The Littles
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Image:The Littles.jpgThe Littles were the title characters of a series of children's novels by US author John Peterson, the first of which was published in 1967, that were adapted into a cartoon series by DiC Entertainment 16 years later. The Littles ran on ABC Saturday mornings from 1983 to 1986. It ran for a total of three seasons, and for a total of 29 episodes. Similar to Mary Norton's earlier novel The Borrowers, The Littles features a family of tiny but intelligent humanoid creatures with mouse-like features (the Littles) which lived in a house owned by the Bigg family. Naturally, only the 12-year old son of the family (Henry Bigg) knows about the Littles. The Littles was the very first cartoon produced by DiC.
The first two seasons of shows feature the Littles around the Bigg household, but to improve the show's popularity the final season features the Littles traveling around the world.
During the production run of the show, the Littles were also popular enough to warrant two movie tie-ins. In 1985, the Littles starred in their first animated feature, Here Come the Littles directed by Bernard Deyriès and written by Eleanor Burian-Mohr, Jack Olesker, and Jeffrey Scott. The following year (1986), a made-for-TV movie was created starring the Littles, Liberty and the Littles. This film was also directed by Bernard Deyriès and written by Heywood Kling. This second movie was subsequently edited into a three-part episode and included in the third season of the series. Both were released on VHS, but are now out of print.
The series aired again from Sept. 18, 1989 to Sept. 10, 1993 on The Family Channel, it then aired on the Toon Disney channel from Apr. 7, 1998 to Sept. 2, 2002. As of 2005, The Littles are still in syndication and can be seen in some markets. In 2003, four episodes of The Littles and the feature-length movie were released on DVD. The DVD with five episodes is titled "The Little Christmas Special" and includes 5 random episodes which include: "Looking for Grandma Little", "Spirits of the Night", "The Little Girl Who Could", and "The Little Scouts".
Closing logo
Throughout the entire show's run, The Littles had an interesting closing logo. The character Dinky was seen running (from the right side of the screen) past the green DiC logo on an orange background and tossing a green button onto the space above the "i", dotting the letter, then clumsily exiting. The music was the outro of the show's theme. Remembered by those who watched the show during its original run and during its rerun on Toon Disney, this logo was no longer to be seen. Begining in 2003, when The Littles entered syndication, the logo (as well as the "Vortex" and "Kid in Bed" logos of the DiC syndication package) has been replaced with "The Incredible World of DiC" logo.