Doctor Perseus Reviews: "Littlest Pet Shop" · 4:51pm Apr 20th, 2014
Happy Easter, everyone and everypony!
It's been a while since I last did a review for a full television series. The last one I did was for Steins;Gate and that one, sadly, got overshadowed on the day I posted it due to the reveal of EqG 2: Rainbow Rocks. Well, I just recently looked into and watched my way through another TV series and am ready to give my thoughts on it.
I'm no expert on any of the past incarnations of Littlest Pet Shop. Just two weeks ago I wasn't even paying the show any attention. I had seen a few pictures of the characters on Deviant Art and had heard a few references to it here and there. However, curiosity got to me when I heard people mentioning it on MLP Wikia due to its 2-part Season 2 finale airing on the MLP-devoid Saturday between Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3 and Trade Ya! I decided to look it up on Youtube, watched a few clips from it, and genuinely enjoyed what I saw. Knowing it was from the Hub (the birthplace of the show we all come to this website to celebrate, critique, and write about), having heard a few good things about it, and being already part of a fandom spawned from a successful reboot of a "girly" franchise, I decided to give the pilot a try. Now here I am after having watched my way through its two completed seasons (52 episodes) thus far. And while I can say that it's not as revolutionary and out-of-nowhere-fantastic as Friendship is Magic, it's still definitely a fun series.
Before I start, I'd just like to say that this review is going to be structured like my Steins;Gate review (in fact, I might just adopt this structure for future reviews of full TV shows). Anyway, let's go ahead and start with...
The Plot:
Littlest Pet Shop starts with Blythe Baxter, a late-preteen/early-teens girl with a passion for fashion design, suddenly moving from her small hometown to the rustle and bustle of Downtown City due to her dad getting a promotion. Her new home rests in the top floor of an apartment building whose first floor is taken up by the quickly going out of business Littlest Pet Shop. At first, Blythe isn't all too excited about the move but everything changes when she discovers a dumbwaiter in her new bedroom that leads all the way down into Littlest Pet Shop's day camp area. She climbs in, only to end up crashing down into the play area. Following the crash, she comes across the Littlest Pet Shop's day campers and discovers that she's gained the ability to talk to animals. Now being the only human who can talk to animals, the pets turn to Blythe and ask for her help in preventing the shop from going out of business, a task that Blythe ultimately, but hesitantly, accepts. Despite a few hiccups, including dealing with new nemeses: rich twins Whittany and Brittany Biskit, Blythe manages to put her fashion design skills to use, throws a pet fashion show, and draws business back to the shop. As thanks for helping prevent the shop from going out of business, owner Mrs. Anna Twombly gives Blythe a job at the store. The rest of the series follows Blythe's and the pets' escapades throughout Downtown City and beyond.
Despite being a mostly slice-of-life/everyday adventure series with no supernatural elements aside from Blythe's newfound ability to speak with animals, the series is a lot of fun with good humor, entertaining (and sometimes even a bit suspenseful) conflicts, and interesting, colorful characters. Speaking of which...
The Characters:
Littlest Pet Shop has a surprisingly large cast of main characters, each with their own fun personalities and personal conflicts to overcome. In fact, you might recognize a few of the voice actors...
Blythe Baxter (Ashleigh Ball)
Blythe is a young girl somewhere around 13 or 14 years old. Her passion is fashion design and she's often the person other characters turn to whenever they need a new outfit or a clothing repair. She uses abbreviations while talking quite often and usually ends up being the voice of reason whenever chaos breaks out. She dreams of making it big in the fashion industry but is, ironically, a bit camera shy. I find it strange that there appears to be a fair number of fans that don't like her. Personally, I think she's a good character and Ashleigh Ball does a fantastic job voicing her (though it's funny whenever her Rainbow Dash voice slips through the cracks). She has plenty of good dialogue and I'm always happy to see her succeed in the end after having to endure many obstacles along the way. The only problem I have with Blythe has nothing to do with her character but rather we're never given a real explanation for her sudden ability to communicate with animals. She enters the dumbwaiter, crashes, and she suddenly gets it. Did the bump on the head activate some portion of her brain in order to allow her to communicate with animals? Is the dumbwaiter magic or something? It's never explained. I'm personally hoping this will be explained in further detail in a future episode.
Zoe Trent (Nicole Oliver)
Zoe is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who loves to sing and occasionally model. She strives to be the best entertainer she can possibly be but can also sometimes be a bit rude and snobbish. Seriously, at points she could give Rarity a run for her money in the drama queen department. But, despite that, she still cares deeply for her friends and family and will even get out of her comfort zone every once and a while in order to help them. Nicole Oliver does a great job voicing her and there are next to no points where you can hear Celestia's voice coming out of Zoe's mouth.
Russell Ferguson (Samuel Vincent)
Russell is a European hedgehog who acts as the organizer of the group and is usually the second voice of reason alongside Blythe. He heavily wishes to fit in more with his friends but his constant need of organization, safety, and maintenance sometimes causes him to spoil the others' fun a bit. He ties for my favorite character alongside Blythe and I'm a big fan of his voice actor: Samuel Vincent, who has voiced characters in lots of shows I've watched. Examples include Flim in MLP, Edd "Double D" in Ed, Edd n' Eddy, Krypto in Krypto the Superdog, Martin Mystery in Martin Mystery, and various other roles in many other shows from Death Note to Dragon Drive.
Pepper Clark (Tabitha St. Germain)
Pepper is a skunk comedian who is best friends with Zoe. She loves making her friends laugh but at times can be somewhat inconsiderate and brash. A running gag in the series is that the odor she gives off changes scent depending on her mood. Tabitha St. Germain is terrific in the role and her voice is so different from her other roles that you won't even believe that Pepper shares the same voice actress as Rarity and Princess Luna.
Sunil Nevla (Peter New)
Sunil is a banded mongoose who practices magic tricks and is often quite shy and fearful. Sometimes he can even get frightened to the point of screaming at a pitch so high that only dogs can hear it. However, if motivated in the right way, he can become brave and courageous. Despite his normally timid nature, he becomes incredibly aggressive in the presence of cobras due to cobras being the natural prey of mongooses. Like the others, Peter New does a great job voicing him. Never expected to hear Big Mac voicing an African mongoose, I must admit.
Vincent "Vinnie" Terrio (Kyle Rideout)
Vinnie is a gecko who loves to dance and is best friends with Sunil. Though he is a talented dancer, he is quite clumsy. In fact, he can actually dance better without his tail. He's not one of the brighter pets in the shop but, as Zoe puts it, he has a heart of gold and will do anything to help his friends. His voice actor doesn't have a whole lot in his resume aside from this but he has had roles in Hop the Twig (a 2010 short film), Supernatural, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.
Minka Mark (Kira Tozer)
Minka is a spider monkey with a passion for art, specifically painting. She is incredibly energetic, flexible, and hyperactive. She's basically the Pinkie Pie of the group, save for the fourth wall breaking. She's an expert of abstract art but is also incredibly claustrophobic and will literally go nuts if she is trapped inside an enclosed space for too long. Her voice actress doesn't have a whole lot in her resume along with this aside from a few roles in several Barbie movies.
Penny Ling (Jocelyn Loewen)
Penny Ling is a panda who is a rhythmic gymnast with a specific talent for twirling ribbons. Everyone calls her by her full name (for some reason) and she falls into the peacekeeper role of the group. She is the most sensitive of the group but can be straightforward and direct when time calls for it. She can even have quite a temper given the right circumstances. Her voice actress has had roles in several anime including Black Lagoon, Galaxy Angel, and Ranma 1/2.
Mrs. Anna Twombly (Kathleen Barr)
Anna Twombly is the kind, elderly owner of Littlest Pet Shop. She has a love for animals and often tries to fit in with Blythe and her friends by "copying" their lingo (with pretty funny results). She has a strange obsession with collecting various doorknobs, experiences weird cleaning frenzies every now and then, and has a past reputation of being a famous kung fu quilter (yes, you read that correctly). Her kind, friendly, and generous personality is certainly a far cry from Kathleen Barr's other roles such as MLP's Trixie and Queen Chrysalis.
Whittany and Brittany Biskit (Shannon Chan-Kent)
Whittany and Brittany are a pair of rich, snobby twins who act as the main antagonists of the series. Their father is the wealthy owner of Largest Ever Pet Shop, Littlest Pet Shop's main competitor. They're self-absorbed bullies who highly resent Blythe and will do anything to bully her, sabotage her, or stand in her way. They're normally not very bright but, strangely enough, they can pull off fairly good schemes together and can even solve complex math equations (but only when they're together). They're certainly not the greatest cartoon antagonists to ever exist but they aren't supposed to be and, in some instances, prove to have more depth than you'd expect. Given the right circumstances, they can be nice to Blythe and those around her (such as when they tried to make Blythe their best friend after she stood up for them against another bully, when Blythe and Whittany bonded a bit while trapped in a locked bathroom, and when they started to have fun with Blythe's dad when he temporarily became their limo driver). Their voice actress has had a few big roles including Pinkie Pie's singing voice, Misa Amane in Death Note, and Miyuki Konno in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.
Roger Baxter (Michael Kopsa)
Roger is Blythe's fun-loving, slightly clumsy father who has a job as an airplane pilot; though, the less said about his driving skills the better. He loves spending time with Blythe, supports her endeavors and talents, and has a love for heavy metal. His voice actor has had a several roles in shows and films like Death Note, Dragon Ball Z, Watchmen, the 2002 Carrie, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
The Animation, Humor, and Music:
At first glance, this show doesn't have the greatest animation out there and there are other flash-animated shows that look way better (MLP is an obvious example). However, for me, the show's simple, yet fluent, animation style has a nice charm to it that only adds to the world created within the show. At times, the show pokes fun at itself such as when characters comment about their overly-large heads.
The humor in the show is also really good. Many of the characters have funny moments of dialogue and animation scattered about. The show is also able to get away with more obvious references than MLP such as (just to list a few examples) an entertaining Star Trek segment (complete with Russell giving a hilarious parody portrayal of William Shatner), a music video obviously inspired by Michael Jackson's "Thriller", and several bits in the episode What, Meme Worry that poke fun at all of the stupid auto-tuned music videos on Youtube such as "Friday", "Mass Text", and "It's Thanksgiving".
And, just like MLP, this is a musical series. Not all of the episodes have songs but a fair number of them do. Thankfully, this show shares MLP's music composer and songwriter: Daniel Ingram. Many of the music numbers are really good and some can be incredibly catchy. Go ahead and check out some of the show's songs below, including its (in my opinion) well done opening song.
Conclusion:
Sure, Littlest Pet Shop isn't as groundbreaking as Friendship is Magic nor will it start a fandom to rival it; but it's still a damn good series in my opinion. It has fun and colorful (both metaphorically and literally) characters, entertaining episodes, good music, good humor, and a great cast and crew working behind it. Like MLP, it's clear that the people behind it were working to create a show that the whole family, not just little girls, can enjoy. It's not the most amazing show ever but it's still an incredibly fun one and I recommend that you give it a shot if you're in any way interested. You can find all of the episodes on Dailymotion.
Goodness me, this review just took the words out of my mouth...
Can I have them back please?
Happy Easter-4/20 day
(Also, don't forget Dance like you know can)
Hmmm. The only other Hub program I've had an interest in was Dan Vs which unfortunately seems to have been canceled. (Does Stan Lee's Mighty 7 count though because that was a TV movie?) I've also been curious about Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch because I was a big fan of the 90s sitcom. I'm a lifelong Transformers fan so I've seen Transformers: Prime like once.
I admit I've heard a bit about "Littlest Pet Shop" in the past and have been curious about it. Not MLP curious though. I once saw a clip of a song from the show on Daniel Ingram's Facebook that he said was inspired by Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". It was pretty cool. I even commented wondering how many MLP fans are also into Littlest Pet Shop and someone replied that they've been a fan since episode one. I believe Littlest Pet Shop premiered alongside the third season of MLP.
I saw Paleo did a review of Littlest Pet Shop as well.
He didn't think much of it. He thought Blythe's Dad was like Mitt Romney. I don't know if that makes me more or less interested.
My curiosity was also piqued given an idea for a series of fanfictions I was percolating inspired in part by the Hasbroverse and the Madverse fanfictons where the Mane 6 get scattered throughout the worlds of various Hub shows. Fluttershy would have ended up in the world of Littlest Pet Shop which is also coterminous with the world of Dan Vs where Pinkie Pie would end up. And so Dan, his friend Chris, and Pinkie Pie would eventually end up at the Littlest Pet Shop. I imagined it so...
I don't know if that's accurate. Anyway...