Western Animation / Higglytown Heroes

Higglytown Heroes is a Playhouse Disney cartoon set in Higglytown (of course), a town populated by people who resemble nesting dolls. It aired from September 12, 2004 to January 7, 2008.

Our heroes (no pun intended) are four kids, Eubie, Wayne, Twinkle, and Kip, plus Fran the talking squirrel. Once per Episode, the kids find themselves in some kind of troublesome situation that gets fixed by a "hero" working in a specific occupation (such as a doctor, a plumber, etc.).

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This show contains these tropes:

• 555: Kip's mother's phone number is 555-0144.
• Aerith and Bob: Characters named Wayne, Kip, and Fran are alongside characters named Twinkle and Eubie.
• Alliterative Title: Higglytown Heroes.
• Animal Gender-Bender: Melissa the Magnificent Moose from the episode "Overnight Moose" is said to be female, but she has antlers, when in real life, only bull moose have antlers.
• Appropriate Animal Attire: Mrs. Cluck, an otherwise normal hen in the episode "Corn to be Wild" wears a two piece swimming outfit when cannonballing into the lake, but is otherwise naked. Fran the squirrel in contrast only wears a swimming cap to cannonball.
• Art Shift:
  • The kids' thoughts are in 2D Flash animation.
  • The art shifts to notebook doodles whenever Twinkle presents one of her big ideas.
• Big Disaster Plot: "Calling All Heroes" has Kip ordering pizza that instantly grows from just a few drops of water for Wayne's birthday party, but a storm happens on the day itself. Pizza Guy's truck gets blown over on the way to deliver the pizza, and the pellets fly out of it and grow into giant pizzas that rain on Higglytown. Wayne gets upset that his birthday was ruined, but he and his friends learn that all the heroes they've met have gathered together to help the citizens recover from the disaster and repair the town.
• Birthday Episode: "Cry Baby Pookie", where the kids prepare a birthday party for Kip's baby sister Pookie, but have to figure out why she's crying after preparing the party.
• Book Ends: Each show opens with an egg shaking and opening up to start the episode. The show ends with the same sequence but in reverse: The egg shakes as it closes.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: In "Twinkle Tooth", Twinkle is unable to come up with a convoluted idea on how she could get her loose tooth back from the sink drain, so the others do the honors for her, right down to them saying her catchphrase "Aw, pickles!" when Fran points out the one fatal flaw in their idea - there are no whales in the sink drain.
• The Cameo: In a blink-and-you-miss-it moment in the episode "Kip Joins the Circus", JoJo and Goliath from JoJo's Circus make cameo appearances in the circus's banners.
• Catchphrase:
  • Twinkle will react to Fran pointing out the problems in her big ideas with "Aw, pickles!"
  • When the kids act on their plan, Kip goes, "So what are we waiting for? Let's go, let's go, let's go!"
• Christmas Episode: "Twinkle's Wish" takes place around Christmas and has Santa and an elf named Pix trying to save the former's sleigh.
• Cock-a-Doodle Dawn: In the episodes "Twinkle Tooth" and "Twinkle's Wish", there was a rooster crowing at sunrise off-screen.
• Continuity Cavalcade: In Calling All Heroes!, all of the previous Higglytown Heroes came Back for the Finale (although the episode isn't much of a Grand Finale, but still).
• Crazy-Prepared: As revealed in "All Tire'd Out", Wayne packs a whole bunch of stuff to take to the beach. Even when Kip asks him, Wayne says this:
  Wayne: Kip, when it comes to the sun, you can never be too prepared.
• Disappeared Dad: There isn’t a mention of Twinkle and Wayne’s father as the two only seem to live with their mother.
• Dramatic Sit-Down: In "Kip's Dad Gets a Strike", Kip's dad breaks down when his X-57 bowling ball breaks. During the rest of the episode, he sits in his massage chair whimpering over the remains of his shattered bowling ball.
• Earth Song: In "Fran in the Moon", Kip's dad sings "Earth is the Planet for Me" to explain to the kids why they should take care of it: because it's the only habitable one and has places, plants, and animals that no other planet has.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Pizza Guy, the local pizza delivery guy that almost always appears Once per Episode.
• Expository Theme Tune: "Here in Higglytown", performed by They Might Be Giants.
  Here in Higglytown
  Things all jump around
  Just like the Higglytown Heroes!
  (Our heroes!)
  They all work together
  Making fun together
  Come see the Higglytown Heroes!
• Eye Take: This occasionally happens to the Higgly kids, as their eyes are shown widening◊ whenever they're shocked or surprised.
• Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Eubie's Aunt Mellie and Uncle Zooter do this often.
• Five-Token Band: Eubie is White, Wayne and Twinkle are Black, Kip is Asian, and Fran is the Token Non-Human.
• Halloween Episode: "Halloween Heroes" has the kids gather together for Halloween and Uncle Lemmo tells them the story about how a group of kids like them discovered the true meaning of such, and how the first jack o' lantern was created.
• Injured Limb Episode: In "Shuffleboard Buddies", Zooter gets his back messed up.
• Keet: Kip. He's super energetic, makes sense, because he always flips around whenever he walks. "Let's go, let's go, let's go!".
• Large Ham: Kip's dad Fripp can be this sometimes.
• Last-Second Photo Failure: Ms. Fern gets ready to take a picture of Kip placing the flag on the class's newly finished block tower; however, Kip's dog Shadow happened to charge right through the window at that time, and the picture comes out with him flinching as Shadow knocks down the tower.
• Matryoshka Object: All of the characters are modeled after nesting dolls, and they can hide inside each other.
• Nephewism: Eubie is raised by his Aunt Mellie and Uncle Zooter.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: In the Halloween Episode, Wayne couldn't decide between dressing as an alien, a clown, and a cowboy, so he goes as all three: an alien-clown-cowboy.
• Offscreen Teleportation: In "Wayne's Day Out" when the kids do the "Higgly Check" to see if everyone is here, Pizza Guy suddenly appears in place of Wayne.
• Once per Episode:
  • Twinkle will have a big idea about how to solve whatever problem, with the art style shifting from CGI to 2D animation resembling doodles in a notebook for the duration that she is presenting the idea. Her ideas are always incredibly unrealistic, and Fran will point out a problem with the idea after Twinkle is done explaining the idea, causing the latter to say "Aw, pickles!" in response.
  • Near the end of the episode, the kids will sing a song saying that they'll need someone special to solve the problem. Cue a person of a specific occupation appearing and acting accordingly, solving the problem for the kids.
  • Also Wayne always whines before they sing, leading Eubie to say they could use the help of "someone special"
• Parental Abandonment: Out of the kids, only Eubie's parents were never seen nor mentioned, as he is raised by his aunt and uncle.
• Power Outage Plot: In "An Electric Evening", the kids and their families get together to watch the Happy Hairy Higgly Monsters special, but the power goes out before the show comes on. The electrician hero is then brought in and provides the lesson not to use too much electricity.
• The Real Heroes: Pretty much the premise of the show. There are no superheroes in this show, but "normal" heroes who are just people working in a certain job are central to the plot.
• Running Gag: The garden gnome that turns up at least Once per Episode.
• Stock Sound Effect:
  • The Baby Kate cry is heard in the episode "Kip's Sweet Tooth", when the baby tooth was crying during Twinkle's Once per Episode big idea.
  • There's also the classic H-B boing sound effect, which can be heard in the episodes "Mystery at Kip's House", "Eubie's Pink Dots", "Two Bees or Not Two Bees" and "Say Cheese".
• Talking Animal: Fran the squirrel can speak.
• That Cloud Looks Like...: This happened in "Missing Grandpop", Eubie looked at the clouds, one looking like Grandpop Crink's truck, and one looking like Grandpop Crink's beard.
• Theme Tune Roll Call: The theme song names, in order, Eubie, Wayne, Twinkle, Kip, and Fran.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Wayne really likes toast. A bit too much.

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