The Mr. Men Show
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 "Crooked cucumbers!"
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The Mr. Men Show (sometimes simply called Mr. Men) is a British-American animated children's television series based on the original Mr. Men and Little Miss books created in the 1970s and 1980s by British author Roger Hargreaves and his son Adam Hargreaves. Adapted from the published source material into a television variety program, The Mr. Men Show features comedy sketches (primarily), pantomimes, dance numbers and music videos. The TV series was directed by Mark Risley and executive produced by Kate Boutilier and Eryk Casemiro. The music was composed by Jared Faber. The series currently airs on Channel 5's Milkshake! programming block in the United Kingdom. In the United States, it aired on Cartoon Network and Boomerang.
Why It's WONDERFUL!
- Great Flash animation and colors, even for late 2000s standards. Heck, it was done by Renegade Animation, the same company which animated Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, MAD, The Tom and Jerry Show, and UniKitty!.
- The idea of having the Mr. Men and Little Misses go along with comedy skits is an interesting choice of a concept.
- Most of the characters from the original book series are used in this show and retain their original personalities and designs.
- The voice acting in both the UK and US dubs are great choices of cast members.
- The comedy skits in each episode are well thought of, especially the ones with Mr. Stubborn, Mr. Pernickety (especially when he's paired with Mr. Messy), or even Mr. Grumpy.
- Mr. Scatterbrain is easily the funniest, but yet silliest character in the series. His silliness makes sense because Mr. Scatterbrain is a scatterbrain after all.
- Godfrey as Mr. Stubborn, clever casting choice!
- Each episode always takes on certain every day things you see. From rail transport, to birthdays, to movie theaters, and even to all forms of weather.
- This series often picks its own right choice of characters. The choices for Mr. Stubborn and Mr. Grumpy being the focus on the bowling skit are a great concept to pair the two. Even Mr. Messy and Mr. Pernickety are given their own skits where both are paired in the same skit as the main characters, which make for great comedy.
- The theme song is catchy and very memorable.
- The music soundtrack is well composed.
- Memorable catchphrases that are not limited to:
- "I'll give you [something]!"
- "MR. RUDE!!!"
- "This [thing] is CHEAP!"
- "Crooked cucumbers!"
- "I'll give you [something]!"
- It's one of the few shows that's aimed primarily at preschoolers that doesn't break the fourth wall or overemphasize on cuteness/infantilism, and remains entertaining to older audiences due to focusing less on education and more on comedy and slice-of-life.
- Great lessons for kids.
- This Mr. Men and Little Miss adaptation is agreeably a series that is recommended for kids in a modern day generation, even if this was from two decades ago.
Cheap Qualities
- Mr. Persnickety often times gets the punching bag treatment, but to be fair this was actually intended to be that way for the sake of unintentional comedy as they wanted to make him relatable to all those people in real life that have insufferable and miserable lives, making him sympathetic (see Trivia).
- It can get quite mean-spirited at times.
- Mr. Rude can be a dislikable character just because he farts and (obviously) is rude all the time.
- Miss Whoops' voice in the US dub sounds too whiny and nasally, especially when she says "whoops".
- May feel a bit repetitive and formulaic to some. But of course, this is supposed to be the intention since the skits have different story plots, while the beginning and closing sequences are the same depending on the episode's subject.
- Only lasted two seasons (also see Trivia).
- The production of the series wasn't the best (nor was it the worst):
- The time limit of each episode is inconsistent between both countries. In the US, it is limited to 11 minutes and 36 seconds per episode, but it is 10 minutes and 50 seconds in the UK.
- Transport inaccuracy: Since Mr. Men is a British property, it's use of right-side driving cars and American locomotives is inaccurate considering the UK uses European and British class steam and diesel engines, and the UK of course drives on the left.
- There are limited set designs, and most of it is just blank colored background with outlined locations drawn.
- The episodes have little variety and are instead focused purely on everyday aspects that are summarized in one-word titles (e.g. movies, books, fairs). Had that not been the case, it would be less likely that the writers would have run out of ideas.
- Despite being based on the book series, it's not very faithful to the original books.
- Though this is actually excused here because of the fact The Mr. Men Show was meant to be a comedy sketch show. Though the same can't be said within the likes of other reboots that are unfaithful or disgraceful to their own source material like the infamous Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go!
- The show went on a minor downfall after Season 1.
- Miss Calamity was removed because Chorion didn't like her. This resulted in Mr. Bump, Fussy, and Quiet being more focused on and becoming even bigger punching bags than they already were, which turned off some fans.
- The new characters (with the slight exception of Little Miss Magic and Little Miss Giggles) weren't given enough screen time, especially Mr. Tall and Little Miss Curious; both of them only spoke in one episode each.
- Mr. Persnickety's name was changed back to Mr. Fussy. Not only did this make fans feel like they had dumbed down his name, but he became a complete control freak on top of that.
- Mr. Rude's farting sounds were changed from cartoon honks to actual farting sounds, which turned off some fans, made the gag less funny and made him even more gross and obnoxious than he already was. Not to mention there was an increase in his fart jokes and it was often played up for more gross-out.
- Mr. Happy's voice weirdly had his voice changed in the UK dub a season later. For one season, he was voiced by Simon Greenall, the next season, he is voiced by Rob Rackstraw, and it's a very noticeable change.
Trivia
- The real reason why The Mr. Men Show was cancelled was because of the four following:
- The voice cast, both British and American, wanted to move onto different projects (for example: Alicyn Packard had to focus on singing).
- Scheduling issues in the United States.
- The crew behind the series ran out of ideas after the second season.
- Low ratings. This could be because Cartoon Network aired the series on weekday schedulings, and moved the series over to their block, Boomerang.
- The series was originally going to air in 2007, but it was pushed to 2008 for unknown reasons after production of the first season was completed.
- Mr. Persnickety/Mr. Fussy is a very popular character in this Mr. Men and Little Miss series, and most adults (parents) say that he is their favourite because they usually feel like they suffer the same things that he does like in episodes such as "Movies", "Cinemas", "Sand & Surf", "Car Wash", and "Wildlife" as examples.
- This series aired in the US first on February 4th, 2008 before airing on the UK on the same year and month, except on a different release date (February 25th, 2008).
- This is the first TV appearance of Mr. Rude, Little Miss Scary, and Little Miss Whoops, so far the only one as there hasn't been a Mr. Men and Little Miss TV adaptation in years.
- Two of the show's characters, Little Miss Calamity and Little Miss Daredevil, were created exclusively for the television series.
- Little Miss Scatterbrain and Little Miss Stubborn have had their genders reassigned to become Mr. Scatterbrain and Mr. Stubborn due to the fact that the writers wanted the female characters to remain mostly positive.
- None of the character's catchphrases (except for Mr. Noisy's and Little Miss Whoops') are lines from their original books.
- The entire show uses the Ed Interlock font in both the opening and closing credits.
- The series was animated by Renegade Animation for Cartoon Network/Channel 5 and Chorion.
- The show's simplistic art style was inspired by UPA animation.
- This show was one of the only shows on Milkshake in the UK not to be affected by Viacom's takeover of Channel 5 in 2014, with others including Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom.
- Little Miss Twins and Little Miss Fickle were planned to be in the series, but they were scrapped because Cartoon Network did not want too many characters. Also, a character named Little Miss Fabulous was considered being created for the series before the books' Little Miss Fabulous was created in 2016.
- Little Miss Trouble was also going to appear but was replaced with Little Miss Naughty.
- Little Miss Fun appeared as a character in several pieces of official merchandise looking relatively the same, but she was unused in the series itself. Mark Risley confirmed that she wasn't meant to be a character. She was most likely used to replace Little Miss Calamity on character listings in official merchandise.
Reception
The series has become a huge cult classic in recent years, and is considered to be one of Cartoon Network's most beloved forgotten shows.
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