Littlest Pet Shop is an animated television series produced by Hasbro Studios in the United States and animated by DHX Media's animation studio in Vancouver, Canada, which worked with Hasbro Studios before on Pound Puppies and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. It is based on Hasbro's Littlest Pet Shop toy line, and features Blythe as a main protagonist. The series is developed by Tim Cahill and Julie McNally-Cahill, the creators of My Gym Partner's a Monkey, and directed by Dallas Parker and Joel Dickie. It premiered on November 10, 2012 in the United States on The Hub, an American pay television channel partly owned by Hasbro.

Development

Hasbro manages the intellectual properties of both Blythe (originally released in 1972) and Littlest Pet Shop (introduced in 1992). Originally held by Kenner Products, both were transferred to Hasbro, years after acquiring most of Kenner's assets.

As of November 2012^[update], two modern incarnations of Blythe are on sale: One, introduced in 2001 as a standalone toy line, is managed by Tomy (after merging with the original licensee Takara in 2006) and CWC (both companies licensed from Hasbro), sold in parts of Asia, and marketed towards collectors. The other, marketed towards children that was released in 2010, is known as Blythe Loves Littlest Pet Shop, which is managed by Hasbro as a part of their 2004 incarnation of Littlest Pet Shop.^[1]

The series was first green-lit in 2011. During production, Blythe Loves the Littlest Pet Shop was also used by Hasbro as the working title of the TV series.^[2] The production staff of the series includes developers Timothy Cahill and Julie McNally Cahill of My Gym Partner's a Monkey fame, along with Dallas Parker and Joel Dickie. Writers M. A. Larson and Cindy Morrow, who previously wrote episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, also wrote the scripts for the episodes of this series. The songs and music of the entire series were composed by Daniel Ingram and Steffan Andrews.

Although the series is Blythe's first television debut, this is not the character's first animated appearance; an incarnation of Blythe starred as a protagonist in a series of Littlest Pet Shop animated shorts produced by Cosmic Toast Studios^[3] and released online by Hasbro, which is unrelated to this series.

Hasbro announced a mobile game based off of the series on November 22, 2012. It is available for the Android, iPhone, iPod Touch, and iOS. The game features the player to take care over 150 pets, with the main pets appearing as guides to the player while Blythe is gone out for shopping.^{[citation needed]}

Plot

The series is set in the Downtown City, a city modeled after New York City. The story follows Blythe Baxter and her father as they move into a Downtown City apartment above the Littlest Pet Shop—a day-camp for pets of all kinds. Her real adventure begins when she discovers that she alone can miraculously understand and talk to all of the pets and other various animals rather than themselves. Along the way, she and the pets go on several adventures together but when the pet shop is about to close due to a bigger pet shop managed by the Biskit Twins, driving it out of business. Having no choice, the pets turn to Blythe to help them save it from closing down.

Characters

Main characters

• Blythe Baxter (voiced by Ashleigh Ball) – Blythe is the main protagonist of the series and is an aspiring fashion artist and designer who is always ready to assist others in need, whether it be the pets, Mrs. Twombly or her new friends Youngmee, Sue and Jasper. She has dark brown hair, light blue eyes and is always wearing fashionable, unique outfits. Blythe, along with her father, Roger Baxter, move to an apartment in Downtown City above a pet store called the Littlest Pet Shop. Soon after moving into the building, Blythe hits her head and discovers that she now has the ability of being able to talk to and understand animals. She comes to enjoy working at the Littlest Pet Shop not long after she saves the store from going out of business. Although she has wanted to be on TV all her life, she is also extremely camera shy.
• Mrs. Anna^[4] Twombly (voiced by Kathleen Barr) – Mrs. Twombly is the kind, off-beat owner of the Littlest Pet Shop pet store and day-camp for pets. She has grey hair and turquoise eyes. Mrs. Twombly befriends Blythe and helps her to display and sell her first pet fashion collection. She has a love for animals and making them feel at home in Littlest Pet Shop. She also has a bizarre obsession for collecting doorknobs, occasionally compulsive cleaning and some unique talents from her past.
• Whittany and Brittany Biskit (voiced by Shannon Chan-Kent) – Whittany and Brittany Biskit are the main antagonists of the series, and they are The Biskit twins, bullies and all around rich mean girls that seem to envy Blythe. Though not the smartest, this duo is not opposed to using whatever evil scheme they can come up with (and "Daddy's" money) to sabotage Blythe and her friends' endeavors. Whittany and Brittany's father is the owner of Largest Ever Pet Shop, the unfriendly competitor of Littlest Pet Shop. Whittany has black hair and red eyes and Brittany has white bleached hair with the same red eyes.
• Roger Baxter (voiced by Michael Kopsa) – Roger is Blythe's fun-loving, slightly clumsy father whose airline piloting job takes them from their quiet hometown and into to Downtown City where countless adventures await. He has dark brown hair and blue eyes. Mr. Baxter loves spending time with Blythe, listening to heavy metal, and supporting any of Blythe's talents and endeavors.

Recurring characters

• Youngmee Song (voiced by Shannon Chan-Kent) – Youngmee is Blythe's kind, empathetic (sometimes spacey), new friend whose Aunt Christie owns a neighboring sweets shop and, Buttercream, the rabbit. She is Korean American and has jet black hair and dark violet eyes. She is well known for being intelligent.
• Sue Patterson (voiced by Kira Tozer) – Athletic, caring and always ready to help, Sue admires Blythe's poise and abilities. She has red hair and light blue eyes. Sue enjoys athletics and tries to get Blythe to expand her own athletic abilities by pushing her to try harder to do things, such as (what turns into a failed attempt at) roller skating. Though she is confident in her abilities in sports, Sue is sometimes insecure about her fashion and creativity in comparison to Blythe.
• Jasper Jones (voiced by Kathleen Barr) – Jasper is Blythe's helpful, supportive and sometimes sarcastic friend. He has brown skin and hazel eyes. He is skilled at miscellaneous talents, such as being able to paint detailed world landmarks like the Taj Mahal on grains of rice.
• Aunt Christie (voiced by Kira Tozer) – Christie is Youngmee's work-a-holic aunt with a caring disposition and a talent for making confectioneries. She is Korean-American and has jet black hair and dark violet eyes like her niece. Christie owns a bakery and sweets shop, Sweet Delights, and the pet's new rabbit friend, Buttercream.
• Fisher Biskit (voiced by Samuel Vincent) – Fisher is the Biskit twins' wealthy, business minded father. Though Mr. Biskit has spoiled his daughters, Whittany & Brittany, he has no qualms about putting his foot down when he expects them to carry out a task that he has given them. He has white hair and light gray-blue eyes.
• Josh Sharp (voiced by Samuel Vincent) – Josh first appears in "Blythe's Crush", and is secretly Blythe's love interest. Josh makes a second appearance in "Helicopter Dad". He has brown hair and green eyes.

Pets

• Russell Ferguson (voiced by Samuel Vincent) – Russel is a male orange European hedgehog with yellow-green eyes. He is the organizer of the group with a love of food. Though uptight, he maintains everyone in the shop, making sure everything's orderly. A running gag is that he is often mistaken for a porcupine.
• Pepper Mildred^[5] Clark (voiced by Tabitha St. Germain) – Pepper is a female gray and white skunk with light red eyes. A self-proclaimed comedian, she enjoys making her friends laugh, usually through the use of puns and comical props. At times, however, she can be brash towards others.
• Minka Mark (voiced by Kira Tozer) – Minka is a female pink spider monkey with light blue eyes, who is an artist. Energetic and flexible, she is an expert regarding abstract art. However, she is constantly distracted by shiny objects, hanging out on the tire swing, or looking for something to eat. In "Dumb Dumbwaiter", she's revealed to be heavily claustrophobic.
• Zoe Trent (voiced by Nicole Oliver, singing voice by Kylee Epp) – Zoe is a female purple Cavalier King Charles Spaniel with light blue eyes, who is a singer. A born diva, she strives to achieve her goal as being the greatest entertainer. Her owners are couple John (voiced by Peter New) and Clarissa Trent (voiced by Tabitha St. Germain). Zoe is the older sister of Gail Trent (voiced by Tabitha St. Germain) In "Trading Places" Zoe says she has a crush on a dog named Digby.
• Sunil Nevla (voiced by Peter New) – Sunil is a male blue banded mongoose with golden eyes. He is a magician, who enjoys performing various magic tricks to his friends at the shop. Most of them fail or rarely work when he needs it to. Despite his timid appearance, Sunil becomes aggressive at the thought of cobras (an allusion to mongooses natural prey).
• Vinnie Alfonso^[5][6] Terrio (voiced by Kyle Rideout) – Vinnie is a male green gecko with purple eyes. Though slow at times, he is an talented and exotic dancer with top-notch dancing skills. Unfortunately, he is prone to wreaking havoc for others in the pet shop because of his clumsiness.
• Penny Ling (voiced by Jocelyne Loewen, singing voice by Laura Hastings) – Penny Ling is a female white and purple panda with grey eyes, who is a rhythmic gymnast with a talent for twirling ribbons. Being the peacekeeper of the group, her feelings are mostly sensitive and is prone to getting hurt by others.

Recurring/guest pets

• Buttercream Sundae (voiced by Cathy Weseluck) – Buttercream is a female yellow and brown Netherland Dwarf rabbit with dark green eyes, who is a dancer. A later addition to the group, Buttercream's owner is Youngmee Song's Aunt Christie, who owns the candy shop named Sweets Delights. She is very active and hyper, but also very mischievous. A running gag is whenever one of the pets says "What?" to her, she also says "What?" and then looks like she relaxes herself before saying "Anywho." She shows up occasionally through the series.
• Sugar Sprinkles (voiced by Kelly Metzger) – Sugar Sprinkles is a female tan colored snowshoe with blue eyes. She tends to burst out into singing while playing with her ukelele. She is calm and kind with an apologetic demeanor. She is the only non-main character (apart from Blythe and her pets) to appear as both TV and game counterparts.
• Gail Trent (voiced by Tabitha St. Germain) – Gail is a pink Cavalier King Charles Spaniel dog with darker blue eyes than her older sister, Zoe Trent. No information regarding herself, but it seems she and her sister care a lot for each other. Gail mentioned that her sister use to mistake other dogs that resembles her, such as Tootsie, for being her.
• Mary Frances (voiced by Peter New) – Mary is a male pig. He is mistaken for a girl by Russell due to his feminine name, later he went missing, but in fact he was under the table, sleeping and found by Russell.
• Esteban Marion Banderas (voiced by Sam Vincent) – Esteban is a Macaw who won over most of the pets with a story about how he saved his home village from bandits, but Vinnie is the only one who didn't believe him.
• Madame Pom (voiced by Kathleen Barr) – Madame Pom is a female Pomeranian with blue eyes. Snobby and narcissistic, she won a dog modelling show against Zoe, starting a rivalry between the two. When she and Zoe confront each other again in the episode "Eve of Destruction", they start fighting each other. She may act like she's flirting with the boys.
• Scout Kerry (voiced by Kathleen Barr) – Scout Kerry is a Siamese cat with turquoise eyes. Although kind, the other pets allude to her as suspicious-looking character. She seems to enjoy shredding things.
• Shahrukh (voiced by Brian Drummond) – Shahrukh is a male mongoose with yellow-green eyes, that looks very similar to Sunil, who hails from India. He is a pet movie star, and decides to swap places with Sunil for one day because he is tired of all the attention given to him by his human handlers.
• Digby (voiced by Peter New) – Digby is a light brown dog with light blue eyes that first appears in the episode "Trading Places". It is revealed that Zoe has a crush on him, and has difficulty speaking to him directly. He is said to appear once again in season 2.^{[citation needed]}
• Olive Shellstein^[7] (voiced by Kira Tozer) – Olive is a female green tortoise with dark purple eyes. She seems to be very quiet and shy in almost the entire episode. Minka expects Olive to be friends with her, which was actually true before the end of the episode after Olive revealed her true self.
• Princess Stori (voiced by Terry Klassen) – Princess Stori is a male Sheepdog with white fur and turquoise eyes that Terriers and Tiaras contestant Judi Jo Jameson (Cathy Weseluck) mistakes as a female.
• Old Bananas (voiced by Sam Vincent) – He is also known as O.B., he is a famous orangutan who is a comedian. Pepper is a big fan of his, but despite being a comedian, he originally is a grumpy ape and doesn't seem to be impressed due to Pepper's lack of comedian skills.
• Shivers (voiced by Brian Drummond) – Shivers is a red squirrel with blue-green who appears in "Blythe's Pet Project". He has a problem with stealing, or rather hoarding, things that aren't his.

Episodes

The series premiered on The Hub on November 10, 2012. Each episode is about twenty-two minutes in length. A second season have been announced by various crew members of the show.^[8][9][10]

Distribution

United States broadcast

As a part of Playdate Premiere Party!, Littlest Pet Shop was premiered on November 10, 2012 at 11:00 am EST on The Hub, immediately after the third season premiere of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The Hub is an American pay television channel owned by Hasbro and Discovery Communications, which the former uses it to broadcast any audiovisual adaptations based on their properties since its launch on October 10, 2010.^[11][12]

International distribution

Like its other productions, Hasbro Studios is in charge of international distribution of the series.

Hasbro expects the series to enter and follow international distribution in 2013.^[13] YTV airs the series in Canada.

Home media

In the United States, episodes of Littlest Pet Shop are available for digital download through the iTunes Store.^[14] The show, along with several other Hasbro properties, was added to the Netflix video streaming service on April 1, 2013.^[15]

References

External links

• Littlest Pet Shop at Hasbro Studios
• Official website at The Hub
• Littlest Pet Shop at IMDb

Template:Animated series based on toys