Little Robots

Little Robots is a British stop-motion animated children's television series that was produced by Cosgrove Hall Films for Create TV & Film. The series originally aired on CBeebies, a British children's television channel known for its educational and entertaining programming aimed at preschoolers.

The show features a group of small, friendly robots living in a colorful and imaginative world. Each episode follows the adventures of these robots as they navigate their daily lives, solve problems, and explore themes of friendship, cooperation, and creativity. The characters are designed to appeal to young children, with vibrant colors and engaging personalities that resonate with preschool audiences.

Little Robots was based on the eponymous book by Mike Brownlow, published in 1999 by Ragged Bears Publishing. The book laid the foundation for the series, inspiring its unique characters and stories. Vanessa Chapman and Michael Carrington for Create TV & Film, developed the series into a fully realized television format. Cosgrove Hall Films, known for its expertise in animation produced the series for Create TV & Film, bringing the charming world of the Little Robots to life through intricate stop-motion animation techniques.

The series was developed by the motion-picture division of LEGO Media, a subsidiary of The LEGO Group that produced video games and TV shows based on LEGO products and properties. which rebranded to Create TV and Film in 2003.

The series premiered on the BBC's preschool channel, CBeebies, where it quickly gained popularity among young viewers and their families. Its blend of engaging storytelling, relatable characters, and educational content made it a favourite choice for preschool programming. Critics praised the show's ability to entertain while also teaching valuable lessons about teamwork and problem-solving.

LEGO Media International announced the show's production in April 2001 for a 2002 delivery. On 7 October 2001, it was confirmed that the BBC had acquired the UK broadcast rights to the show and that production would start on the series, which would begin to air from January 2003. In December of that year, it was confirmed that BBC Worldwide had acquired worldwide distribution rights to the series, and that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation had purchased the Australian broadcast rights to the series.

In March 2003, BBC Worldwide pre-sold the series to many different broadcasters, including ZDF and KiKA in Germany, TVOntario, SCN and Knowledge Network in Canada, and the NRK in Norway.

The series was redubbed in the United States with voice actors using American accents despite the show already being in English.

Little Robots has remained a beloved part of British children's television (and other territories), known for its distinctive animation style and heartwarming narratives. The series has inspired merchandise, including toys and books, allowing fans to continue enjoying the adventures of the Little Robots beyond the screen. Its impact on early childhood education and entertainment continues to be recognized in discussions about quality programming for young audiences.

Tiny, Stretchy, Sporty, Scary, and Noisy would later appear in The Official BBC Children in Need Medley in 2009.

• Tiny Robot (voiced by Hayley Carmichael in the UK dub and Jules de Jongh in the US dub) is the central character of the show. He is turquoise, has a pink antenna on top of his head, and a pink button on his tummy which opens the lid of his head, uncovering a few tools which he uses for fixing robots and other machines. He is also responsible for pulling the Day-Night Lever at the right times. Tiny lives on the Nut and Bolt Tree, right next to the Day-Night Lever. He is also the smallest of a family of millirobots known as the Little Robots. He always has a positive view on things and tries to help his family to live in peace and harmony together. Tiny is very mature for his age, although, what everyone doesn't know in the series that Tiny was mayor of a robot habitat in a junkpile in a scrapyard, despite being one of the younger Little Robots. And as the series continued, he has taken part of other jobs like fixing robots, putting his discy lift under inspection and even saving robots from the scrap.
• Messy Robot (vocal effects performed by Jimmy Hibbert) is Tiny's pet robot dog who loves things dirty and messy. Scary teaches him tricks and makes shows with him, where he's known as "Messy the Wonderhound". It may be possible that some of Messy's vocal effects may have been recycled from the character Bumpy Dog (another dog character), from one of Cosgrove Hall's previous shows, Noddy's Toyland Adventures, which Hibbert also voiced characters in.
• Sporty Robot (voiced by Lenny Henry in the UK dub and Paul Mitchell-Jones in the US dub) is the strongest and fittest of the Little Robots, as well as Rusty's love interest. He is constantly running, playing games and sports, and never gets tired of making himself stronger and fitter. Sporty has his own private gym with a trampoline and a conveyor belt.
• Stretchy Robot (voiced by Jimmy Hibbert in the UK dub and Adam Sims in the US dub) is a very organized and efficient dark blue Little Robot. He is in charge of sorting the junk that comes from the chute on the junkyard. He is tall and thin and has a long, flexible neck. Though his main worry is to keep the junkyard organized so his family can use, his workaholism and obsession for organisation sometimes causes problems. He lives in the junkyard, inside an abandoned radiator.
• Rusty Robot (voiced by Morwenna Banks in the UK dub and Maria Darling in the US dub) is a steam-powered Little Robot who gets nervous at times. She has a red dress which is made of painted rusty metal and wears a funnel on top of her head. She lives in an old, rusty bucket, and constantly has new ideas on how to improve and decorate it. She is very impulsive and accident prone, though, and tense situations or anything that causes her to get overexcited can make her overheat and release puffs of steam from her wig. She also has a childish crush on Sporty.
• Stripy Robot (voiced by Martin Clunes in the UK dub and Tom Clarke-Hill in the US dub) is a square Little Robot made with coloured stripes of metal. He is practically the complete opposite of Sporty: He moves and talks slowly, but is a deep and introspective thinker, as well as a specialist in flowers and storytelling. His favorite thing is his robotic teddy bear aptly named Teddy, and his favorite activities are taking care of his garden, telling stories to his family and playing games that require little agility and much skill. He is the third oldest and largest of the Little Robots, and also the gentlest.
• Noisy Robot (voiced by Su Pollard in the UK dub and Maria Darling in the US dub) is a red Little Robot who speaks very loudly, has a trumpet for a nose, plays instruments, writes and sings songs, and loves whatever kind of noise she can produce. Her house is an old drum, with a xylophone-themed entryway. Her passion for loud music and noise can often be bothersome for her family, but she is also a great entertainer.
• Spotty Robot (voiced by Emma Chambers in the UK dub and Laurel Lefkow in the US dub) is a round yellow Little Robot covered in coloured spots who wears specs and can retract all her limbs and roll around like a ball for fast locomotion. She has a strong personality, likes rules and orders, and tends to give orders to her family (often causing conflicts with her family). In some episodes of the show, she has a glassy front, which means that there is a reflection of a studio member and camera throughout the series. She is also the oldest Little Robot of the series.
• Scary Robot (voiced by Mike Hayley) is a purple vampire-themed Little Robot with a black cape. He has a Donald Sinden-esque voice and stage shows to entertain his family. He has his own stage, which is also his house, and his ghost train. Despite his name, he is still friendly and well-liked by the other robots, and his attempts to scare them are often unsuccessful as a result.
• Flappy Robot (vocal effects performed by Jimmy Hibbert) is a character from the show who is Scary's pet bat.
• The Sparky Twins (voiced by Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins in the UK dub, Lizzie Waterworth and Joanna Ruiz in the US dub) are greenish-blue Little Robot twins with different colored belly buttons. The twins are almost identical, are full of energy, love dancing, and doing practical jokes on other robots. Sparky One has an orange spot on her tummy and Sparky Two has a yellow spot on her tummy. They are able to communicate over distances by exchanging electrical rays through the antennae on their heads, and their catchphrase is “Gimme three, Sparky!”. They live in a pair of loudspeakers by an old record turntable.
• Other characters include Teddy Robot, who is Stripy's metallic, silver teddy bear, and the Robot Robo-Birds (vocal effects performed by Jimmy Hibbert), who are his twin pet birds that often play important roles on the show.

BBC Worldwide distributes the series, and licensed it in over 60 countries. In the U.S., Little Robots was part of Cartoon Network's Tickle-U programming block and premiered 2 years after it aired in the UK, in 2005, the Cartoon Network version used American voice actors and was also released on DVD by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. It also aired on TVOKids in Ontario, Canada from 2003 to 2005 with the original UK dub, on Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney (now Disney Junior) in Asia from 2006 to 2007 with the US dub, on Okto in Singapore, and on Nick Jr. in Australia (formerly for a short time on Nickelodeon). The BBC website lists further customers: Germany (ZDF and KiKa), Canada (TVOntario, SCN and The Knowledge Network), Norway (NRK), Finland (YLE), Denmark (TV2), Iceland (RUV), Italy (RAI 2), Portugal (RTP and Canal Panda), Malta (MEBC), Russia (RTR Kultura and Carousel) and South Africa (SABC), Mexico (Discovery Kids), Slovenia (TV Slovenia), Japan (NHK and Disney Junior). The series has also aired in several other countries such as Australia (ABC, ABC Kids, ABC1 and ABC2), New Zealand (TV2), Ireland (RTÉ2, where it aired as part of its children's television strand The Den), The Bahamas (ZNS-TV), Hong Kong (ATV World), Poland (CBeebies), Greece (NERIT), Middle East and North Africa (Spacetoon and Basmah).

In 2003−2004 a number of construction toy sets based on the TV series were released by LEGO Explore. In this theme were introduced new elements, including pieces for character minifigures. Each of the sets consist only one minifigure, except sets 7439 "Stretchy's Junk Yard" (Stretchy, Sporty) and 7441 "Tiny & Friends" (Tiny, Stretchy, and exclusive minifigures of Noisy and Messy). Also made were character plush toys. Most of the sets had limited release and were available only for online shopping in countries where the TV series was screened.

• Little Robots at BBC Online
• Official website
• Little Robots at IMDb