The Littl' Bits

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The Littl' Bits

森の陽気な小人たちベルフィーとリルビット (Mori no Youki na Kobitotachi: Berufi to Rirubitto)
Genre
TV anime
Directed by	Masayuki Hayashi
Studio	Tatsunoko Productions
Network	TV Tokyo (Japan), Nickelodeon (USA)
Original run	January 7, 1980 – July 7, 1980
No. of episodes	26

The Littl' Bits (森の陽気な小人たちベルフィーとリルビット, Mori no Youki na Kobitotachi: Berufi to Rirubitto^?, "Cheerful Dwarves of the Forest: Belfy and Lillabit") is an anime cartoon series with 26 episodes, produced in 1980 by Tatsunoko Productions in Japan. ^1,4,5 First shown on TV Tokyo, its Saban-produced English translation was featured on the children's television station Nickelodeon from 1991 to 1995 alongside other children's anime series such as Adventures of the Little Koala, Maya the Bee, Noozles, and The Mysterious Cities of Gold. ^2,6

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The series describes the adventures of a race of tiny people resembling elves who live in a simple village in Foothill Forest. It focuses in particular on a group of children: Lillabit, Willibit, Snagglebit, Chip, and Browniebit. Snagglebit, the spoiled son of the mayor, is enamored of the beautiful Lillabit, but she's best friends with Willibit, the moral role model and main protagonist. Thus, even though they generally get along well, Willibit and Snagglebit often butt heads, especially over Lillabit. Snagglebit usually pals around with the short-in-stature Browniebit, who is something of a coward (and is often teased by Snagglebit for this), and Chip, who idolizes Lillabit's uncle, Dr. Snoozabit, and wants to be a doctor like him.

Another frequently recurring child character is Teenybit (Willibit's younger sister), who befriends Scarybit, an ill-tempered, superstitious old woman assumed to be a witch and shunned by most of the other villagers. Teenybit can see that, under Scarybit's tough exterior, she's just a lonely old lady who needs a friend.

The children are watched over by, and often scolded by, the older Littl' Bits, including the doctor Dr. Snoozabit, the wood-cutter Chopabit, the baker Bakeabit, Willibit's father Grumpabit, Helpabit, the elder Elderbit, Mayor Bossabit (Snagglebit's father), and others. ³ Snoozabit has a tendency to drink too much, forcing his young niece, Lillabit, to watch out for him and do her best to keep him on the right track. (In the American version, Snoozabit's drunkenness was rewritten as being constantly sleepy and needing a nap, hence his English name.)

Snoozabit has raised Lillabit since her infancy, and has always told her that her birth parents died shortly after she was born. Not having a mother and father around occasionally depressed Lillabit, especially when she observed her friends having fun with their parents. However, in the second-to-last episode of the series, it was revealed that Lillabit's parents were in fact alive and were outcast "Wanderbits," exiled from Foothill Forest. In the end, the villagers decided to allow them to stay in Foothill Forest, and Lillabit and her parents were joyously reunited - just in time for a devastating earthquake to ravage Foothill Forest in the final episode, forcing the villagers to band together to rebuild.

Due to their similar size and naming scheme, an analogy is often drawn between the Littl' Bits and the Smurfs.

When they're not involved in politics (for example, one episode in which they attempted to get their apathetic fellow villagers to vote on election day), the children spend much of their time exploring and interacting with the animals of the forest, both friendly and unfriendly, including raccoons, bears, bullfrogs, squirrels, fish, and horses. Lillabit can even speak directly with animals. They often take advantage of their animal friends for transportation, particularly SnowFleet the flying squirrel and Blue the hedgehog.^3,6 The show espoused harmony between human beings and the animal kingdom.

The series was directed by Masayuki Hayashi, produced by Ippei Kuri, and written by Shigeru Yanagawa and Tomoyuki Miyata. Character designs were by Akiko Shimomoto (Superbook) and music was composed by Takeo Watanabe (Haim Saban and Shuki Levy in the English dub). English voices were done by a long list of voice actors including Arthur Grosser, A.J. Henderson, Dean Hagopian, and Sonja Ball^4,7. Besides the original Japanese and the English translation, the series was translated into a variety of other languages including Spanish (Belfy y Lillibit), Polish (Filiputki), German (Die kleinen Zwurze), Italian (Belfy e Lillibit), Persian (بلفي و ليليبيت), Arabic (بسمة و عبدو | Basma Wa Abdou) and Hebrew (Ha'katkatim). ^4,5

1 English Theme Song Lyrics
2 Staff
3 Cast
4 References
5 External links

[edit] English Theme Song Lyrics

Come join the fun, with the Littl' Bits

They're all around, our Littl' Bits

And I know that there's a lesson to be learned

Come watch the Littl' Bits and do it with love and care

They're full of fun, our Littl' Bits

Sometimes I wish, I was a Littl' Bit

Cause with a little bit of love, the world can be

A better place for you and me

"We're the Littl' Bits, we're the Littl' Bits, we're the Littl' Bits"

Cause with a little bit of love, the world can be

A better place for you and me.

[edit] Staff

Japanese Version (Mori no Yoki na Kobito-tachi Berufi to Rirubitto)

Director: Masayuki Hayashi, Hiroshi Iwata, Mizuho Nishikubo
Screenplay/Storyboards: Akiyoshi Sakai, Naoko Miyake, Takao Koyama, Yoshiko Takaki, Yu Yamamoto, Leo Nishimura, Isao Okishima
Music: Takeo Watanabe
Original Story: Shigeru Yanagawa, Tomoyuki Miyata
Character Design: Akiko Shimomoto, Hiromitsu Morita
Producer: Ippei Kuri, Akira Inoue
Broadcaster: Tokyo 12 Channel (07 January to 07 July 1980)
Production: Tatsunoko Production Co., Ltd.

English Version (The Littl' Bits)

Script: Michael McConnohie (episode 2)
Music: Haim Saban, Shuki Levy
Associate Producer: Eric S. Rollman
Executive Producer: Jerald E. Bergh
Producer: Winston Richard
Supervising Producer: Winston Richard
Supervising Writer: Robert V. Barron
Voice Director: Tim Reid

Sources: Anime News Network (www.animenewsnetwork.com), Tatsunoko USA Fan Club (www.tatsunokousa.com)

[edit] Cast

Japanese

Belfy (Lillabit): Yōko Asagami
Lillibit (Willibit): Mayumi Tanaka
Napoleon (Snagglebit): Sachiko Chijimatsu
Chuchuna (Teenybit): Tsuneko Shitomi
Daggurin-sensei (Elderbit): Kaneta Kimotsuki
Narrator: Toshiko Maeda

English: A.J. Henderson, Anik Matern, Arthur Grosser, Arthur Holden, Dean Hagopian, Jane Woods, Liz MacRae, Rick Jones, Sonja Ball, Terrence Scammel, Walter Massey

NOTE: It is often mistakenly believed by Westerners that the Japanese "Belfy" (Berufi) and the English "Willibit" are the same character, and that the Japanese "Lillibit" (Rirubitto) and the English "Lillabit" are the same character. In fact, "Belfy" is the name of the female, not the male, lead of the series in the original Japanese, and "Rirubitto" is the male, not the female, lead. This can be confirmed by consulting the English-language section of Tatsunoko Productions' Website.

Sources: Anime News Network (www.animenewsnetwork.com), Tatsunoko USA Fan Club (www.tatsunokousa.com)