YMMV / Puppy in My Pocket: Adventures in Pocketville

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • Danny gets stuck between the rear ends of two hippos and his expression really shows.
• Adaptation Displacement: This show is more well-known than the toyline it originated from, and is often what people think of when they think of "Puppy in My Pocket".
• Adorkable:
  • Kate is awkward and a tad bit clumsy in the earlier episodes. Though she eventually improves in her quests around Pocketville, she still shows shades of awkwardness when it comes to matters in her hometown.
  • Emily is a Bookworm who absolutely loves cats. She especially loves reading all about cats much to her mother's dismay.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Due to the vague mythology and lack of In-Universe and Word of God explanations of the show, many people have their own interpretations of the characters.
  • Some fans believe that Eva is to the point where she is either very mentally ill or perhaps possessed by an evil force due to her constant impulses.
    • Others believe Eva is simply a Well-Intentioned Extremist who just wants attention as much as her sister Ava.
    • Or that Eva was so affected by the demise of her parents (though seen and mentioned absolutely nowhere in the show) that she snapped, possibly even blaming her sister for it.
• Americans Hate Tingle: The series was NOT well received in the United States. (And to a lesser extent other English speaking countries) This is mostly because of the reputation of Mondo TV’s other works there, as well as the poor animation quality and lip syncing. As a result, merchandise of this show was very limited in the States, with its release, originally in spring 2012, pushed all the way to 2013. Some merchandise even ended up being European or even Italian-exclusive.
• Awesome Ego: Eva may be the embodiment of envy who straight up hates everyone around her and is the definition of a feline psychopath, but she's one cool cat.
• Awesome Music: Although not a musical series, this show has its fair share of amazing tracks.
  • The theme song sounds like something out of an anime series, especially that it's more than a minute long. Probably because Italian cartoons and dubs of such are known for having anime-like intros.
  • The background music even sounds surreal with all the glissandos and fantasy-like instruments, but nonetheless relaxing to many people.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Kate is loved by the target audience of course because of being relatable, but many fans don't like her because of how much screen time and dialogue she has compared to other characters, even the Royal Guards, as well as her blonde and blue-eyed traits often seen in protagonists of female-oriented cartoons.
    • The same even applies to Magic when it comes to hogging majority of the screen time.
  • Eva has her fans because of her edgy design and over-the-top voice, but many other fans criticize how one-dimensional of a personality she has as a villain, such as lacking redeeming factors and doing things For the Evulz rather than having a Freudian Excuse.
• Common Crossover:
  • Often paired with My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
  • To a lesser degree, Littlest Pet Shop: A World of Our Own, as both feature animal characters in their own worlds.
• Complete Monster:
  • Eva is a villainous cat written with absolutely no redeeming factors whatsoever and has even outright said to Ava that she always has been evil. Throughout the series she plots against her sister Ava to take the throne for herself as long as she gets her paws on Kate's half of the Friendship Heart with no stop, at least until the final episode. In one flashback she has even attempted to murder Ava by prying a large tree branch loose on top of her. She's even seen bullying other pets with the help of her lackeys, such as intimidating Camo to try and join her gang and attempting to have Flipper only serve her, and even got Zull and Gort to attempt drowning Sketch in the wishing well so that Kate and her friends won't get him to Lucas.
  • The Pet Buster is a heinous old man who not only kidnaps strays off the streets and sell them for high prices in auctions, but abuses and neglects them in his care. He even keeps Ava hostage as part of the pact with Eva, treating Ava as his prized possession, but it eventually turns out he has gains purely for himself and not for Eva, as he even kidnaps Eva herself in place of Ava at the end of the series so that he can still gain a huge fortune from selling a Felis aulicus cat.
• Cult Classic: Although it isn't highly praised by people, it does have a small cult following of its own. It could be due to the nostalgia from people who've watched it as a kid or the hilariously cheesy animation. Although it does have its fair share of good aspects such as the calming soundtrack and that it's vague enough to get a heavy amount of fan theories.
• Diagnosed by the Audience:
  • Due to Danny being the way that he is, some fans see him as being neurodivergent, possibly autistic, in some way and/or having a learning disability. He learns in a slower pace than the other Royal Guards, and doesn't understand Evershell's riddles quite as well, suggesting that he understands things more if said in a literal sense.
  • Magic tends to be very hyperactive and is easily distracted by anything that catches his eye, causing some viewers to think he may have ADHD.
  • Some fans speculate that Alexia may also have ADHD due to having trouble paying attention in class in the focal episode she is in, "Patience."
• Draco in Leather Pants: Most fans of this show love Eva, despite her serious lack of redeeming factors, and often make her more of a sympathetic character in fan works.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Steel Wool is rather popular mainly because of his unusual character design (as he lacks horns that real-life rams have, though that’s because he’s supposed to be a lamb) as well as his job to train pets to become Royal Guards.
• Epileptic Trees: Ooooooh boy, where to begin. Check out this series' WMG page if you want to look for them.
• Evil Is Cool: Eva may be the vilest animal character of this series, but she often takes the cake as fan favorite. She's very vocal and ambitious, which adds to her villainous charm.
• Fanfic Fuel: Due to the simplistic nature of the plot and lack of backstories for all the characters, this show's vague lore is perfect for fans to play with and flesh out more of the characters as well as adding extra lore.
  • The speculation over Ava and Eva’s backstories, their parents and relatives, and other character traits is a popular topic amongst fans, and each fan has their own interpretation of them.
  • The origin of the Friendship Heart and the Felis aulicus species has been largely disputed amongst fans as well.
  • Another popular speculation is the map of the Pocket Kingdom and what other regions and cities exist there.
  • The idea of the Friendship Ceremony and the so-called disaster that would happen if it weren't for it are often given more detail in fanfictions, sometimes with Fatal Frame as an inspiration since the series also revolves around rituals and the disasters that come with them.
• Fandom Rivalry: With My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, as both series has similar settings (Pocketville and Equestria), characters, and other aspects, not to mention debuting weeks apart. However, FIM’s fandom is much larger and lasted longer than Adventures in Pocketville’s, though the latter is being revived as of 2020.
  • More milder and subtle rivalries are with both Littlest Pet Shop and its newest incarnation.
• Fanon:
  • Many people have Eva in fanfictions as a reformed antagonist who started mending her rocky relationship with her sister Ava, and in flashbacks depict her as truly loving her sister. In canon it’s unclear whether or not Eva had always been malevolent or was truly a Green-Eyed Monster.
  • Because of Ava being known as a princess despite being the ruling monarch of the Pocket Kingdom and the notable absence of other royal family members except for her sister Eva, many fans have headcanoned that one or both their parents are deceased, with the causes of their deaths varying.
• Fanon Discontinuity:
  • Some people did not want Eva to team up with the Pet Buster, and instead want them to feud with each other as rival villains.
  • The Pet Buster, being the Hate Sink that he is, is often retconned by fans.
• Friendly Fandoms: Adventures in Pocketville, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Littlest Pet Shop, and Littlest Pet Shop: A World of Our Own have all been this at times, depending on how their respective fans are. Sometimes the fans of all four go to the point where they make Crossover fanfictions.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • Possibly the main reason why this show was created in the first place. Puppy In My Pocket originates from the US, but this show comes from Italy, which could mean the toyline was insanely popular in Italy that they had to make a cartoon out of it.
  • This show got surprisingly popular and well-received in Poland that about a quarter of its fan content comes from Polish fans. It had also gotten a pretty big following from Turkey and Romania as well.
• Good Bad Translation: The "prototype" English dub gets this treatment due to its awfully funky and questionable wording, which is because the translation is closer to the Italian dub. The two newer US and UK English dubs do better for sure.
• Gotta Ship 'Em All: This happens within much of the older fans, as they want each and every Pocketville denizen to be paired up. Especially in some fanfictions.
• Ho Yay / Les Yay:
  • Balloon and Mela often show shades of this as they always seem to be sticking together the most compared to William and Danny.
  • In Good Manners, Nail and Scratch are both male in the English dubbings and are known to be very best friends. Nail licking Scratch on the nose may hint something.
• LGBT Fanbase: This show does have quite a lot of fans who identify with the community or support it.
• Love to Hate:
  • Eva is an incredibly vile cat who does what she wants For the Evulz and lacks redeeming factors, though she still remains one of the most popular characters in the series because of her memorable personality.
  • The Pet Buster, by many fans, is unmistakably considered the most dislikable character of the show. Contrary to Eva, who is very well-loved by the fans despite being a Jerkass to absolutely anyone, the Pet Buster is often seen to be even more evil, especially that he finds fun in capturing and tormenting animals he comes across and is very entitled. Some say that the show is better off without him in the way.
• Moe: Any animal character would do, but there are some notable ones.
  • Mela, because of her sweet demeanor, high-pitched voice, and kindhearted, considerate personality. Also because she's a cute calico cat.
  • Ava as well, especially being The Woobie and just another adorable cat.
• Narm:
  • In some dubs (and some episodes of the US dub) the pets sing along to the Friendship Song, and their singing can often come across as cheesy.
    • Even in the second part of "Finally Free", when Kate and Magic are made ceremonial Royal Guards, this song is still sung despite it not being the Friendship Ceremony.
    • Not to mention the bats in "A Gift for Ava", with one of them even admiring Kate for her singing.
  • Ava telling Wallace "you're fired" in part one of "Believe in Yourself" when Wallace gets her annoyed about her sore leg, at least in the English dub, which can come across as hilarious. It seemed like she was treating Wallace like a mere employee instead of a friend.
• Narm Charm: Cheeseball as it is, some folks still enjoy it as a guilty pleasure due to the prominence of cute animals and charming setting.
• Periphery Demographic: Split between the intended (usually younger) viewers who typically watch it because of the Puppy in My Pocket toyline and those who watch it so they can try to improve it via their fanfictions.
• Popular with Furries: Being a show all about adorable pets, naturally does it attract fans of dogs, cats, and the like.
• Shipping:
  • Angel/Devil Shipping: William/Eva. William is a gallant, courageous leader of the Royal Guards who never puts a foot wrong and will do anything for Princess Ava, and Eva is the vile, nasty, arrogant leader of her gang who plans on taking the Pocket Kingdom for herself.
  • Cargo Ship: Due to the Mastiff guard’s fondness of eating, many people make a joke ship between Danny and any sort of food.
  • Crossover Ship: There has been fanart of Ava and Eva paired up with, respectively, Pikachu and Meowth.
  • Die for Our Ship: Many Zull/Gort fans did not like how both dogs had been infatuated by and courted two female dogs in "Good Manners," as it gets in the way of their ship.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Many fans prefer Ava/William over Ava/Wallace.
  • Foe Yay Shipping: Many fans have shipped William/Eva, possibly because of both the characters’ subtle interactions.
  • Mentor Ship: Ava/Wallace. Not everyone ships it though.
  • One True Pairing: This series has many of these, the most popular being Ava/Wallace, Ava/William, Eva/William, Magic/Mela, and Balloon/Danny, which are all somehow cross-species ships. However, if one is lucky, they may find same-species ships, but those are usually either Canon/OC or a Ho Yay pairing (or it could be both).
  • Portmanteau Couple Name: Though they're not often used.
    • Ava/Wallace is either called "Avallace" or "Wallava".
    • Ava/Magic is either called "Avagic" or "Magva".
    • Ava/William is either called "Williava" or "Willava".
    • Eva/William is called "Willeva".
    • Eva/Gort is called "Evort" or "Gorva".
    • Zull/Gort is called "Zurt", "Zort", or "Goll".
    • Balloon/Danny is called "Dalloon".
    • William/Mela is called "Willa" or "Melliam".
    • Balloon/Mela is called "Melloon".
    • Magic/Mela is called "Magla".
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: This often happens with ships involving Ava. Ava/Wallace is considered the canon ship because of the kissing scene, though it did not last since Wallace refused to go with Ava to Pocketville. Ava/William is a ship that is more likely to be long-lasting as William cares a lot about his princess, and would do anything for her, and it's also one people often ship. There's also Ava/Minato from a popular AU. Shippers from all those sides often fight with each other on who Ava is most suitable for.
  • Theme Pairing: Ava/William, as they are both leaders of some kind (Ava being The High Queen of the Pocket Kingdom whilst William is the de facto leader of the Royal Guards). As a bonus, you get the Interspecies Romance of them being respectively a cat and a dog.
• Squick:
  • Who knows what the Pet Buster put in that food he gave to Ava before the auction.
• So Bad, It's Good: Despite its questionable writing and animation, it nevertheless has its entertaining and even downright hilarious moments such as Zull and Gort's antics, Danny's snarky comments, and the like.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • In some instances the overlay of the effects clips through the character sprites.
  • In "The Friendship Ceremony", when Ava activates the Pocketpedia, the glow emanating from the Friendship Heart appears to be so large that it seems like her entire body is glowing instead, akin to a transformation sequence. It doesn't help that it can also give people eyestrains due to how heavily bright it is compared to the backdrop and Ava's sprite combined.
• Sweetness Aversion: The environment of Pocketville has bright colors and animal characters that look like something out of Lisa Frank's artworks, which is too much for a lot of older viewers.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Some viewers had a problem with how Eva was throughout the episodes.
    • When the second part of “Operation Princess” was released and shows Ava talking with Eva for the first time in a while, many people thought that it would give the opportunity to reveal more about Eva’s personality and a good reason to why she didn’t like her sister and was carrying out her devious schemes, even if it was a Freudian Excuse. Turns out, she said she had always been evil and didn’t become evil like what her sister said. However, it doesn’t make it clear whether she or her sister is correct.
    • Many believed Eva could’ve been the perfect character to be set up as the Foil or rival to the Pet Buster. Instead, when she first meets him through the Communication Shells, she strikes a deal with him to make sure he keeps Ava hostage and in return she will let him have all the pets he wants, even if she doesn’t completely trust him.
  • Many fans believed that Princess Ava and her role would've been the perfect opportunity to develop more backstory of more of her family besides her sister Eva, as well as show more of how her life as the monarch is like.
  • Although there is the very subtle Ship Tease, which was possibly done as Pandering to the Base, Ava and Wallace barely have any romantic feelings for one another in the scenes they appear together in other than the shoehorned kiss in the final episode, which is once again, pandering to shippers. What would have been better is to just let Ava and Wallace stay as best friends, as they barely show any feelings that would create those hints.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: Most of the voice acting for the US and UK dubs is passable, though some voice actors have relatively better performances in some characters than others.
  • Stephanie Sheh and Johnny Yong Bosch, who have been known to voice characters in anime such as in Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Sailor Moon, and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, have given their all in voicing Kate and Magic in the US dub.
  • Joanna Ruiz as Eva, for her over-the-top voice acting for her.
• Trans Audience Interpretation: This happens a lot with characters that have differing genders between dubs or straight up change their voices from masculine to feminine (or vice versa) in a single dub.
  • Thanks to the nature of the prototype dub (with the first few episodes having Balloon speak with a masculine voice and the rest with a feminine one), some people headcanon Balloon as a trans girl.
  • The seal seem in White Paw is seen by some fans as a transgender girl due to the feminine name "Stella" given in merchandise and the noticeably masculine voice this character has from the show.
    • Juno the husky from the same episode is male in certain dubs including the Italian dub, but is female in the English dub (in the latter, Alice’s father refers to her as “he”), which leads many fans to see her as also a trans female.
  • Scratch/Sofia, Ribbon the chick, and Phoebe/Amleto are sometimes seen by fans as transgender or even non-binary due to the characters’ ambiguities.
• Ugly Cute: Sometimes when the characters have bizarre facial expressions, especially Eva.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley:
  • Often when a character lifts up their paw, the paw will resemble a human hand complete with a thumb. It doesn’t help that they will often grab things with their paws and show that they even have the dexterity of a human hand.
  • Some of the Pocketville denizens with the exception of the villains have human-like flat teeth, but it doesn’t always show in every scene. But whenever they show their teeth, it looks rather creepy to a lot of viewers.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Wallace tries to take care of Ava during her time trapped in the big city, but acts condescending to Wallace as he tries to help her, brushes him off after he offers to help her survive in the big city, overreacts to him not believing she is a princess despite Wallace living in a different universe than her, and even “fires” him after she gets annoyed with him fussing over her sore leg. Making her look like a Spoiled Brat than a Spoiled Sweet princess. Though she does make up for it by bonding with Wallace later on.
• Values Dissonance:
  • The way Molly and her family are depicted has upset some fans, even if she's the focal child of the episode with A Weighty Aesop, "Food for Thought". Given that she has parents who do absolutely nothing to stop her from eating a lot of sweets, and she has even said that she didn't order anything else but the ice cream.
  • In “A Bad Fall”, Kate and Vanessa, who are preteen kids, are also seen with and drinking glasses of what looks like wine when they, their fathers, and their fathers’ colleagues are preparing a toast after lunch.
  • The other students laughing at Kate in “The Puppybuster” for not paying attention and the teacher not scolding them for that has also been causing certain fans to raise eyebrows, especially in countries where something like this in schools would be taken more seriously.
  • Some fans did not treat how Kevin and Bella from "Good Manners" are depicted very lightly, especially with Bella telling Kate that the reason why Kevin physically picks on her is because "he likes her."
• Viewer Gender Confusion: This was especially a problem with background characters, as some of them present eyelashes yet have masculine voices, or lack eyelashes and have feminine voices. This has especially become a problem thanks to She's a Man in Japan.
  • The lion cub (Scratch or Sofia, depending on the dub) from the episode "Good Manners", who is male in most dubs including the English dub and female in the Polish dub. However, he is voiced by Joanna Ruiz in both US and UK English dubs, who has also voiced female characters such as Eva, Juno, and Molly, and he has eyelashes unlike his tiger friend Nail/Jake.
  • Even Steel Wool is a part of this trope. He's a sheep alright, but a male one. However, he lacks horns (which rams in real life have), so people would think he looks like a ewe.
  • Several other characters that are female in the English dub, such as Dot, Phoebe, Kiki, and Juno, are male in certain dubs, though they have eyelashes.
• Viewer Species Confusion: Well, Viewer Breed Confusion that is.
  • Danny is said to be a Neapolitan Mastiff in merchandise, though he is clearly designed to resemble an English mastiff.
  • Leo is a Bloodhound though he resembles more of a foxhound. Meanwhile, a different bloodhound who appears in an earlier episode resembles more of the breed he is said to be.
  • Toby is a Maremma Sheepdog, though with those gray patches on his fur, he looks more like an English Sheepdog.
  • It is unclear on the kind of robin Robbie is, as he has characteristics of an American robin such as the coloring of his plumage being gray with a brown underside, but has the shape of a European robin.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Downplayed. This show has some surprisingly well-done animation compared to most of Mondo TV's works, including the fluidity of the hair and tail movements. However, this doesn't mean the show isn't prone to too many Off-Model scenes, Recycled Animation, and huge differences in the scenes' FPS rates.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: This show is not so much for little kids due to cases of Vile Villain, Saccharine Show and even themes of animal abuse in the episodes of the second half (hence why in the United States it has been given a TV-Y7 rating). In some countries this show has been aired on Cartoonito of all channels, where preschool-oriented television shows can be watched. This is likely because of Values Dissonance.
  • Knight of Cerebus Pet Buster is a prime example, being an animal abuser himself.
• The Woobie:
  • Princess Ava is perhaps the Woobiest of the entire series, and often strays into Jerkass Woobie territory when it comes to her stubbornness with Wallace. She gets beamed to the Big City because she stepped on the pedestal as Zull broke the Friendship Heart in half, and now has to survive in the city as a lost, hungry stray. She eventually gets very ill as a result of her hunger and fatigue accumulating, and has to be looked after by Wallace for a while. However, it gets worse for her as she is tracked down by the Pet Buster and is eventually captured, ending up being imprisoned in his house, almost enduring the same treatment the other captured strays get. She ends up failing to escape his house twice.
    • Not only this but her own sister Eva, the only known blood relative Ava has, despises her the most out of everyone else out of pure malice and outright tells her that she never loved her.
  • Kate. Poor girl. A child only 10 years of age, not only dealing with living in a new city and her mother being away, has to juggle the responsibility of school, Princess Ava’s monarchical duties in Pocketville, and searching for Princess Ava all at the same time without the knowledge of anyone in the Big City (sans the Pet Buster), even her own father. Even if she tries to prove to her father that the Pet Buster abuses animals in his care and sells them at high prices, he doesn’t believe her and simply thinks he gives strays shelter, with the Pet Buster convincing him that his daughter caused damages to his place. She ends up grounded for a while because of this.
  • Wallace: He tries to help Ava because he worries about her health but she keeps insisting to him that she’s okay. Over and over is he caring towards her, providing her food and warmth while she still gets her strength up, and eventually it comes to Ava’s mind that he was there to help her survive in the Big City. When the Pet Buster catches Ava in his net, Wallace comes to her rescue only to get knocked unconscious by the Pet Buster.
  • Danny, constantly being the butt of the Royal Guards’ jokes. With the other three Guards often laughing at him for his goofiness, one can’t help but feel sorry for the poor feller.
  • Nearly every single child seen in the show prior to getting their pet from Pocketville. Caroline having nobody to play with due to her parents being constantly busy with work. Martina dealing with the struggles of moving to a new city. Emily wanting a cat but her mother's fear of them denying her wish. Valerie having a lack of confidence which affects how she plays and the trust of her teammates. Michaela being a constant target for other kids to pull pranks on her. And the list goes on.