Chibi Tiny Tales is a series of minute-long Mime and Music-Only Cartoon shorts based on various Disney Channel and Disney Animated Canon series and movies. Premiering on June 7, 2020, the shorts follow the comical misadventures of chibi versions of various Disney characters, alternating between original stories and loose retellings of the source material. While some shorts purely focus on one series or film, others have characters from several Disney properties crossover and interact.
The shorts would eventually garner a half-hour spin-off series called Chibiverse, which debuted on July 30, 2022 on the Disney Channel. The series' intro would contextualize the shorts by way of an Excuse Plot: a group of scientists took objects from the various Disney Channel shows and films and put them in a machine that created the microscopic world that serves as the setting. In contrast to the shorts, Chibiverse has all the characters fully voiced by their original actors.
Represented Shows/Films
- Disney Channel Animated Series
- Disney+ Original Series
- Disney Channel Live-Action Movies
- Disney Animated Movies
- Disney Live-Action Movies
- Other Disney Franchises
Both series can be watched on Disney Channel's official YouTube channel: Chibi Tiny Tales shorts can be viewed here
, and Chibiverse episodes can be viewed here.
Chibi Tiny Tales provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Pudge is originally just a regular tropical saltwater fish who Lilo believes has the ability to control the weather. In "All Hail Pudge!", he is depicted as being sapient and actually having said weather manipulation powers.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Again, Pudge is just a regular nonsapient fish in his franchise. Here, he gets upset and deliberately makes the weather stormy when he doesn't get his peanut butter sandwich on time or when he's offered fish and seafood,note only clearing away the storm once he gets fed his sandwich.
- Adaptational Villainy: King Andrias in his original show is a Tragic Villain who ultimately redeems himself and spends the rest of his life in atonement. Here, he is grouped in with the purely evil villains and shows no sign of redemption.
- Adaptational Wimp: The villains in general are much less formidable than in canon, especially notable for Bill, Shego, Belos, and Andrias.
- Adapted Out: The Cinderella as Told by Chibi installment does not feature the mouse in the light blue shirt as one of the four mice who turned into horses for Cinderella's pumpkin carriage (along with Jaq, Gus, and a mouse in a blue shirt and yellow cap); his part was taken by the female mouse Mary.
- A Day in the Limelight: Two of the Lilo & Stitch shorts have their plots revolve around the Ice Cream Man and Pudge the Fish, the former who only appears as a Running Gag in the franchise and the latter who only made very brief appearances in the original film and the yet-to-be-adapted-into-shorts-for-this-show Lilo & Stitch: The Series.
- Advertised Extra: Despite her role in "The Great Chibi Mix-Up!" Luz appears for less than a minute and disappears before the problem is fixed, not even appearing in the ending.
- All for Nothing: In "The Chibi Quiz Challenge", Glomgold attempts to steal the grand prize for winning the titular event. He's dismayed to learn from Kiff that it's not real money, but rather tokens for the Chibi Arcade.
- All Just a Dream: The Molly McGee short "The War of Decor" turns out to be a dream that Scratch was having. Once he wakes up, however, Molly hangs the duck poster that she hung at the beginning.
- Art Imitates Art: The Hamster & Gretel short "Museum Mayhem" features parodies of famous pieces of art, including an armless statue of Milo Murphy imitating the Venus de Milo, and a painting of Milo's dog Diogee playing cards.
- Batman Gambit: In "The Chibi Couple Game" Beta takes the roles of Judge and Prize Committee during the game to push Hailey and Scott into winning the game so they would kiss as per Hailey's List. Hailey was not pleased with his scheme.
- The Big Damn Kiss: The Valentine's Day game show has Starco and Lumity kiss.
- Bottle Episode: "Selfie Safari" takes place in the zoo with the outside of the zoo showing the entrance.
- Broad Strokes: Doof's appearances both in the host segments and the shorts, revert him to his Harmless Villain, Mad Scientist ways from Phineas and Ferb ignoring his Heel–Face Turn from Milo Murphy's Law.
- The Bus Came Back: Chibiverse brings characters from Star vs. the Forces of Evil and Gravity Falls back to the screen in chibi form. Kim, Ron, Rufus, Milo, Zack and Diogee can also be seen among the chibi characters.
- The Cameo: The Horned King makes a brief appearance in the Descendants short "Descendants Date Night".
- Card-Carrying Villain: In Chibi Disney Villains Unite, the Chibi Villains outright call themselves "Chibi Villains" and don't hide that they're evil. Note how Emperor Belos and Princess Audrey are grouped in with them, despite their original versions being Knight Templars who believe themselves to be the good guys.
- Compilation Movie: Chibiverse features several of the already released shorts alongside the new footage.
- Couch Gag: When shown as a part of Chibiverse, these shorts have a new title card. Starting from Episode 2, they come with a unique caption near the bottom.
- Crossover: Certain shorts tend to revolve around crossovers between different shows and other Disney properties:
- The ZOMBIES short "Cheer Tryouts" has many characters from other series, such as Candace, Baymax and Dewey, participate in the Seabrook High cheerleader tryouts.
- The Molly McGee short "Scratch Haunts" involve Scratch attempting to scare characters from several different shows, while "Mansion Madness" involves Molly and Scratch visiting The Haunted Mansion.
- "Triple Date" features Troy and Gabriella, Mal and Ben, and Zed and Addison spending the day together. Mickey and Minnie show up at the end of the short, too.
- Chibiverse focus on the Chibis from different shows interacting with each other on a tiny artificial planet created in a laboratory.
- Not unlike "Mansion Madness", there have been several other shorts that have a Disney animated series cross over with a Disney theme park attraction (e.g. Amphibia with Pirates of the Caribbean, DuckTales with Jungle Cruise, Phineas and Ferb with Space Mountain, etc.)
- The Hamster & Gretel short "Rollercoaster Romance" contains a plethora of cameos from other shows in the first couple of seconds.
- "The Amphibia House" naturally centers around a crossover between The Owl House and Amphibia, with Anne and the Plantars being teleported to the Boiling Isles and hanging out Luz Noceda.
- "Happy Birthday, Disney Channel!" is a Massive Multiplayer Crossover amongst dozens of Disney Channel shows and movies (along with a few from The Disney Afternoon). Besides the shows and movies already represented, the short features American Dragon: Jake Long, Smart House, Hannah Montana, Goof Troop, Gravity Falls, The Cheetah Girls, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Jessie (via a stock photo of Mrs. Kipling), Gargoyles, Wizards of Waverly Place, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Darkwing Duck, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Camp Rock, K.C. Undercover, Kim Possible, Fish Hooks, Lizzie McGuire, That's So Raven, Milo Murphy's Law, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, Wander over Yonder, TaleSpin, Bonkers, Kiff, and the then-forthcoming show Hailey's On It!.
- "Binocular Blues" features the main characters from all three Dwampyverse shows at once: Phineas and Ferb, Hamster & Gretel, and Milo Murphy.
- The Phineas and Ferb short "Life with Linda" includes appearances of Milo Murphy, Hamster, Gretel and Professor Exclamation; while "Super Pet Pals" features Perry and Hamster fight a slew of bad guys from all three Dwampyverse shows.
- Crossover Couple: . In the short "Doof Falls for Gramma", Dr. Doofenshmirtz falls in love with Gramma Alice Green after witnessing her inane bloodlust. This ship is also referenced in the Hamster & Gretel short "Rollercoaster Romance".
- Dark Horse Victory: Launchpad wins the Chibi Quiz Show by sheer dumb luck due to Suga Mama losing interest and Marcy's buzzer stand repeatedly shorting out and catching fire until it exploded.
- Denser and Wackier: Compared to how serious a lot of the movies and animated series represented are, the shorts are a lot more comedic in comparison.
- Don't Explain the Joke: The title card for "Hop Pop Photo Op" reads "Say "Flies!" (Get it? Instead of "cheese" for frogs?)"
- Don't Try This at Home: Parodied with the title card for "Scratch's Candy Craze", which reads "Warning: do not try eating the entire planet at home, kids."
- Early-Bird Cameo: Among all the characters appearing in the final shot in "Happy Birthday, Disney Channel!", Hailey from Hailey's On It! made her first appearance two months before her show premiered.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first nine shorts have the characters' voice actors briefly reprising their roles through the occasional non-vocal exclamations; starting with Halloweentown as Told by Chibi and onward, the voice actors were replaced with generic stock sound effects, such as those from Hanna-Barbara and certain Sound Ideas libraries.
- Even Evil Has Standards: At the end of "Hamster & Gretel Ice Cream Mayhem", while Gretel, Hamster, and Professor Exclamation were enjoying their ice cream, Professor Exclamation pulls up the video player and presses the like button implying that he enjoyed the video.
- Everyone Can See It: In "The Chibi Couple Game", Hailey repeatedly insists she and Scott are not a couple, but no one buys it.
- Expository Theme Tune: The theme song for Chibiverse shows how the scientists use these various objects for the machine to create a whole new world under a microscope.
- Failed a Spot Check: "Life with Linda" completely focuses on Linda Flynn-Fletcher as she goes about doing her daily chores, all while remaining completely oblivious to Phineas and Ferb's wild and crazy events happening around her.
- Fight for the Last Bite: "Turkey Tussle" has the Greens fighting over a turkey leg.
- Ferris Wheel Date Moment: "Rollercoaster Romance" has Kevin point to a obviously romance-themed ferris wheel as a suggestion for him and Hiromi to ride. The ferris wheel cabins also features several other couples, like Luz and Amity, Doofenshmirtz and Gramma... and Perry in his lonesome, probably watching over Doofenshmirtz.
- Fun with Flushing: In the Kiff short "Toilet Flood Pool Party", Kiff uses the shower curtain to clog the toilet so it will back up and flood the house, creating an indoor swimming pool.
- Imperfect Ritual: In the host segments of "Great Chibi Mix-Up", after Dr. Doofenshmirtz's newest invention scrambles the audience members' memories so they're now best friends with someone else, Luz proposes using a spell to fix it. Doof interferes, so while their memories are restored, they all also swap body parts.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler:
- The Amphibia shorts starting from "Selfie Safari" take place during the show's third season showing Anne and the Plantars on Earth.
- The first short based on The Owl House; "The Bake Off", takes place during that show’s second season, showing Lilith's post-Heel–Face Turn as well as her and Eda's weakened forms.
- Later shorts and episodes featuring the characters include Amity's purple hair, Gus' slightly older design, Luz's Palisman Stringbean, her and Amity's relationship, and Hunter's post-Heel–Face Turn appearance as well as his crush on Willow.
- The third episode featured a musical recap of all three Z-O-M-B-I-E movies, revealing everything that happened in them.
- Legion of Doom: Featured in Chibi Villains Unite with King Andrias as the leader and Audrey as his Dragon.
- Literally Shattered Lives: At the end of "Doof's Hairy Leg-Inator", after the titular device causes Phineas & Ferb's rollercoaster to walk off, Candace screams and shatters to pieces.
- Meat-O-Vision: In "Scratch's Candy Craze", after Scratch raids the houses in Brighton for candy on Halloween, he begins seeing inanimate objects as candy, culminating in him seeing the entire planet as a jawbreaker and eating it whole.
- Moment Killer: One short has Luz and Amity go on a date, only for something to interrupt them when one is about to kiss the other. Luz eventually gets a kiss in after making sure no one else is around (and shushing the audience just to make sure.)
- Mythology Gag: One of the places Lilo tries to find a jar of peanut butter in "All Hail Pudge!" is the infamous dryer-replacing pizza-box-door commode from the original film's UK edit, which has become the standard version globally since it was used for Disney+. However, the said dryer can be seen right next to it on the left side of the screen.
- Ninja Prop:
- In "Mayan Mayhem", when faced with a Giant Spider, Scrooge takes the exclamation point that appeared above Donald's head and blows into it, shooting the dot at the spider, only for it to bounce back and hit Donald.
- In the Hamster & Gretel shorts, it's a Running Gag that Professor Exclamation takes other characters' exclamation points and puts them on his helmet.
- No Animals Were Harmed: The title card for "Springtime for Mama Scratch" reads "No Scratches were snuggled to death in the making of this short."
- "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: The title card for "Doof's Hairy Leg-Inator" reads "You read that title correctly."
- One-Sided Arm-Wrestling: Sasha vs. Eda in one short is pretty evenly matched until Sasha taps into her Calamity powers and easily wins, though Eda gets her back by surprising her by detaching her hand.
- Quicksand Sucks: The plot of "Anne in Quicksand", where Anne wanders into some quicksand while playing with Sprig and the Plantars try various methods to get her out. Eventually, they give up and she completely sinks, only to find an underground house at the bottom with One-Eyed Wally playing the accordion and an exit back to the top.
- Relationship Upgrade: While not established to be a couple in Ducktales 2017, Della Duck and Penumbra are shown holding hands amongst the Chibiverse couples in the 2024 Valentine's Day episode.
- Rule of Fun: The theme song for Chibiverse lampshades the fact that the premise doesn't make much sense:"We know the logic's murky, but who cares? They're quirky!"
- The Scottish Trope: The second episode of Chibiverse has the hosts being cursed with bad luck when Hop Pop wishes them good luck. He makes things worse by saying the name MacBeth out loud and bringing a thirteen-leaf clover. It turns out the bad luck was just Polly trying to sabotage the show because she wasn't invited to host along with Anne and Sprig.
- Silence Is Golden: Most of the shorts feature very minimal spoken dialogue, what little there is, is usually reused voice clips.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Perhaps out of necessity, but it's worth noting that the characters who appear most in the host segments, or have the majority of shorts are either those from currently running Disney cartoons or of ended or ending yet still popular ones while characters from other shows note are reduced to voiceless background cameos.
- Subbing for Santa: In "Christmas Crashers", Cricket and Alice capture Santa Claus and hold him in a cage, but when he still needs to make his deliveries, Cricket finds that he lost the key, forcing the Greens to make the deliveries themselves.
- Suddenly Voiced:
- Chibiverse features fully voiced characters.
- While most characters in the shorts use Voice Grunting, Candace outright shouts "Mom!" at numerous points. Her busting instincts can transcend anything, even cartoons with no proper dialogue.
- In "Hop Pop Photo Op", Hop Pop does a Big "NO!" when his camera breaks.
- In "Gobble Gobble Goggles", Anne also does a Big "NO!" when the first giant bird is about to eat Sprig.
- Villain Team-Up: Chibi Disney Villains Unite features King Andrias, Audrey, The Chairman, Flintheart Glomgold, Magica DeSpell, Shego, Emperor Belos, Bill Cipher and Professor Exclamation all teaming up to take over the Chibiverse as they had been pushed to the wayside for far too long, they capture all the heroes and their pets during a pet show-off contest for that, with the exception of Molly McGee and Penny Proud. Andrias acts as the leader of the group.
- Waxing Lyrical: In the Valentine's Day episode, Tilly says of Luz and Amity, "They found love in a boiling place."
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: The Hamster and Gretel short, "Museum Mayhem", shows that Kevin has ornithoscelidaphobia, the fear of dinosaurs. The title card tagline even confirms it's exclusive to Chibiverse.
- Zonk: Subverted in "The Chibi Quiz Challenge". Suga Mama risks the Snoozy Boy lounge chair she won for a mystery prize and gets "Grunkle'd", being rewarded with Grunkle Stan's beat-up recliner. Suga Mama and Puff proceed to threaten Kiff and the judges so she can keep her original prize, which they allow.
