The Little Lulu Show

Yesterday, my mother brought me a DVD featuring Little Lulu cartoons on it. So, my first reaction to it was maybe they are they old ones, when I read the back of the DVD it said it featured the voice of Tracy Ullman as Little Lulu and I thought to myself , it was probably a marketing technique to get people to buy the DVD (after all, it was a generic DVD company known as Genius Entertainment selling the product and it was only $1.00). So my cousin and I were all excited about the DVD, come to find out it was the old Little Lulu cartoons that were badly edited and unrestored to their original versions. I sadly disappointed and I realized that I liked the mid-ninties cartoons better. Lulu had more personality in the latter versions and the characters were more developed and likable. So until the original cartoons are restored to their original glory, I'm sticking to the mid-ninties version of "Little Lulu" even though the plots are pretty much from the 1930's-1960's.

These cartoons (many of them, at least) are animated versions of the Little Lulu comic books from the 1940's and 50's. They used the stories unchanged, except for minor adaptations in the wording. John Stanley, who's been dead for years already, wrote the stories. They didn't have to credit him, because he did it as an employee of the comic book publisher and was never credited in the first place. But I wish it were better known that these are 50-to-60-year-old stories, because that makes it even more remarkable how good they are. The "kids are smart" theme, and especially the "girls are smart" theme, were already popular ideas back then, but weren't found in the media, except in those and a few other early ground-breaking comic book series. The Beauty Contest, the Snowball War, the Business Girl (lemonade story), and the Picnic Pirates--these were among the many examples of Stanley's genius to be found on this show.

This isn't a bad show. I watch it on Family Channel at Lunchtime because there is nothing else on then. (I'm a teenager you see, I still watch kid shows). But this one isn't bad. It's about a lil' girl named LULU and her friends: Annie, Tubby, Iggy and some others. They get into adventures which are non-offensive for kids, but not too sissy and flowery for a kids show. In some episodes they have little Boys vs. Girls "Wars" (best lemonade stand, Snowball fights, Picnic Ambush), But some young boys might be offended because the Girls always win. But One thing: i'm not sure what time this is supposed to be set in, because they have modern technology and shows and stuff, but they are dressed like kids in the 30's style clothes. (Eg. Some of the boys have the caps with the rolled up pants with the long socks) and they have the "West Side Boys" and they call the group "The Fella's". I'm not sure what to think. I think they could have made the time zone more clear: The 30's or the present day? Oh..And um...Good show too. Rating: 7/10

I grew up buying this comic despite my being a boy. I loved the idea of neighbor kids adventures instead of modern tech themes common today. A very wholesome, fun reflection of interaction between the sexes with the girls staying one step ahead of the boys.

Watching this series brings back the simpler, innocent times of childhood in the 40's and 50'. I've tried several times to get HBO to please bring back the series as society needs a reminder of how things were before all the hi- tech influence we see today.

From my searching the internet, I found many others who also want it returned though few write and request it. I, for one, would gladly pay to have this complete collection on dvd or blue-ray.

This newer version of Lulu with Lulu doing a comedy monologue for the viewers seems to be a clever knockoff of Seinfeld's sitcom. I like how it included all various classic Lulu comic book characters unlike the 1930's cartoons. However IMHO Annie & Iggy always seemed kind of creepy.