Little People is a stop-motion animated series produced by Egmont Imagination, based on the Fisher-Price toys. The series followed the adventures of Eddie and his frog, Freddie; Sarah Lynn, Eddie's sister; Michael; Maggie, and Sonya Lee.
In the early 2010s, Fisher-Price announced a complete Continuity Reboot of the franchise on its website, now helmed by Genevieve Goings of Choo Choo Soul fame and produced by DHX Media, in cel-shaded CGI. Noticeably, this version retooled Eddie and introduced a new set of characters to replace the rest. This version also faced a slight genre shift as the episode became Web Original, only available from Fisher-Price's official video sources (i.e. their own website, and their Youtube channel).
In March 2016, the show was spun back into a TV show and the 2013 brand was retired. The main child cast of the previous series returned (albeit with personality changes), along with two new additions, Jack and Emma. The series was helmed by industry veteran Rick Siggelkownote and ran for two seasons and aired on Sprout weekdays at 7AM. In September 2017, the show was screwed over after Sprout rebranded to Universal Kids. The entire series is now available to stream on Youtube. No media adaptions of the franchise have been announced since.
Not to be confused with short fantasy races, really short fantasy races, or an episode of The Twilight Zone (1959).
Little People contains examples of the following tropes:
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Tropes found in two or more versions
- Art Evolution: Between the launch and the 2016 reboot, the design of the characters has changed numerous times, often very drastically, if they weren't outright put on the bus. Even the switch from the 2013 reboot webseries to the 2016 Sprout series saw changes in the character designs (most noticeably with Sofie) to the franchise.
- Continuity Reboot: The 2013 reboot retools Eddie, and puts Sonya Lee, Michael, Maggie, Sarah Lynn, and practically everyone else on the bus.
- Debut Queue:
- The first five five-minute episodes of the series, collected on the Friendship Collection DVD, introduce Eddie (and Freddie and Sarah Lynn), Maggie, Sonya Lee, and Farmer Jed respectively.
- The 2013 reboot pilot has a starting lineup of Miss Hugg, Tessa, Eddie, Koby, Sofie and Mia.
- Edutainment Game: Who here remembers the PC games that were released in the early 2000s?
- Edutainment Show: What were you expecting from a show made for toddlers?
- Merchandise-Driven: Yeah, all these just to sell little plastic figurines and related playsets.
- No Antagonist: Being a Slice of Life show that focuses on learning lessons in friendship and discovering the world around you, it's no surprise that there is no villain. This is a show for toddlers, after all.
- Slice of Life: Adventure and magical themes notwithstanding, another obligatory trope needed to achieve E/I certification - it is a show targeted at toddlers, after all.
- Two Girls to a Team: Inverted. Sarah Lynn, Sonya Lee, and Maggie are the three girls while Eddie and Michael are the only boys. In the 2013 reboot and the 2016 series, Mia, Sofie, and Tessa are the three girls while Eddie and Koby are the two boys.
Tropes found exclusively in the claymation show
- Art Initiates Life: Michael's power is that he can bring things to life through art.
- Black Bead Eyes: All of the characters, but most noticeable with Sonya Lee.
- Christmas Episode: The video "Christmas Discoveries" has 5 shorts dealing with Christmas.
- Clip Show: "Movie Night at Farmer Jed's" has the cast watching clips from the previous videos (excluding the first one) on what the five characters achieved.
- Credits Gag: The closing credits screens include amusing headings such as "The Big People Who Like to Tell People What to Do" for the screen listing the directors, "The Big People Who REALLY Tell People What to Do" for the production company and producers, and "The Big People Who Like to Think They are VERY IMPORTANT" for the executive producers.
- Crying Wolf: Using a monkey who tells a tale about a flying elephant instead.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: In "About Music," a clown named Smiley played a triumphant, brassy version of the theme tune.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The title cards of the first two videos are just a black background with text. Later episodes would change it with a picture of the main character in a round border, the narrator reads out the title and music plays.
- The first episode has the narrator speaking more, compare to the ones after where he only narrates the opening and ending.
- Smiley never spoke in the first video.
- In the first three videos, Sarah Lynn is depicted as the depressed one of the group. They later change her to be the one who likes singing and dancing.
- Origins Episode: "How They Became Friends" deals with how the main cast members met each other after moving to Discovery City.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Michael and Eddie. Michael is more reserved and enjoys drawing and making art. Eddie is loud and loves to go fast and drive cars.
- Sequel Episode: Episodes that would have "More" in the title indicates that it's a sequel to another episode. These include: "Discovering More Music", "Discovering More Animals", "Discovering More Creativity", "Discovering More About Your Neighborhood" and "Discovering More Things That Go".
- Story Arc: "Discovering Music" has the main cast wanting to make a welcome home show for Smiley as the clown was away for a week and they wanted to thank the clown for making them laugh.
- Three Shorts: Each episode contains 5 shorts that focus on each cast member.
Tropes found in the 2013 web series
- Cel Shading: The animation style of the web episodes are clearly done in CGI 3D then cel-shaded to give it the cartoony look.
- Cool Teacher: Miss Hugg. It's implied that her earrings are magical.
- First Day of School Episode: "Flower Power", the first episode in the 2013 series, focuses on Mia overcoming her shyness on her first day at Miss Hugg's school in order to help her classmates take care of a sad flower.
- Put on a Bus: Sonya Lee, Michael, Maggie, Sarah Lynn, and everyone else from the claymation series.
Tropes found in the 2016 Sprout series
- Adaptational Personality Change: The 2016 series changed the personalities of some main characters.
- Koby went from a silly, outgoing child with a dinosaur obsession to an empathetic introvert who is extremely talented but modest about his feats.
- Mia went from the shy new girl to a strong-willed child who is the youngest of the friends.
- Sofie went from the creative, artsy genius to the slightly bossy leader of the group.
- Tessa went from a talkative dancer to an assertive kid who isn't afraid to speak her mind.
- Eddie, for the most part, retains his energetic personality from the previous show but gets some of the impulsiveness the other characters left behind.
- Adults Are Useless: Other than the ones that appear during the adventure sequences, there are no adults present in the 2016 series.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Jack to Emma.
- Art Shift: The TV series goes full CGI 3D compared to the cel-shaded 3D of the previous one.
- Blind Without 'Em: Sophie, as shown in one scene in the episode "Different Makes the Wool Go 'Round".
- Fear Is Normal: In "Roar in the Face of Fright", Eddie has the hiccups, so the others try to scare him to cure him, despite his insistence that he's afraid of nothing. Leonard and the kids sing a brief song called "Everyone's Scared of Something", but Eddie is revealed to have a Fear of Thunder. Sofie tells him that it's nothing to ashamed of. Leonard suggests roaring back at the thunder, and Eddie soon realizes his hiccups have gone away.
- May It Never Happen Again: In the episode "Potty Ahoy", Jack spends a good chunk of it with a Potty Emergency as a result of forgetting to use the bathroom prior to an imaginary adventure. In the end, he's the one to suggest an impromptu bathroom break before the gang goes on another outing.
- Singing Voice Dissonance: The characters sound very different when they sing in the 2016 show, especially the male characters. It is unknown if they have different singing voices that may cause this.
