2–3)
 * Frank Welker as Slick (Season 1)
 * Pat Fraley as Slick (Seasons 2–3)
 * Robert David Hall as Mr. Bigg and Dinky Little
 * Laurel Page as Mrs. Bigg
 * Ken Sansom as Dr. Hunter and Peterson
 * Mona Marshall as Misc.
 * Rachelle Cano Opening and Closing Theme Vocals

Television history
Along with Inspector Gadget and Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats, The Littles was one of the first cartoons produced by DIC Entertainment for American television, and was the only one of the three to air on a network, rather than in syndication.

The first two seasons of shows feature The Littles around the Bigg household, but to improve the show's popularity the final season features the Littles traveling around the world.

During the production run of the show, the Littles were also popular enough to warrant two movie tie-ins:


 * On May 24, 1985, the Littles starred in their first animated feature, Here Come the Littles, which serves a prequel to the television series. It was directed by Bernard Deyriès and written by Eleanor Burian-Mohr, Jack Olesker and Jeffrey Scott. This is available on DVD.


 * The following year (1986), a made-for-TV movie was created starring the Littles, Liberty and the Littles. This film was also directed by Bernard Deyriès and written by Heywood Kling. This second movie was subsequently edited into a three-part episode and included in the third season of the series. Liberty and the Littles, which also aired in three parts during the ninth season of the ABC Weekend Special, was released on VHS but is now out of print. However, the episode is available on DVD.

Broadcast history in the USA

 * ABC (September 10, 1983 to September 6, 1986)
 * The Family Channel (September 4, 1989 to December 31, 1993)
 * Toon Disney (April 18, 1998 to September 1, 2002)
 * Syndication (September 2003 to September 18, 2011)

International broadcast history
The Littles also aired in a number of oversea countries including:
 * Algeria (ألأقزام الصغار)
 * Australia
 * Brazil (Os Pequeninos)
 * Bulgaria
 * Canada
 * China (小不点)
 * Denmark
 * France (Les Minipouss)
 * Finland
 * Germany (Die Littles)
 * Greece
 * Hong Kong
 * Iceland
 * India (द लित्त्लेस)
 * Italy (I Piccoli)
 * Japan (リトル一家の冒険)
 * Latin America (La familia Meñique)
 * New Zealand
 * Norway
 * Pakistan
 * Perú ( Panamericana Televisión 1987,1988 )
 * Poland (Malusińscy)
 * Portugal
 * Quebec
 * Romania
 * Russia
 * Serbia
 * South Korea
 * Spain (Los diminutos)
 * Sweden
 * Taiwan
 * Ukraine
 * United Kingdom

Episode list
(An asterisk (*) denotes an episode that was not rerun in syndication.)

DVD releases
On November 13, 2007, S'more Entertainment released The Littles – The Complete Unedited Series on DVD in Region 1.

On July 19, 2011, Mill Creek Entertainment re-released the entire series on DVD in a 3-disc set entitled The Littles: The Complete Series. It contains the two Animated movies Here Comes the Littles and Liberty and the Littles.

Other merchandse
Some of the merchandise that was released during the series run included: tie-in story books, a Milton-Bradley board game, stickers and greeting cards. Foreign merchandise included many more items such as Halloween Masks, a set of figures, card game, VHS, records, and more.