Love the Mr. Men Show? Us, too!
My kids are a little too old for the Mr. Men Show, actually, but that doesn’t stop them from watching it whenever they pass it on the television dial. I understand; it is sort of mesmerizing, with its goofy little characters. It’s charming, just like the books. (I’ve always had a soft spot for Mr. Men.)
If you’re a fan, you likely already know that the show has an official Cartoon Network site, as well as an international official website. And it’s possible that you even checked into the Ty’s Mr. Men and Little Miss Store, before, although if you haven’t been there for a while, you’ll want to check again. (This Little Miss Chatterbox hat is new, for example, and I can think of several little girls who need that hat.)
I have a couple of goodies for you that you may not have already seen.
First, I don’t know how I missed it, last month, but Animation World Magazine’s Joe Strike did a great piece on how the show came to be. It includes little insights into character changes like this one:
Cartoon Network asked for — and got — a slight trim in the number of female characters and a more “boy-centric” attitude in the show’s humor. “The network was afraid it would turn off boy audiences,” says Casemiro, “so we dropped Little Miss Fickle, Miss Fabulous and the Little Miss Twins. They weren’t from the books, we invented them for the show. There were a lot of negative female characters in the original books: Little Miss Scatterbrain, Little Miss Stubborn… we had to realign them, make the Little Misses a little more positive.”
So that’s how Miss Calamity came about. (And all this time I just thought it was because her name is funny.)
Second—and this is positively awesome—did you know that there’s a Mr. Men Show Blog? There is! It’s listed as being written by executive producer Kurt Mueller, although most of the postings I’m seeing are authored by someone named Sarah. (Sarah, who are you?) Either way, it’s a bit of behind-the-scenes information, as well as your chance to talk back to the folks who work on the show. Pretty cool.
Haven’t caught Mr. Men fever yet? Check out the links I gave you, and tune in to Cartoon Network weekdays at 9:00. Just try not to find it charming—I dare you.
June 4th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I had no idea there was a show! I remember the books from way back when I was a kid (ah, the 80s…), but I didn’t realize that Cartoon Network had done an animated series. I’ll have to see if I can find it on the YouTube. (We don’t have cable. Stone Age, I know.)