''A Little Curious'' is an American children's animated television series that ran on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

and HBO Family for two seasons. The series premiered on February 1, 1999 until its final episode aired on May 1, 2000. The series, produced by

cel A cel, short for '' celluloid'', is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. Actual celluloid (consisting of cellulose nitrate and camphor) was used during the first half of the 20th cent ...

and

computer animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating Film, moving images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both still images and moving images, while computer animation refers to moving images. Virtu ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Animation Studio Curious Pictures, was aimed at

preschool A preschool (sometimes spelled as pre school or pre-school), also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, play school, is an school, educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they ...

ers. It was one of the cornerstone programs for the relaunch of the HBO Family channel in February 1999.

Plot

The 24-minute episodes are essentially anthologies of shorts centered on a common, easily digested topic word such as "slippery" or "sticky". While each short draws from the same pool of characters, they are produced in a variety of animation techniques. Animation styles include

stop-motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animation, animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appe ...

, collage animation,

clay animation Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine cl ...

, traditional 3-D and 2-D

hand-drawn animation Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation of the 20th century, until there was a shif ...

, and 3-D CGI, along with live-action segments mostly narrated by Bob the Ball. Some of the shorts are designed to fit more than one topic, and are re-used in different episodes.

Characters

The pool of characters, which are anthropomorphic everyday objects, include:

Main Characters

*Bob the Ball – a cute, friendly, boisterous, exuberant bouncing

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

rubber

ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but sometimes ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used for s ...

. :Gender: Male :Voiced by: Cameron Bowen *Little Cup – a sweetened, innocent glass

cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

of fruit punch who spends a lot of time learning about the world around him. He is Bob's best friend. :Gender: Male :Voiced by: Bob Kaliban *Mr. String – a nervous, intelligent, fussy piece of

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

string String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

who can twist and tie himself into a multitude of shapes. He frequently says "definitely" and "terrible". :Gender: Male :Voiced by: Gary Yudman *Plush – a multicolored, air-headed stuffed plush

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...

who is another one of Bob's best friends. Unlike the others, he mostly speaks in a strange giggly language. :Gender: Male :Voiced by: Bob Kaliban *Mop – a

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

music-loving

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...

mop with

turquoise Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone for millennia due to its hue. The robi ...

hair who frequently changes her hairstyle. She is Mr. String's best friend. :Gender: Female :Voiced by: Amanda Kaplan *Doris the Door – a

pink Pink is a pale tint of red, the color of the Dianthus plumarius, pink flower. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, p ...

and orange,

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

- accented, two-faced automatic door, who, while being playful, is easily tired. Doris usually talks about her distant childhood. :Gender: Female :Voiced by: Marilyn Pasekoff *Pad and Pencil – a presumably romantic drawing

notebook A notebook (also known as a notepad, writing pad, drawing pad, or legal pad) is a book or stack of paper pages that are often ruled and used for purposes such as note-taking, journaling or other writing, drawing, or scrapbooking and more. ...

and

pencil A pencil () is a writing or drawing implement with a solid pigment core in a protective casing that reduces the risk of core breakage and keeps it from marking the user's hand. Pencils create marks by physical abrasion, leaving a trail of ...

couple who constantly flatter each other through stereotypical French accents. :Gender: Female (Pad), Male (Pencil) :Voiced by: Gerrianne Raphael (Pad), Rafael Ferrer (Pencil) *The Shoe Family – a family of pairs of

shoe A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot. Though the human foot can adapt to varied terrains and climate conditions, it is vulnerable, and shoes provide protection. Form was originally tied to function, but ...

s with footwear-themed names. The parents are Mr. (Chuck) Shoe (

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black. In the ...

dress shoes A dress shoe (U.S. English) is a shoe to be worn at smart casual or more formal events. A dress shoe is typically contrasted to an athletic shoe. Dress shoes are worn by many as their standard daily shoes, and are widely used in dance, for part ...

) and Mrs. Shoe (

high heels High-heeled shoes, also known as high heels (colloquially shortened to heels), are a type of shoe with an upward-angled sole. The heel in such shoes is raised above the ball of the foot. High heels cause the legs to appear longer, make the we ...

), and the children are Lacey (

sneakers Sneakers (American English, US) or trainers (British English, UK), also known by a #Names, wide variety of other names, are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but are also widely used for everyday casual ...

) and Mary Jane (a pair of Mary Janes). In "A Little Curious About Life", they had a baby brother named Booties. Mary Jane and Lacey are two of Bob's best friends. :Gender: Male (Mr. Shoe), Female (Mrs. Shoe, Lacey and Mary Jane) :Voiced by: Gary Yudman (Mr. Shoe), Sandy Correia (Mrs. Shoe and Lacey), Amanda Kaplan (Mary Jane)

Minor Characters

*Pairs of Shoes

Episodes

https://www.homeboxoffice.com/sched/2003_03_hbo4.pdf
Source of "Side, Turn, Twist" (on page 10).

Season 1 (1999)

#Loud, Soft, Shake (February 1, 1999) #Light, Dark, Bubble (February 8, 1999) #Near, Far, Swing (February 15, 1999) #Slippery, Sticky, Mirror (February 22, 1999) #Above, Below, Cover (March 1, 1999) #Front, Back, Side (March 8, 1999) #Swing, Cover, Shake (March 15, 1999) #Rough, Smooth, Picture (March 22, 1999) #Open, Close, Ring (March 29, 1999) #Bubble, Picture, Mirror (April 5, 1999) #Thick, Thin, Twist (April 12, 1999) #First, Last, Step (April 19, 1999) #Step, Twist, Ring (April 26, 1999) #Empty, Full, Pop (May 3, 1999) #Same, Different, Beat (May 10, 1999) #Fast, Slow, Spin (May 17, 1999) #Long, Short, Roll (May 24, 1999) #Character Show – Bob the Ball (May 31, 1999) #Roll, Spin, Pop (June 7, 1999) #Warm, Cool, Heart (June 14, 1999) #Character Show – Plush (June 21, 1999) #Still, Move, Train (June 28, 1999) #Spring, Fall, Turn (July 5, 1999) #High, Low, Stretch (July 12, 1999) #Side, Stretch, Turn (July 19, 1999)

Season 2 (2000)

#Top, Bottom, Jump (January 3, 2000) #Over, Under, Balance (January 10, 2000) #Drop, Lift, Flat (January 17, 2000) #Tight, Loose, Squeeze (January 24, 2000) #Hit, Miss, Bump (January 31, 2000) #Work, Play, Skip (February 7, 2000) #Hard, Easy, Change (February 14, 2000) #New, Old, Dance (February 21, 2000) #Lead, Follow, Act (February 28, 2000) #Win, Lose, Tie (March 6, 2000) #Push, Pull, Rock (March 13, 2000) #Jump, Flat, Squeeze (March 27, 2000) #Hard, Work, Bump (April 3, 2000) #Character Show - Mop (April 10, 2000) #Balance, Skip, Rock (April 17, 2000) #Push, Over, Top (April 24, 2000) #Drop, Loose, Change (May 1, 2000)

Special (2000)

#A Little Curious About Life (March 20, 2000)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Little Curious 1990s American animated comedy television series 2000s American animated comedy television series 1990s American anthology television series 2000s American anthology television series 1990s American children's comedy television series 2000s American children's comedy television series 1999 American animated television series debuts 2000 American television series endings American children's animated anthology television series American children's animated comedy television series American computer-animated television series American preschool education television series American stop-motion animated television series American television series with live action and animation Animated preschool education television series 1990s preschool education television series 2000s preschool education television series American English-language television shows HBO original programming Television series by Curious Pictures Television series by Home Box Office