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Description
Hello there. This is SofiaBlythe2014. On November 10, 2012, the world was introduced to the new Littlest Pet Shop, developed by Julie McNally Cahill and Tim Cahill for Hasbro. The show focuses on a fashion savvy girl named Blythe Baxter, who moves to Downtown City, and lives in an apartment above Littlest Pet Shop. After bumping her head in an elevator, she discovers that she can take to animals. The main animals she befriends are Russell the hedgehog, Zoe the dog, Sunil the mongoose, Penny Ling the panda, Pepper the skunk, Vinnie the gecko, and Minka the monkey. The show ran for 4 seasons with a total of 104 episodes, ending on June 4, 2016.

To say that I love the show would be an understatement. It's one of the shows that helped me take animation more seriously. I mean, I've always been a big fan of animation, but this was one of the shows that helped me appreciate the process of animation and how to make a show. It also helped kickstart my reviewing shows and movies on DeviantArt. In honor of the show's 10th anniversary next week, I decided to do a Some Thoughts On My Mind article for the series. It's simple, but something simple is fine as long as there's still good heart. Let's begin.

1. The Format Of Episodes Works To The Creators' Strengths

As mentioned, this series was developed by Julie McNally Cahill and Tim Cahill. Before this, they created My Gym Partner's A Monkey, and wrote for WB projects like Histeria, Sylvester And Tweety Mysteries, Baby Looney Tunes, and Krypto The Super Dog. All of these projects were either sketch comedies or followed the format of 2 11 minute stories. You'd think they wouldn't be able to handle 22 minute episodes after working on shows like this for so long, but they make to work here. This is due to each episode usually having 2 plots, one that's usually Blythe centric and another that's animal centric. They either compliment each other by covering similar themes (like with Alligators And Handbags or Some Assistance Required) or they intertwine together (like in Frenemies or It's A Happy Happy Happy Happy World). Even the 2 parters (The Expo Factor, It's The Pet Fest, and Littlest Pet Street) follow this with Blythe's plot taking center stage while the pets get the subplot. This makes episodes that have just one story, like "The Secret Recipe" and "Paint A Picture It Lasts Longer" stand out more in a good way. It shows that the characters are developed enough to carry their own longer stories.

2. What Makes The Seasonal Arcs Work

So, seasons 2-4 made use of seasonal arcs revolving around specific themes. It's most likely for merchandising reasons, but the creators made it work. It's mainly in how they go for individualized episodes with a common linking thread between them. Season 2 was all about the International Pet Fashion Expo, and thus we had "Blythe's Big Idea" to kick start the idea, followed by 3 international episodes (To Paris With Zoe, Shanghai Hijinks, and Plane It On Rio) and a 2 part season finale that brings everything together. Season 3 would have The Pet Fest as the 2 part season finale. It technically takes some time to directly set it up, but it's thematically set up in episodes focusing on the human and animal relationship. Episodes like "Tongue Tied" and "Proud As A Peacock" have these as part of their stories. There's also more building off of previous episodes, like how the finale builds off of "Why Can't We Be Friends" and "If The Shoe Fits", with characters introduced there playing bigger roles. Season 4 would keep up the human and animal relationship, but also adds in some more business. Episodes like "Petnapped" and "On The Same Page" for the former and "Steamed" "Bake It Til You Make It" for the latter show this well. You can feel the sense that everything is there to help show that it's possible to do what you set your mind out to do.

3. The Finale Twist Was Foreshadowed Well

Before I start, RIP Michael Kopsa. You were excellent as Roger.

Now we saved the best for last. In the series finale "Littlest Pet Street", Roger reveals that he knew Blythe could talk to pets, and kept it secret until she was ready to tell him. There's been bit of a division, what with one side thinking that the twist was foreshadowed while others think it came out of nowhere. They don't really don't say how he found out (other then saying he knew how her mother had the ability, but not knowing when she got it), but him knowing the secret doesn't feel out of the ordinary. The episode "What Did You Say" has Blythe be unable to talk to animals when she becomes sick. At the end of the episode, Roger goes to check on her, and reads the symptoms of the medicine she took. Some of the symptoms include "riding unicycles" and "understanding pets". He's surprised at the former symptom being a real thing, not the latter, highlighting that he knew all along. If you want some more proof, think about how, in "Plane It On Rio", she sprang the trip on him at the last second. Why would he just drop everything at the last second to go to another country? The answer is that he knew she was doing something pet related, and directly talked to them about it. One more piece of proof can be found in "Seeing Red", the last regular episode of the show. One of the stories in that episode is Blythe writing a story about her parents as teenagers. However, Roger sees this, and thinks that she's being rebellious. He then follows her to the park at night, and sees she has Penny Ling, and feels better once she explains everything. He doesn't question why she's at the park at night with Penny Ling, who's not her pet. He trusted her enough to see that this is just a pet matter and not anything potentially law breaking. Roger may not be the brightest, even making really big mistakes, but he is smarter than he lets on.

Thanks for reading. Have a good day.

Description
Hello there. This is SofiaBlythe2014. On November 10, 2012, the world was introduced to the new Littlest Pet Shop, developed by Julie McNally Cahill and Tim Cahill for Hasbro. The show focuses on a fashion savvy girl named Blythe Baxter, who moves to Downtown City, and lives in an apartment above Littlest Pet Shop. After bumping her head in an elevator, she discovers that she can take to animals. The main animals she befriends are Russell the hedgehog, Zoe the dog, Sunil the mongoose, Penny Ling the panda, Pepper the skunk, Vinnie the gecko, and Minka the monkey. The show ran for 4 seasons with a total of 104 episodes, ending on June 4, 2016.

To say that I love the show would be an understatement. It's one of the shows that helped me take animation more seriously. I mean, I've always been a big fan of animation, but this was one of the shows that helped me appreciate the process of animation and how to make a show. It also helped kickstart my reviewing shows and movies on DeviantArt. In honor of the show's 10th anniversary next week, I decided to do a Some Thoughts On My Mind article for the series. It's simple, but something simple is fine as long as there's still good heart. Let's begin.

1. The Format Of Episodes Works To The Creators' Strengths

As mentioned, this series was developed by Julie McNally Cahill and Tim Cahill. Before this, they created My Gym Partner's A Monkey, and wrote for WB projects like Histeria, Sylvester And Tweety Mysteries, Baby Looney Tunes, and Krypto The Super Dog. All of these projects were either sketch comedies or followed the format of 2 11 minute stories. You'd think they wouldn't be able to handle 22 minute episodes after working on shows like this for so long, but they make to work here. This is due to each episode usually having 2 plots, one that's usually Blythe centric and another that's animal centric. They either compliment each other by covering similar themes (like with Alligators And Handbags or Some Assistance Required) or they intertwine together (like in Frenemies or It's A Happy Happy Happy Happy World). Even the 2 parters (The Expo Factor, It's The Pet Fest, and Littlest Pet Street) follow this with Blythe's plot taking center stage while the pets get the subplot. This makes episodes that have just one story, like "The Secret Recipe" and "Paint A Picture It Lasts Longer" stand out more in a good way. It shows that the characters are developed enough to carry their own longer stories.

2. What Makes The Seasonal Arcs Work

So, seasons 2-4 made use of seasonal arcs revolving around specific themes. It's most likely for merchandising reasons, but the creators made it work. It's mainly in how they go for individualized episodes with a common linking thread between them. Season 2 was all about the International Pet Fashion Expo, and thus we had "Blythe's Big Idea" to kick start the idea, followed by 3 international episodes (To Paris With Zoe, Shanghai Hijinks, and Plane It On Rio) and a 2 part season finale that brings everything together. Season 3 would have The Pet Fest as the 2 part season finale. It technically takes some time to directly set it up, but it's thematically set up in episodes focusing on the human and animal relationship. Episodes like "Tongue Tied" and "Proud As A Peacock" have these as part of their stories. There's also more building off of previous episodes, like how the finale builds off of "Why Can't We Be Friends" and "If The Shoe Fits", with characters introduced there playing bigger roles. Season 4 would keep up the human and animal relationship, but also adds in some more business. Episodes like "Petnapped" and "On The Same Page" for the former and "Steamed" "Bake It Til You Make It" for the latter show this well. You can feel the sense that everything is there to help show that it's possible to do what you set your mind out to do.

3. The Finale Twist Was Foreshadowed Well

Before I start, RIP Michael Kopsa. You were excellent as Roger.

Now we saved the best for last. In the series finale "Littlest Pet Street", Roger reveals that he knew Blythe could talk to pets, and kept it secret until she was ready to tell him. There's been bit of a division, what with one side thinking that the twist was foreshadowed while others think it came out of nowhere. They don't really don't say how he found out (other then saying he knew how her mother had the ability, but not knowing when she got it), but him knowing the secret doesn't feel out of the ordinary. The episode "What Did You Say" has Blythe be unable to talk to animals when she becomes sick. At the end of the episode, Roger goes to check on her, and reads the symptoms of the medicine she took. Some of the symptoms include "riding unicycles" and "understanding pets". He's surprised at the former symptom being a real thing, not the latter, highlighting that he knew all along. If you want some more proof, think about how, in "Plane It On Rio", she sprang the trip on him at the last second. Why would he just drop everything at the last second to go to another country? The answer is that he knew she was doing something pet related, and directly talked to them about it. One more piece of proof can be found in "Seeing Red", the last regular episode of the show. One of the stories in that episode is Blythe writing a story about her parents as teenagers. However, Roger sees this, and thinks that she's being rebellious. He then follows her to the park at night, and sees she has Penny Ling, and feels better once she explains everything. He doesn't question why she's at the park at night with Penny Ling, who's not her pet. He trusted her enough to see that this is just a pet matter and not anything potentially law breaking. Roger may not be the brightest, even making really big mistakes, but he is smarter than he lets on.

Thanks for reading. Have a good day.