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Comic Strip: Little Lulu

Oh, Luuuuuuuuluuuuuuuuuu. [harp plays]

Little Lulu, Little Lulu, with freckles on your chin, always in and out of trouble, but mostly always in.

Using Daddy's necktie for the tail on your kite, using Mommy's lipstick for the letters you write.

Though the clock says 7:30, it's really after 10; Looks like Lulu's been repairing it again.

Though you're wild as any Zulu and you're just as hard to tame

Little Lulu, I love you-Lu just the same, the same

Little Lulu, I love you-Lu just the same.

� Little Lulu Theme Song

Created by Marjorie Henderson Buell, Little Lulu is a comic strip series from the magazine publication "The Saturday Evening Post" which began in the 1930s. The series follows the titular Lulu Moppet and her various exploits. The supporting cast includes "Tubby" Thomas Tompkins, her friend and sometimes tormentor; Alvin Jones, a neighborhood Bratty Half-Pint; Annie Inch, Lulu's best friend, and George and Martha Moppet, Lulu's parents.

The character had been adapted into theatrical shorts by Famous Studios in the 1940s. She has also appeared in some television cartoons in addition to two live-action specials in the 1970s, Little Lulu and The Big Hex of Little Lulu, with Lauri Hendler playing Lulu. In 1976, a 26-episode anime adaptation titled Little Lulu and Her Little Friends was created. The Little Lulu Show, an American animated series, aired from 1995 to 1999 on HBO with a total of 52 episodes.

Famous Studios Filmography

Eggs Don't Bounce (1943)
Hullaba-Lulu (1944)
Lulu Gets the Birdie (1944)
Lulu in Hollywood (1944)
Lucky Lulu (1944)
It's Nifty to Be Thrifty (1944)
I'm Just Curious (1944)
Lulu's Indoor Outing (1944)
Lulu at the Zoo (1944)
Lulu's Birthday Party (1944)
Magica-Lulu (1945)
Beau Ties (1945)
Daffydilly Daddy (1945)
Snap Happy (1945)
Man's Pest Friend (1945)
Bargain Counter Attack (1946)
Bored of Education (1946)
Chick and Double Chick (1946)
Musica-Lulu (1947)
A Scout with the Gout (1947)
Loose in a Caboose (1947)
Cad and Caddy (1947)
A Bout with a Trout (1947)
Super Lulu (1947)
The Baby Sitter (1947)
The Dog Show-Off (1948)
Alvin's Solo Flight (1961)
Frog's Legs (1961)

Tropes

Afraid of Needles: In an episode of the 1990s Little Lulu, a Badass Biker has been trying to summon the courage to get a tattoo. Near the end of the episode, he observes kids and their mothers coming out of the tattoo parlor with (painted-on) tattoos and nearly collapses on his bike with shame.
All Just a Dream: In the cartoon "Musica-Lulu", Lulu sneaks out to play baseball instead of practicing her violin, and when knocked out by a foul ball, she wakes up in a land of musical instruments, who arrest, try and imprison her for her misdeed. When she breaks out of the jail, she is chased and terrorized by the musical instruments. It turns out to be a dream.
Alpha Bitch: Gloria.
Black Bead Eyes: Pretty much every single living thing has these. Kind of creepy...
Christmas Episode: An episode of the 1990s series consisted entirely of Christmas-themed cartoons.
Comedic Underwear Exposure: Relatively common with Tubby and the other boys in Little Lulu.
Cross dresser: In "The Little Lulu Show" episode "Mimibur", Wilbur wants new clothes after he got his clothes torn off by a bear. Lulu helps by giving him girls clothes and a blonde wig.
- In the episode "Tubby's Doll", Tubby was given a doll from a Grandaunt who believes he's a girl. That belief was caused because Tubby was wearing a disguise when she last saw him. To get rid of the doll, he tried to take it to Lulu's but, to avoid being recognized on the way to her place, he put another female disguise.
Dream Sequence: A number of the classic Little Lulu cartoons from the 1940s contain dream sequences, such as this one.
Fat Best Friend: Tubby.
Girls Have Cooties: Invoked sometimes by the boys.
Gossipy Hens: Martha Moppet, Lulu's Mom, shows this.
Go To Your Room: Lulu's father gives her this command in "Super Lulu".
Her Code Name Was Mary Sue: Almost everytime Lulu tells Alvin a story, a poor little girl who resembles Lulu appears.
Hey, It's That Voice!:
- Tracey Ullman, star of several sketch comedy programs and voice of the Emily Winthrop character in The Simpsons episode "Bart's Dog Gets an F", plays the role of Lulu in the 1990s HBO series The Little Lulu Show for the first season. Also from the 90's show, Tubby is voiced by the same voice actor who played Binky from the PBS animated TV show Arthur.
  - Likewise, Annie was originally voiced by the boy who originally voiced D.W. on Arthur.
- For the last two seasons of the 1990s series, Lulu was voiced by the same actress who dubbed the voice of YaYa from Wimzies House.
In Name Only: Brazil apparently◊ has made an Animesque Little Lulu spin-off of sorts where the characters in question are teens. The core characters of the cast seem to have been changed as well. Teen!Lulu is apparently the leader of a clique composed of Tubby, who has been slimmed down and left his violin for a guitar with which he leads a rock band (in which his buddy Iggy plays drums - Willy and Eddy having been Put on a Bus); Annie, the gang's geek and a video game freak; Gloria, the fashion expert (whose characterization took an 180-degree turn from Alpha Bitch to Spoiled Sweet), and Alvin, who has become a skateboarder and surfer.
- It's even implied, in the first story arc, that this Lulu's grandma is the original Lulu from the 1940s.
- Also, the orignal cartoons produced by Famous Studios in the 1940s were barely true to the comics, keeping only the title character Lulu and some of her friends as occasional extras. And that's about it.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Tubby. Even Lulu herself can be considered this to some.
Kangaroo Court: "Musica-Lulu" features this trope in Lulu's dream in which she is tried by a courtroom by musical instruments.
Kid Detective: Tubby himself; nicknamed "The Spider". He often gets Lulu out of trouble for things her father did.
The Moving Experience: The Trope Namer is a Little Lulu cartoon that had this premise.
Panty Shot: Lulu is quite prolific in this.
Regal Ringlets: Lulu herself has curls on the sides of her head.
Spank the Cutie: Offscreen, Tubby experiences this in "Bored of Education" after he attempts to give an apple, which he stole from Lulu's desk, to the teacher and Lulu herself substitutes a frog.
- Lulu receives one onscreen in "I'm Just Curious" (though she tucked a book into her panties so she wouldn't feel any pain).
- The short "Lucky Lulu" practically revolves around this trope, with Lulu receiving an offscreen spanking each day of the week, with a final, onscreen spanking at the end of the cartoon after her quest for a good luck charm comes to a failed end.
Silence, You Fool!: "Musica-Lulu" has one from the Judge:
Lulu: He's a liar, an awful liar!
Judge: Silence is what I desire!
Snowball Fight: Often occurs in Little Lulu. In most of these, the boys (led by Tubby), attack the girls (led by Lulu) unprovoked, and the girls exact revenge by outwitting the boys.
Writing Lines: Lulu's punishment for playing hooky at the end of "A Bout with the Trout".