It tells the life and adventures of a community of colourful beings named Lunnis, who live in a planetoid near Earth named Lunalunera (who might or might not be the moon). The main protagonists are a bunch of local Lunni kids, among which there are Lucho (a mischievous yellow Lunni), Lupita (a nerdy, uptight red Lunny girl), Lublú (a blue and sensitive Lunni poet) and Lulila (the youngest of all, a curious, female purple Lunni). They aren't alone, as Lunalunera houses such characters as the eccentric good witch Lubina, the science professor Lutecio, the schoolteacher Lumbrela and a pair of Lunni teenagers named Lulo and Lula, as well as the evil galactic pirate Lucanero, who secretly wishes to dominate Lunalunera. Several human guests appear too, as well as a really long list of episodic characters.
Originally conceived by Televisión Española screenwriters Carmina Roig and Daniel Cerdà, Los Lunnis had a tough start, as it came to replace the cult children's show TPH Club in what was effectively an executive war inside TVE. However, and against the predictions of many who considered the new show too childish and outdated in comparison to its predecessor, it soon overshadowed completely TPH and became a televisive juggernaut, spawning songs, series, movies and even an entirely new channel, Clan TV, the new mainstay of children's programming in Spain. With its long tenure and cultural impact, which included its characters being officially named ambassadors of UNICEF of all things in 2005, Los Lunnis are what most modern Spanish Millenials see when they think about the TV of their childhood.
Los Lunnis's charm came not only from its creativity and marketing power, but also from the sheer charisma of its characters and performers, its surprisingly smart episode plots, and the metric crapton of Parental Bonus the show usually contained, to the extent that even teenagers and adults enjoyed it openly and unironically. It also served to both launch and relaunch the career of some guests (particularly Spanish-Cuban singer Lucrecia, who conducted the show at several stages), and also broke records with the show's positively famed Christmas specials, which brought to TVE names like Robbie Williams, Coldplay and Shakira. The show's own soundtrack won eight Platinum Discs and was number one in sales in Spain thrice, among other many accolades both in music and as a whole.
The show's golden age ended in 2008 with the finale of its main episodic TV series, Los Lunnis: La Serie, and the first departure of its host Lucrecia the next year, after which it did a Channel Hop from La 2 to Clan TV. The show underwent a huge retool, losing most of its puppet cast and adding a couple new ones, giving slightly new characterizations and storylines to the remaining (which basically amounted to the protagonist gang and some others), and adopting a less serial, more educative style of broadcast targeted only to preschoolers.
Los Lunnis provides examples of:
- Ambiguous Situation: It's not clear if the Headless Horseman chases Lucanero due to the latter's family line (as the Horseman was the Arch-Enemy of Lucanero's ancestor) or because he genuinely thinks Lucanero is the same Lucanero he knew back when he was alive centuries before.
- Artistic License – History: Granted, the 2016 segment Lunnis de Leyenda was never really faithful to the legends and history pieces it portrayed, but its recollection of the Second Punic War was particularly infamous. It portrayed the war almost exactly backwards, claiming that Scipio Africanus had tried to conquer the world and that Hannibal and his army had tried to preserve their freedom from him, and it also added a Bowdlerized ending where the war ended in a forced stalemate, with the Battle of Zama being failure for both because the war elephants ran away.
- Big Bad: Initially the show didn't have one, but Lucanero came to play that role in the series, at least when not eclipsed by a nastier, more powerful villain depending on the episode (Luciflor being the best candidate). The Masked Beetle replaced him after the retool.
- Cunning Linguist: Lutecio, whom Lubina once brought a spellbook in Sanskrit of all things for him to translate.
- Femme Fatale: Lunática was the classical noir archetype, only with magical powers thanks to an amulet, the Tin Heart, she stole from Lubina in the past.
- Mad Scientist: Luspector, a sporadically recurrent villain who was an old college rival of Lutecio.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed:
- Lunni reporter Luflo was obviously based on Spanish comedian Florentino "Flo" Fernández, both in name and visual design. However, this trait was rather meaningless, as it had no further weight in his character (he didn't actually behave or speak like the real Flo at all), as well as a bit random (he was the only of the Lunni reporters who was clearly based on a real life person).
- Almidóvar, who was a ruthless parody of Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar.
- Also Jon Toms, a hilarious parody of Tom Jones.
- An episode featured some of the Lunnis accidentally stopping by the house of a mysterious character nicknamed "El Loco de la Carretera" ("The Road's Madman"). The guy in question was a parody of Spanish journalist Jesús Quintero, who became famous in The '80s for presenting an interview radio show named El loco de la colina ("The Hill's Madman").
- Overly Long Name: Lucanero introduces himself to the Lunni kids as Lucas Marvin Elton Lucanero, much to their amusement. His true name, Lulio James Saint-Jacques Lucanero, is similarly long.
- Parental Bonus: Played in an uniquely exaggerated way. The series contained an extraordinarily high number of timeless pop culture references, tropes and people which few children in the 2000s would have been even remotely able to recognize (including but not limited to the listed in Shout-Out below). Some of them were so shocking and risqué that the showrunners would have absolutely not get away with them in present day Spain.
- Running Gag:
- Lublú doing or saying something cultured and artistic, only for the rest of characters to misunderstand it and/or ruin it. This actually composed the basic plot of many, many of his appearances.
- Lulo trying to impress Lula into going out with him, or generally being unable to understand she does not reciprocate his love.
- Lubina and Lutecio arguing due to their constant Magic Versus Science views. Who ended up being right over the other, however, depended on the episode.
- Lutecio being utterly obssessed with hens and eggs, as in the chicken or the egg dilemma
. - Lumbrela finding a boyfriend, yet losing him at the end of the episode, often because he was the episode's villain or because Lumbrela's personality was so annoying that he ran away from her. Lula sometimes took her place in this gag, with Lulo becoming a Crazy Jealous Guy.
- Lurdo being disapprovingly told "Lurdo! You will never be a good pirate!" by Lucanero, often due to a completely minor action.
- Captain Barbarrosa being asked, often several times per episode, whether his beard is naturally pink or dyed (which is also his Berserk Button).
- Count Ludrácula calling Luvan Helsing some name, only for the latter to mishear it as something completely different due to his deafness and senility.
- Luciflor's servant Igor scaring people away or making them faint with his sole ugliness, including himself if he sees its own reflected image.
- Ship Tease:
- Lubina shows feelings for both Lutecio and Lucanero, Depending on the Writer. She usually has an Unresolved Sexual Tension with the former, but she has also been implied to have a bit of an unrequited crush on the latter (which dance scenes and fantasy episodes sometimes add to by pairing them up by default).
- Lucho and Lupita also have some teasing, even although he receives several other love interests.
- Shout-Out:
- The character of Lubina was a non-evil version of the witch Avería from another Spanish children's show, La Bola de Cristal, which aired in The '80s and has its own cult status.
- Many popular films, books and franchises were parodied in dedicated episodes, among them Star Wars (several times), The Matrix (as Lunatrix, with the same episode also spoofing other Cyberpunk tropes), James Bond (as Lulo Bond), Philip Marlowe (as Lublú Lumarlowe), the Power Rangers (the Lunni Rangers), The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (in The Lunalunera Monster), Dracula (with the characters of Count Ludrácula and Luvan Helsing), Carmilla (with Ludrácula's girlfriend Carmina), Planet of the Apes (Planet of the Lurdos), Casablanca (in the episode aptly titled We'll always have Paris), Saturday Night Fever and The Exorcist (with the character of Ambrosio), as well as real people like Bruce Lee ("Lucho Lee") and Frank Sinatra ("Frank Lunatra").
- Count Ludovico, an episodic villain, is probably a reference to a similarly named character in Lope de Vega's famous play The Dog in the Manger.
- Spell My Name With An S: It remains unclear whether Lutecio's spider was named Luraña or Lulaña. Promotional materials indicate the former, but in the series she was addressed as the latter.
- Take That!: A "Reading Is Cool" Aesop episode had Lucho suffering a magical disease come from too little reading and too much watching a supposedly violent TV show named Dragon Sphere. Naturally, this was a massive (and rather lame) attack on competitor TV channel Cuatro, which was famously broadcasting Dragon Ball uncensored at the time. The plot was so atypical and badly done in contrast to most of the series that many people have suspected over the years there was some huge executive meddling at it. (It was also a bit hypocritical as well, given that TVE itself had broadcast a long list of anime series through it history, and having titles like Digimon Tamers and Slayers among them meant the channel was not precisely in position to criticize violent anime).
