Suzy's Zoo: Daisuki! Witzy (スージー・ズー： だいすき！ウィッツィー, lit. Suzy's Zoo: I Love Witzy!) is a set of 26 anime shorts produced by Tokyo Broadcasting System, based on the Little Suzy's Zoo franchise by Suzy Spafford, in 2011. Despite being CGI, the art style of the anime successfully captures the beautiful pencil and magic marker styles that the franchise is famous for.
Meet Witzy (ウィッツィー), a little duckling with a big imagination and an impressively large heart to match. His friends are his old trusty plush teddy bear Boof (ブーフ), his musical plush rabbit Lulla (ララ), his loyal and brave plush giraffe Patches (パッチズ), and his new plush Elephant, Ellie Funt (エリーファント), who joined the series shortly after it started. The series is primarily set in Witzy's backyard, but other locations, like Witzy's bedroom, a grassy field, and a pond-side, are also sometimes shown.
The shorts air on BabyFirstTV in the US, during the BabyFirst Club slot, as Suzy's Zoo: A Day With Witzy, and on the HiT Entertainment-owned JimJam channel in Europe. It is also officially available through the Toon Goggles streaming service, while BabyFirstTV themselves have expressed interest to include the show in their streaming app as well. All 26 of the shorts were released on a DVD as well, which is readily available cheaply from most sources that sell such DVDs.
The episodes are also on Google Play TV
and YouTube's Premium channels if you live in a country that where the services are available, though they apparently weren't paying attention and have copied the description for the series from the official website for the original Suzy's Zoo franchise, rather than the Little Suzy's Zoo franchise on which the series is actually based.
Suzy's Tropes: Daisuki! Witzy:
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Lulla, who wears a bow around her neck, is the only animal character with any clothing all the time. Also, Patches is sometimes seen wearing boots.
- All-CGI Cartoon: You couldn't tell from the animation alone, but the credits gives this away. Yes, cel-shaded CGI.
- American Kirby Is Hardcore: The English dub tones down various audio aspects of the show to make it slightly less sweet.
- Animated Adaptation: The anime is an animated adaptation of Suzy Spafford's Little Suzy's Zoo franchise.
- Baths Are Fun: In "Bath Time Fun," Witzy and Boof have fun playing in the bathroom, though they never do actually get in the tub. Their "bath" ends up consisting of a patch of soap bubbles created when Boof spills soap on the floor.
- Beary Friendly: Boof.
- Bedsheet Ghost: In the episode Patches and the Night Shadows, the gang end up playing this when they should be in bed, sleeping.
- Bee Afraid: One bee comes to harass the gang over their flower crowns in the episode Patches, Bee-Ware.
- Bunnies for Cuteness: Lulla. See moe entry for reason.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": The show seems to feature some terminology of its own. For example, dandelion puffs are known as wishing puffs in the show (although this does not apply to dandelion flowers who've not yet ripened and turned into puffs).
- Crossover: Apparently Sanrio has released some Little Suzy's Zoo x My Melody merchandise in the past. And apparently, there were Little Suzy's Zoo x Shaun the Sheep crossovers in Japan too.
- Expressive Ears: Lulla has these, a common feature on anthropomorphic rabbits.
- Free-Range Children: Apparently, Witzy is allowed to roam outside near his house without parental supervision.
- Furry Confusion: On one hand, we have Witzy, who acts like Funny Animals for most part. On the other hand, Teeter and Totter are pretty much Civilized Animals since they still walk on all fours. Oh, and the Little Suzy's Zoo franchise is set in the same universe as the regular Suzy's Zoo as well, which also have fully-anthropomorphic turtle people (ie Corky Turtle). Confused yet?
- Keet: Witzy shows a lot of enthusiasm and is the most verbose of the characters. Boof comes in second.
- Kodomomuke: The show has all the markings of one. And it airs on a baby channel in the US.
- Happy Birthday to You!: The English dub used a completely original birthday song in the episode Surprise, Witzy!It's your birthday Witzy/What a happy way/to celebrate a piece of cake/and play the day away.
- Heavy Sleeper: Boof. Always the last to wake up, the first to fall asleep, and often appears on the show initially sleeping.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The "Swift and Instant" type. For each of Witzy's friends he played "the joke" on, he caused Patches to accidentally threw his toy train into the air (and then stepping on it while attempting to flee), caused Lulla to throw his newly cleaned socks onto the ground, dirtying them again, and caused Boof to throw the donuts meant for him onto the ground and rendering them inedible.
- Meaningful Name: Ellie Funt, the plush Elephant. Lulla too, as she's a musical plush rabbit.
- Merchandise-Driven: Well, it was created to sell the baby products, stationary and greeting cards in Japan. After the show aired, soft toys spawned.
- No Antagonist: The plot largely revolves around Witzy's shenanigans and playful romps. Then again, its target audience are infants.
- One Game for the Price of Two: Strangely, the first season is released across two volumes in Japan. The American release cleverly averts this and releases all 26 episodes on a single DVD.
- Say My Name: At the end of the episode Boof Comes Alive. Especially the Japanese version where Witzy just called Boof's name instead of being surprised that Boof can talk.
- Scenery Porn: Beautiful color pencil and magic marker art, both background and foreground. They went through great lengths with the CGI to make the series appear traditionally animated.
- Slice of Life: Magical soft toys coming to life notwithstanding, most episodes are about Witzy going on gentle romps in the location he's in.
- Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: The series seems to be sliding all over the place between Funny Animal and Civilized Animal.
- Sliding Scale of Living Toys: Apparently somewhere between I've Got No Strings and Seems So Real and Living. The toys are aware that they're only toys. And yet they act like living creatures and even eat. Aside from that, it's difficult to tell since there are technically no other characters in the series.
- Sugar Bowl: Wherever Witzy lives (according to
Word of God, a part of Duckport), it appears that the place is gentle and happy throughout. - Surprise Party: Patches, Lulla, Boof and Ellie Funt all throw Witzy one, popping out of boxes and releasing balloons and ribbons in "Surprise, Witzy!"
- That Cloud Looks Like...: Witzy, Ellie Funt and Boof imagine a cloud story in the sky in "Picture Book of Clouds."
- Very Special Episode: The season 1 episode Happy Birthday, Witzy! is billed as this in Japan, including only being accessible using a separate menu instead of being listed with the other episodes on the DVD.
- White Bunny: Lulla.
- You Can Talk?: Witzy goes through a bit of this early on in the series, expressing surprise about this with both Boof and Patches. He doesn't really make much a big deal about it, though, and after this the idea is dropped entirely. If a viewer misses these early episodes and doesn't pay real attention to the visuals, they could easily not be blamed for believing that Witzy's friends are all just normal (albeit strangely-colored) anthropomorphic animals.
