Mr. Men

Mr. Men is a series of 49 children's books by British author Roger Hargreaves commencing in 1971. Two of these books were not published in English. The series features characters with names such as Mr. Tickle and Mr. Happy who have personalities and physical attributes based on their names. From 1981, an accompanying series of 42 Little Miss books by the same author, but with female characters, were published, although nine of them were not published in English. After Hargreaves's death in 1988, his son Adam Hargreaves began writing and illustrating new stories, including four characters that his father had developed before his death.

Each book in the original Mr. Men and Little Miss series introduced a different title character and his/her single dominant personality to convey a simple moral lesson. The Mr. Men and Little Miss characters frequently reappeared in other characters books. As of 2015, a total of 85 Mr. Men and Little Miss characters had been featured in series.^[1] The books' simple stories, with brightly coloured, boldly drawn illustrations, made them very popular, with sales of over 100 million worldwide across 28 countries.^[2]

History

The first six Mr. Men books were published in United Kingdom in 1971, priced at 20p each. Mr. Tickle was the first Mr. Men character created by Hargreaves, inspired by his son, Adam, who had asked him what a tickle looked like. Hargreaves responded with a round, orange figure with long, bendy arms.

A competition was held in the British Sunday Times newspaper for children to submit their own Mr. Men character for inclusion in a limited edition celebrating the 30th anniversary of the series. Mr. Cheeky, submitted by then eight-year-old Gemma Almond, was selected as the winning entry. Gemma's creation led to a book featuring her character being published; it was sold only in W H Smith branches, with a portion of the proceeds going to a charity supporting children with leukaemia.

In April 2004, Hargreaves' widow Christine sold the rights to the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters to UK entertainment group Chorion for £28 million.^[3] In 2006, to celebrate 35 years of Mr. Men and 25 years of Little Miss, Mr. Birthday and Little Miss Birthday were published. There was also an art exhibition at the Animation Art Gallery^[4] in central London. In October 2006, Adam Hargreaves created the first Little Miss character based on a real person, Stella McCartney, which he named Little Miss Stella. This was published as a limited edition of 1,000 copies for use as fashion show invitations.^[5]

The typeface for the original books from Little Miss Bossy to Little Miss Star is Univers, with the books from Little Miss Busy to Little Miss Somersault using Helvetica. All the other books in the series use Optima.

In February 2011, 20th Century Fox and 21 Laps Entertainment announced plans for an animated film.^[6]

In 2011, Sanrio, the Japanese design company best known as the creators of Hello Kitty, announced that they had reached an agreement to acquire the rights to the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters from Chorion.^[7] This marked the first time that Sanrio had licensed a third-party character since owning the rights to Osamu Tezuka's Unico character in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which was returned to Tezuka Productions after Tezuka's death in 1989.

Setting

The stories are set in a fictional universe called "Misterland", which is inhabited by the Mr. Men and Little Misses themselves, as well as some ordinary human characters and animals. Misterland is connected to the real world, as referenced in the story Mr. Fussy: "'I'm your cousin,' replied Mr. Clumsy. 'Your long lost cousin from Australia.'" Although multi-coloured and often oddly shaped, the Mr. Men are human in their behaviours and attributes.

Product range

There are 80 licensees selling Mr. Men and Little Miss products, including:

List of books

The following is a list of the book titles with year of first publication and associated ISBNs given in parenthesis. There are many more titles published as translations including works in Mandarin, French, Spanish, Dutch, Greek, Icelandic, Hebrew, German, Portuguese, Irish and others.

"Mr. Men" series

"Little Miss" series

Special Editions

Mr. Men (Celebrations)

"Mr. Men" New Library

• Mr. Bump Loses His Memory (2006, ISBN 1-84422-986-6)
• Mr. Funny Upsets Mr. Fussy (2006, ISBN 1-84422-987-4)
• Mr. Greedy is Helpfully Heavy (2006, ISBN 1-84422-988-2)
• Mr. Happy Finds a Hobby (2006, ISBN 1-84422-984-X)
• Mr. Mischief a Spot of Trouble (2006, ISBN 1-84422-992-0)
• Mr. Messy Messing About in the Snow (2006, ISBN 1-84422-993-9)
• Mr. Nosey and the Big Surprise (2006, ISBN 1-84422-991-2)
• Mr. Silly Gets the Giggles (2006, ISBN 1-84422-985-8)
• Mr. Small a Big Day Out (2006, ISBN 1-84422-962-9)
• Mr. Strong and the Flood (2006, ISBN 1-84422-989-0)
• Mr. Tickle in a Tangle (2006, ISBN 1-84422-983-1)
• Mr. Topsy-Turvy the Round Way Wrong (2006, ISBN 1-84422-990-4)

"Little Miss" New Library

• Little Miss Bossy and the Magic Word (2006, ISBN 1-84422-966-1)
• Little Miss Contrary All in a Muddle (2006, ISBN 1-84422-973-4)
• Little Miss Dotty Has a Dotty Day Out (2006, ISBN 1-84422-969-6)
• Little Miss Helpful and the Green House (March 2006, ISBN 1-84422-970-X)
• Little Miss Naughty Worries Mr. Worry (2006, ISBN 1-84422-968-8)
• Little Miss Neat and the Last Leaf (2006, ISBN 1-84422-967-X)
• Little Miss Scatterbrain Sets Off for the Sun (2006, ISBN 1-84422-965-3)
• Little Miss Splendid and the House With a View (2006, ISBN 1-84422-971-8)
• Little Miss Stubborn and the Wrong Advice (2006, ISBN 1-84422-972-6)
• Little Miss Sunshine Keeps Her Smile (2006, ISBN 1-84422-963-7)
• Little Miss Tiny Just the Right Size (2006, ISBN 1-84422-974-2)
• Little Miss Trouble Moving House (2006, ISBN 1-84422-964-5)

Promotional editions (free with L'Oreal Kids shampoo)

• Mr. Daydream and the Big Splash (2003, ISBN 1-4052-0661-6)
• Little Miss Sunshine and the Splendid Hair Day (2003, ISBN 0-7498-5553-3)
• Little Miss Chatterbox and the Burst Strawberry (2003, ISBN 1-4052-0662-4)

"Be My" series

• Be My Little Miss Sunshine
• Be My Mr. Happy

Little Owl

These stories were published as Little Owl Storytime – The Children's Choice.

• What's Going On (By Mr. Nosey) (1985, ISBN 0-7498-0099-2)
• Me And My Tummy (By Mr. Greedy) (1985, ISBN 0-7498-0100-X)
• I Just Can't Help It (By Mr. Tickle) (1985, ISBN 0-7498-0102-6)
• Bump Saturday (By Mr. Bump) (1985, ISBN 0-7498-0101-8)
• I'm Only Little (By Mr. Small) (1985)

Word Books

• Mr. Tickle in the Park (1979)
• Mr. Greedy goes Shopping (1979)
• Mr. Happy at the Seaside (1979)
• Mr. Silly on the Farm (1979)
• Mr. Strong to the Rescue (1980)
• Mr. Muddle goes to School (1980)
• Mr. Funny at the Circus (1980)
• Mr. Nosey follows his Nose (1980)

String Books

• Mr. Clever: The Impossible Ring (1986)
• Mr. Nosey: Follow that Lead (1986)
• Mr. Strong: Tug of War (1986)

Guides

• Mr. Bump's Guide to DIY (2000, ISBN 0-7498-4892-8)
• Mr. Lazy's Guide to Fitness (2000, ISBN 0-7498-4891-X)
• Mr. Mean's Guide to Management (2000, ISBN 0-7498-4893-6)
• Little Miss Chatterbox's Guide to Text Messages (2001, ISBN 0-7497-4791-9)
• Little Miss Naughty's Guide To Love (2001, ISBN 0-7497-4792-7)
• Little Miss Trouble's Guide to Men (2002, ISBN 1-4052-0191-6)
• Little Miss Chatterbox's Guide to Gossip (2003, ISBN 1-4052-0754-X)
• Mr. Greedy's Guide to Food
• Mr. Messy's Guide to Student Life
• Mr. Tickle's Guide to Women (2002, ISBN 1-4052-0192-4)

Chunkies

• Little Miss Naughty's Naughty Tricks (2001, ISBN 0-7498-4771-9)
• Mr. Happy's Smiley Day (2001, ISBN 0-7498-4579-1)

"Start to" series

• Mr. Men: Start to Read, released 5 July 2004, ISBN 0-603-56130-6
• Mr. Men: Start to Write, released 5 July 2004, ISBN 0-603-56139-X

Board books

• My Mr. Funny Board Book (2001, ISBN 0-603-56022-9)
• My Mr. Greedy Board Book: Mr. Men (2001, ISBN 0-603-56026-1)
• My Mr. Happy Board Book: Mr. Men (2001, ISBN 0-603-56025-3)
• My Mr. Nosey Board Book: Mr. Men (2001, ISBN 0-603-56024-5)

Miscellaneous

• Mr. Men & Little Miss: Bumper Activity Book (2002, ISBN 0-7214-8439-5)
• Mr. Men & Little Miss: Colouring Book (2002, ISBN 0-7214-8436-0)
• Mr. Men & Little Miss: Fun & Games (2002, ISBN 0-7214-8440-9)
• Mr. Men & Little Miss: Picture Dictionary
• Mr. Men & Little Miss: Stencil Activity Book
• Mr. Men & Little Miss: The Adventure's of Mr. Tickle
• Mr. Men Story Treasury

TV series

The Mr. Men characters were adapted into two animated television series in 1974 that consisted of a total of 28 episodes.^[10] They were produced by Terry Ward's company, Flicks Films (formerly known as 101 Film Productions) in partnership with Trevor Bond^[11] and broadcast by the BBC. The voices and narration were provided by Arthur Lowe, well known from his role as Captain Mainwaring in the sitcom Dad's Army, who used regional accents for some of the characters.^[11] The musical theme was composed by Tony Hymas.^[12]

The 28 episodes were:

During 1983, a further series featuring the Little Miss characters was produced by Flicks Films. This was narrated by husband and wife John Alderton and Pauline Collins. The 13 Little Miss episodes were:

Another series, Mr. Men and Little Miss, was produced by Marina Productions in 1995 and aired on television from 1995 to 1997; these stories were narrated by Geoffrey Palmer aired on Nick Jr and Channel 5's Milkshake!.

In 2006, Renegade Animation produced a series, The Mr. Men Show, a new American animated series which debuted on the Cartoon Network (US) and on Channel 5's Milkshake! (UK) program in February 2008. There were only 25 characters featured in the first season, and most had their names or appearances altered. The Mr. Men Show was written and produced by Eryk Casemiro and Kate Boutilier, and directed by Mark Risley. The creative team was a combined effort of personnel from Nickelodeon's Rugrats, The Wild Thornberrys, and As Told by Ginger. The opening and closing narration was voiced by actor Simon Callow in the UK version and Joseph J. Terry in the US version.

UK video and DVD releases

• Abbey Home Media (1991–1994)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (1995–2001)
• Delta Entertainment (2003–present)
• Sony Pictures Entertainment (2008–2009)

Film

In February 2011, it was reported that 20th Century Fox Animation will produce an animated feature film based on the Mr. Men book series, with Shawn Levy and his company 21 Laps Entertainment producing the film.^[2] On 27 January 2015, 20th Century Fox Animation announced that it had acquired the film rights to the Mr. Men Little Miss characters and that Levy will produce the film.^[1]

See also

• List of Mr. Men
• List of Little Miss characters
• Timbuctoo

References

Further reading

• Sheridan, Simon: The A to Z of Classic Children's Television, Reynolds & Hearn books, 2004, reprinted 2007. ISBN 1-903111-27-7

External links

• Mr. Men official site
• Mr. Men classic official UK site
• Mr. Men classic official US site
• Mr. Men classic official JP site
• Mr. Men & Little Miss from Penguin Books (Australia)
• The Original Mr. Men on DVD

Mr. Men List of Mr. Men List of Little Miss characters Roger Hargreaves Adam Hargreaves Mr. Men and Little Miss The Mr. Men Show episodes

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