Spot (franchise) facts for kids
Spot is a fictional puppy created by Eric Hill, an English author and illustrator of children's picture books. The success of Hill's books about Spot led to other media productions, including television and home video titles, music albums, and CD-ROM titles.
Contents
Characters
Main characters
- Spot: The protagonist of the series. A yellow puppy with a brown spot on each side of his body and a brown tip on his tail, Spot is full of curiosity, helpfulness, and a huge desire to learn. He was voiced by Jonathan Taylor Thomas (Series 1 - 2), Haley Joel Osment (Series 3) and Richard Pearce (Currently)
- Sally: Spot's mother. She is also yellow and has a brown spot on her back that goes around the back of her body, as well as two brown spots on each side of her body and a brown tip on her tail. Much of the first story, Where's Spot?, involves her going around the house looking for Spot.
- Sam: Spot's father. He is also yellow, but without any spots on his body.
- Susie: Spot's little sister, she is yellow but has a brown spot on her back.
- Helen: A blue hippo who is Spot's best friend. Her colour is dark blue and she has sags under her eyes in the first series of The Adventures of Spot. Starting with later episodes of series one, she is redesigned with a more youthful and less intimidating appearance, turning light blue and losing the sags under her eyes. Starting with series two, she becomes an ever lighter shade of blue.
- Steve: A brown monkey with a tan face, he is playful and full of surprises.
- Tom: A green crocodile who is Spot's third best friend. He started out dark green in colour in the first series. He also sports rather sharp-looking incisors and a red colouring inside his mouth on the first series of The Adventures of Spot. Starting with later episodes of the first series, similar to Helen, he is also redesigned with a more youthful and less intimidating appearance, losing the sharp incisors and white eye sacs. Starting with the second series, he also turns to a lighter shade of green. He loves going fishing. Tom loves the snare drum, considered to be his favourite instrument. His dad is the mayor of the town.
Minor characters
- Billy: A brown bear who loves to eat. He appears in the first series of The Adventures of Spot.
- Clare: A green turtle.
- Cybil: An orange tabby cat who is the series' antagonist. She has a very rude personality, as seen in episodes "Spot's Lost Bone" and "Spot's First Walk" where she scares Spot. She appears only in the first series of The Adventures of Spot. In the U.S., her rude personality was toned down.
- Mr. Kangaroo: Spot's neighbour, a brown kangaroo that speaks in an Australian accent since that kangaroos are a native animal of Australia. He appears only in the first series of The Adventures of Spot.
- Leo: An orange lion.
- Sidney: A yellowish-green snake.
Books
Since 1980 with the success of Where's Spot?, Eric Hill went on to create numerous other books, which most being translated to Welsh (as well as the TV series, commissioned by S4C), some have also been translated into Scottish Gaelic, and Where's Spot? has been translated into Cornish.
- Where's Spot? (1980)
- Spot's First Walk (1981)
- Spot's Birthday Party (1982)
- Spot's First Christmas (1983)
- Spot Goes to School (1984)
- Spot Goes on Holiday (1985)
- Spot Goes to the Circus (1986)
- Spot Goes to the Farm (1987)
- Spot's First Easter (1988)
- Spot's Baby Sister (1989)
- Spot Goes to the Park (1991)
- Spot's Goes to a Party (1992)
- Spot Bakes a Cake (1996)
- Spot Visits his Grandparents (1996)
- Spot Goes Splash! and Other Stories (1998)
List of Spot sound books
In the 1990s a number of books were released with sound effect, produced by Publications International and published by Frederick Warne. The U.S. edition of the sound books were somewhat different from the U.K. editions of the book. The text in these editions is slightly altered, and in some cases, the title is changed as well. They are produced and published by Publications International.
Book design
The books are set in the typeface Century Schoolbook Infant, a very rare, single-story version of Century Schoolbook.
Television
With the success of the books the BBC commissioned an animated series, which first appeared on 9 April 1987; with Paul Nicholas providing the narration, and re-narrated in 2000 by Jane Horrocks. The series aired on television channel across the world, including RTÉ in Ireland, with the series dubbed into an Irish language with the title Echtrai Bhrain. A DVD version was released in Japan in 2005 with Japanese, English and Instrumental sound tracks. The DVDs used the same name for Spot as the books in Japan, that being コロちゃん (Korochan). In the US, the shows are distributed by Walt Disney Home Video.
The Adventures of Spot: series 1 (1987)
The first series of The Adventures of Spot, which was animated and produced by King Rollo Films, aired on the BBC between 9 April and 17 July 1987. It consisted of 13 episodes, each 5 minutes long. The episodes were narrated by Paul Nicholas (original version) and the music was composed by Duncan Lamont (original version).
Episodes in this series:
|
|
The Adventures of Spot: series 2 (1993)
The second series of The Adventures of Spot aired between 6 September and 20 December 1993, and, like the first series, consisted of 13 5-minute episodes. Once again, the episodes were produced by King Rollo Films. Paul Nicholas (original version) returned as the voices and Duncan Lamont (original version) returned as composer of the music.
Episodes in this series:
|
|
Spot's Musical Adventures (2000)
Spot's Musical Adventures, very similar to The Adventures of Spot, aired between 25 October and 10 November 2000. Like The Adventures of Spot, this series consisted of thirteen episodes, but this time, with a short song in them. The format of the series reverted to the narration format used prior to the specials. For these episodes, however, comedian Jane Horrocks was given the role of the narration and voices, instead of Paul Nicholas.
Episodes:
|
|
See also
In Spanish: Spot (franquicia) para niños
