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.

I’m a sucker for a good book coming to life. Do you remember the Mr. Men and Little Miss books by Roger Hargreaves? They were really in their prime popularity here in the U.S. when I was in middle school or so. Each little square book only cost a dollar, and although my friends and I were probably a little old for them, we all collected them much the way that we persisted in accumulating Hello Kitty items (because they were cool, you know). The drawings were fun and the stories hilarious.

If you don’t know the series, each eponymous Mr. or Miss has a life tale based on their particular characteristic. Mr. Bump, for example, is always running into things. Obviously. Little Miss Bossy is, um, my daughter. Er. I mean, well, she’s bossy. You get the idea.

What made fun little books sounds like a natural property for a cartoon series, and now Chorion Ltd. has announced that Cartoon Network will be the U.S. home of The Mr. Men Show in 2008:

With a blend of side-splitting, fast-paced physical humor and verbal wit, The Mr. Men Show is the first animated program to bring sketch comedy to young children.

Twenty-five Mr. Men and Little Miss characters will be featured in the new series. To complement the new animation style, some of the characters are being refreshed and some completely re-worked — but all will remain true to the essence of the original Mr. Men and Little Miss creations.

Brought to life by talented writer-producers Kate Boutilier and Eryk Casemiro, the series is being animated in Los Angeles by Renegade Animation. Boutilier and Casemiro have achieved worldwide success with animated properties such as “Rugrats”, “The Wild Thornberrys” and “Rugrats in Paris”. Renegade has delivered three seasons of “Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi” to Cartoon Network US.

“Fast-paced physical humor?” So, they’ll be slipping on banana peels at high speeds?

I was actually so excited about this news, I went poking around online and discovered that the Mr. Men and Little Miss crew already has a interactive website where you can reacquaint yourself with all your favorite characters (oh! Mr. Daydream! He was my favorite!). There’s also all sorts of fun for the kids on there, from printables to games they can play. (You do need to register for full site access, but registration is free.) At the very least, you can amuse yourself there for a while until the debut of the show next year.

[Edited to add: Great minds think alike! The same day I posted this, Animation Insider wrote a piece about it as well.]