Littlest Pet Shop (2012)
| ♥ | This article is dedicated to the voice actor of Roger Baxter, Michael Kopsa, who died of complications from a brain tumor at the age of 66 (January 22, 1956 - October 23, 2022). He will always be who he wants to be at Littlest Pet Shop. |
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 "You think about all the things that you love to do, it all comes true!"
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Littlest Pet Shop is a Canadian American children's animated television series developed by Julie McNally-Cahill and Tim Cahill for Hasbro Studios. It is based on the Littlest Pet Shop and Blythe toys owned by Hasbro.
Plot
The series follows Blythe Baxter, a young girl living with her airplane pilot father, Roger. Forced to move out from her suburban hometown following her father's promotion to the rank of airline captain, she moves into an apartment located in a place called Downtown City. Their complex is located above the eponymous Littlest Pet Shop—a pet shop that also serves as a day camp for numerous pets—where Blythe works as a fashion designer. Her adventure begins when she discovers that she alone can miraculously understand and talk to the pets that regularly stay at the shop, in addition to most other animals on the planet. As she and the pets spend time together, they find the pet shop jeopardized by a larger pet store managed by Fisher Biskit and his snotty twin daughters Brittany and Whittany Biskit. To avoid being dispersed, the pets convince Blythe to remain an employee.
The pets who reside in the day camp of the shop are Pepper Clark, a wisecracking striped skunk who is passionate about comedy; Minka Mark, a bouncy spider monkey with a love for painting and visual arts; Penny Ling, a sensitive giant panda interested in rhythmic gymnastics; Russell Ferguson, a hedgehog who is often the self-appointed leader of his animal bunkmates; Sunil Nevla, an Indian mongoose and hopeful magician; Vinnie Terrio, a clumsy gecko obsessed with dancing; and Zoe Trent, a diva-like Cavalier King Charles Spaniel with a talent for singing. Other human characters include Mrs. Anna Twombly, owner of the shop and Blythe's boss; and Youngmee Song, Jasper Jones, and Sue Patterson; Blythe's friends.
Why It Rocks
- The idea of a girl who has the ability to communicate with pets is interesting.
- The character designs are original and adorable. Even the elderly characters are cute.
- Amazing songs, such as "Littlest Pet Shop Pets" and "The Guilty Tango". The theme song is also a banger to listen to!
- Very likable, unique, and amusing characters with very distinct personalities, such as Blythe, the aspiring designer, and Russell, the organizer of the group.
- Great voice acting, especially from Ashleigh Ball and Sam Vincent.
- Smooth Flash animation.
- Hilarious jokes, such as the moments where people continuously mistake Russell for a porcupine.
- Awesome writing and intriguing plots, such as the episode "Gailbreak!", where they break Zoe's sister Gail out of the Largest Ever Pet Shop.
- Very good morals for everyone, especially children, such as "believe you can achieve your dreams" and "it's better to complete tasks as a team".
- It's one of the few shows that managed to escape a single bad episode, though there are some weak episodes. (See BQ#3.)
- The two-part series finale "Littlest Pet Street" was a phenomenal way to end the show, especially when Roger knew about Blythe's ability to communicate with animals. He even said that Blythe reminds him of her actual mother Lauren Baxter since she had the ability to communicate with animals, and this was eventually passed down to Blythe.
- It is far more faithful to the toy line compared to the 1995 animated series.
Bad Qualities
- The two-part series premiere "Blythe's Big Adventure", while decent, isn't as good as the rest of the series.
- The Biskit twins are irritating spoiled girl stereotypes.
- "Sweet (Truck) Ride", while not at all horrible, can be considered the only, if not, weakest episode as Roger was somewhat unlikable there as he grounded Blythe for something that the pets did.
- On that note, there are some weak at best and bad at worst episodes, such as "Game of Groans", "Spendthrifty", "Grounded", "LPS: The Moosical", "A Night at the Pawza", "Terriers and Tiaras", etc.
- The animation can look stiff at times.
- While interesting, it’s very confusing how Blythe can talk to the pets because it wasn’t explained properly how she does it.
- Russell can be an unlikable leader during Seasons 3 & 4 sometimes.
Reception
It has a score of 6.3/10 on IMDb.
Trivia
- Blythe Baxter is one of - if not the only - animated character to have different clothes in every episode.
- Ashleigh Ball, the voice actor of Blythe Baxter, also voiced Jet Propulsion from Ready Jet Go! and Rainbow Dash and Applejack from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
- In Littlest Pet Shop: Plane It on Rio! (2014), a scene from My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (2013) can be seen in which Twilight Sparkle is talking to Fluttershy.
- Heidi is the only character to have the same name as her actress.
- Some of the voice cast who worked on this latest incarnation of the Littlest Pet Shop also worked on the previous 1995 cartoon incarnation as well.