Talk:Mr. Men

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[edit] Translations

Does anybody know anything about translations made for the 'mr men' series? in which languages? I could find any info @ the official site. -—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 80.178.230.105 (talk • contribs).

I just wanted to make a note about the translations. Not every country will print the entire set of books. For example the Persian/Farsi only have six. On the other hand the French have more than English and it seems that the Greek versions also print some of the 'non English/Frecnh only' titles. The USA versions have fewer pages. That is they have two less pictures and the corresponding words from the missing pages are added on to the previous/next page. The USA (Price Stern Sloan) also changed a few titles as well as a little bit of wording here and there in a few books. The Welsh have done only done the first 13 Mr. Men and no Little Miss. The Spanish have two sets. The one from Spain is 'Don y Dona' and only did about 12 or so each of Mr. Men and Little Miss, whereas in Chile the titles used Senor and Senora. As for the German, Dutch, Taiwan/Chinese, and Korean series, a complete or nearly complete series of both Mr. and Miss have been published. Libro0 11:23, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Conformity

A common thread in the Mr Men books is that characters are unhappy until they learn to conform. See fnord.

--That's very true. I have added a section to the page to that effect. Not that not *all* of the Mr Men learn to conform - a few (the "disabled" ones) find their "niche" in society. Mr Bump is a prime example of this. Chairman Dave.

Um, well, I guess so. There is, I suppose, a theme of Mr Men with problems that they fix with the help of their friends. But I think your business about Maoist re-education and social control are taking things rather too far. Someone has already removed your contribution, and I can't honestly say I'm that surprised. Wikipedia has a firm policy against "original research", which your contribution seems to be. If you can find some reputable (ideally academic) discussions about this, I suppose we could have a section on it (see our policy at WP:CITE). We need plot summaries and character sketches rather more, however. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:15, July 21, 2005 (UTC)
I left a message along the same lines on the contributor's talk page, so he definitely has notice now of our policies. Postdlf 18:35, 21 July 2005 (UTC)
I just borrowed my neighbours' kids' Mr Men books. They have four, and while I still don't agree with the marxism thing, they are generally rather more sinister than I'd expected:
  • Mr Noisy. Mr Noisy is very noisy, which annoys all the shopkeepers. So they pretend not to hear him, and he starves. When he talks quietly, they're nice to him and sell him food.
  • Mr Rude. Mr Rude is, well, rude. So Mr Happy moves into Mr Rude's house (against Mr Rude's will) and stays there for weeks, until Mr Rude mends his ways.
  • Mr Messy. Mr Messy is messy. Two small neat men (Mr Neat and Mr Tidy) forcibly clean Mr Messy's house, and then forcibly bathe him. He starts out as an interesting purple mess, and ends up looking like a walking boil.
  • Mr Bump. Bump gets into all kinds of accidents, and does indeed end up working in an apple orchard, bumping into trees and catching the apples that fall.
...and I thought Barney was evil :) -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:54, July 21, 2005 (UTC)
I wouldn't say it's a case of conformity but many of the characters do change at the end of their stories (only to change back again afterwards in other merchandise and stories) but only those with undesirable traits. For example, Mr Happy, Mr Strong and Mr Perfect are Mr Men with good traits. Others like Mr Mean, Mr Greedy and Mr Chatterbox do change their ways. It's sort of showing children how to behave. This is why Mr Mischief and Little Miss Trouble get their come-upance in their books. Michaelritchie200 10:39, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

On another note, in response to the first comment at top, this article really does need information on the translations. I think it would be a trifle exhaustive to list the twenty foreign language versions of every Mr. Men book, but it appears that there were actually some characters that were unique to certain non-English speaking countries.[1],[2],[3],[4],[5],[6],[7],[8] If this is true, those should certainly be mentioned. Postdlf 18:35, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

I did what you suggested, and added those French Only characters. What's weird is that those characters are featured in Australian Mr. Men Merchandise, but not in the books themselves! User:Thomasfan 18:57 22 January 2005

Yes it is a bit exhausting listing all the foreign versions, but the harder we work the less the rest of the world has to. I feel that way because I know that if I wanted to know about this stuff I would want all the information possible all in one place. After all an encyclopedia has to live up to its name. Libro0 22:08, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Articles for individual characters

I just redirected Little Miss Stubborn back to here. I don't think there's any value in having an individual article about each character. Most characters appear only in one book (a few in two or three), and each book's plot is minimal. The one paragraph that it would take to summarise the book and say everything about its lead character would better be placed here. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:15, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

I'm a bit on the fence with this one. I've gone and added all the book covers and a place for story summaries on the main page and a few of the books have a little more significance than others... with interesting facts and you could also list the characters that appear in each book, the publishing details and alternate language covers/titles for each book/character and what other books the character appears in. The book's theme and moral can also be mentioned and elaborated for each book. All of this information would be too much to put onto one large page. Peter

I think the Story/Spoiler is a bit much as well. I think it should be trimmed down to a Story/Teaser instead. Libro0 06:49, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

I think the individual pages could all be merged into the main Mr Men article. There's not really much that can be said in each individual article that can't be said on the main page. Peter 14:05, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Actually I have a different suggestion you might consider. Instead of making the main page too large, messy, and redundant, the portion with picture and summary can be removed leaving the list above that to link to all the book data. There actually is quite a bit more info that can be put on the individual pages. I think this would be better than having an overly massive main article. Libro0 22:01, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Point taken. I think it is nice to see all the pictures of the Mr. Men all together (rather than just names) but it does make the page huge. I thought a little thumbnail could be used instead of the book cover (next to the title) like shown on the back of the books. Then linking to individual articles should be fine. Depends what else you can add. Peter 00:27, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Author credit on newer books

Does anybody know why newer books such as Little Miss Bad and Mr Cool have Roger's name on the cover not Adam's? Is Adam ever credited as the main author? -- LD

I don't think so - it was Roger's brainchild and it wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him so as far as I'm aware, he is always credited. Michaelritchie200 10:36, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mr Men TV Series

There's no mention of the classic Mr Men TV series, voiced by Arthur Lowe. I'll get onto it. Kiwichipster 01:12, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Foreign Language Books

I hope the books will be released and published in Georgian (the Asian language) and Armenian, in Georgia (the Asian country, not the US state) and Armenia, respectively.--67.10.200.101 03:54, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps they will. You never know.--67.10.200.101 03:54, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Here are all the Mr Men books no longer in print in the USA from Price Stern Sloan:

And all the Little Miss books:

I merely wanted to let you people know.--67.10.200.101 03:54, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The Stories

Please fix the stories on all the pages about the Mr Men and Little Misses that are linked to the article page. If there is no story, add the correct story for each Mr Man page and Little Miss page.--67.10.200.101 03:24, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Publication Dates

Can you please give me the date of first publication for the book entitled "Little Miss Tidy"?--Luke Elms 04:05, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How many characters?

How many Mr Men and Little Misses, respectively, did Hargreaves create?--Luke Elms 05:25, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Fix the years

You have got to fix the publication years for all of the Mr. Men and Little Miss pages. You have no right to refuse.--Luke Elms 02:13, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

I believe that I have fixed most of the dates at least for the main series of books. Most were listed as 1972 but that has been updated. As far as the right to refuse, you may have to take that up with someone else because I wouldn't know. Libro0 06:42, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mr Nobody

I have read though the page and most of the 'rare' Mr Men are mentioned (Mr Stupid, Mr Spendy, Mr Cheeky etc) but one that doesn't appear to have a mention is Mr Nobody.

Mr Nobody was the subject of a one-off book by Roger Hargreaves published by Thurman in 1985. He looks similar to Mr Happy except he has a round nose. He is initially colourless (just drawn as an outline - you can see through him!) And then eventually he becomes yellow like Mr Happy. The book is a larger format than the standard series books. It is quite difficult to find but I managed to get one off eBay. There is a brief description of the book and some pictures here: http://uk.geocities.com/thejeep2000/MRNOBODY.html 82.9.24.245 16:42, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

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