Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Saturtainment: The Littles take on a rat infestation (1983)

 You're heard the expression, "being eaten out of house & home", right?

Consider, then, the plight of The Littles in this first season offering.

A violent thunderstorm causes flooding in the village, and that brings hundreds of rats into the underground village that the Littles call home. Oh, sure, it's causing problems, for the humans, too, but what complicates things is one stubborn citizen who doesn't think the rats are cause enough for an emergency, contrary to the call to action from Grandpa (Alvy Moore).

Here's "The Rats Are Coming! The Rats Are Coming!":


Part of the reason The Littles didn't get past three seasons was because it was too close to the lunch hour death slot. DIC replaced them with The Real Ghostbusters in 1986, and that got a primo spot on the schedule.

Rating: A-.

2 comments:

Goldstar said...

I saw this episode back when it originally aired on ABC. If this series were made today, Milo would be a science/COVID denier.

Also, the Littles cartoon made some rather significant changes from John Peterson's original novels, including the addition of Dr. Hunter, who was created solely for the TV show. I don't now if anyone will ever want to revive this series, but if they do, hopefully the next adaptation would be closer to the books.

hobbyfan said...

Jeff Scott was the show's head writer in the first season, so he's the one who created Hunter and Petersen. Probably because the network and/or DIC felt the Littles needed an adversary, just like the Smurfs had Gargamel, swapping out magic for a scientist.