Ella the Elephant is a short-lived 2013 3D-animated (with hand-drawn backgrounds) Canadian kids' cartoon based on a series of books by Carmela D' Amico and Steven Henry. It was produced by DHX Cookie Jar Inc. (the former Cookie Jar Entertainment until its acquisition by WildBrain) in association with TVOntario, Disney Junior, and Fremantle Media, with animation provided by Atomic Cartoons.
Taking place on Elephant Island, the series follows the adventures of a spirited little girl elephant named Ella, who possesses a big heart, a vivid imagination, and a magic transforming hat. Alongside her circle of friends, Frankie, Belinda, and Tiki, Ella always finds adventures to go on or problems to solve around the island. But with ingenuity, determination, teamwork, and a touch of magic, Ella and her friends work to make every tricky situation they get into work out in the end.
The show only lasted a season, with its last episode airing in early 2014. Ella's voice actor, Addison Holley, went on to star in the new Disney Junior series PJ Masks.
Ella the Elephant provides examples for:
- Aesop Amnesia: In "Ella Borrows Trouble," Ella "borrows" a number of things from her friends without asking. She gets into trouble for it and learns an important lesson. Yet, in "Tea Party Trouble," she "borrows" her mother's favorite earrings for the tea party without asking, resulting in one being stolen by a seagull.
- Agony of the Feet: This happens to Ella in "Tiki's Moving Day" when she stubs her foot on a desk after overhearing about Tiki moving.
- An Elephant Named Ella
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Everyone on Elephant Island.
- Comes Great Responsibility: Ella can use her magic hat to help others, but it will start acting funny and not work properly if she tries to use it do something like getting out of doing work.
- Daddy's Girl: Belinda, the mayor's daughter. She constantly mentions her father to the other characters, dotes on him, and is also fond of reminding the other characters that he's the mayor.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The theme song is sung in-character by Ella.
- Expository Theme Song: Much of the song covers Ella's disposition and the premise of the show."I'm Ella, everyday is an adventure to me! I've got my magic hat on, Grandma gave it to me!"
- Feud Episode: In one episode, the island is hosting a soap box derby, and Frankie and Ella decide to work together on their kart. However, Frankie doesn't listen to any of Ella's design ideas, only using his own, causing her to quit the team. Frankie later reconciles with Ella by taking a third option.
- Halloween Episode: "Frankie's Perfect Pumpkin" has the kids in costumes and trick-or-treating, though most of the story is actually spent on hunting for Frankie's lost pumpkin.
- I Always Wanted to Say That: In "Seashell Serenade," Frankie calls "Ships ahoy!" when he sees some ships coming in on the lake, then says that he always wanted to say that.
- Magical Accessory: Ella usually transforms her hat into something that will help solve the problem of the episode somehow.
- Medium Blending: The show uses 3D-animated characters against 2D backgrounds.
- The Moving Experience: "Tiki's Moving Day" - Ella overhears Tiki talking about having to move and how different things are going to be, so she and friends put on a parade, get her a butterfly house she's always wanted as well as books for her own library, all to try to get her to stay. It turns out Tiki's monkey is moving to another room in her house.
- Not-So-Forgotten Birthday: This is the essential plot of "By Invitation Only" in which Ella's friends and family all put together a surprise party for her and try desperately to hide it. Though when Ella tells her mother that everyone forgot her birthday, her mother gets her to admit that she never actually asked her friends if they had forgotten it.
- Queen Bee: Belinda tends to be this around her friends. This comes to a head in one episode where she creates an 'exclusive club' that excludes Ella's friend Frankie. Ella quits the club, followed by everyone else when they see how much fun the two are having. Belinda then apologises and reforms the club to include Frankie.
- Record Needle Scratch: In "Stylish Ella," Ella's initial performance of her magic hat song is record needle scratched early on because she isn't wearing the hat. Belinda has her wearing a different hat with feathers to try to make her look "stylish."
- Road-Sign Reversal: In "Parade Problem," one of these kicks off the problem described in the title. An unwitting seagull reverses a sign, causing a delivery van with frozen bananas to go the wrong way.
- Scout-Out: Ella and her friends are members of the "Trunk Troopers." They get to wear special hats and go on adventures in the "great unknown."
- Take a Third Option: Frankie's solution to their kart design problem is to make it half Ella's design and half Frankie's design.
- Talking in Your Sleep: Belinda sometimes mutters "No more autographs, please" in her sleep.
- Twin Switch: The twins Ida and Ada do this as their Halloween costumes in "Frankie's Perfect Pumpkin."
- Worthless Treasure Twist: The treasure of "Treasure Hunters" is note a about friendship being the greatest treasure of all, signed by the kids' parents. Belinda's really annoyed at first, but then they all agree that it's a great treasure.
