Shout Out / Littlest Pet Shop (2012)

• Some of the pets have color pallets and properties that may or may not have been borrowed from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, a show that shares a great amount of LPS's cast and some of its crew. Zoe has the same color coordination as Twilight (though her personality is more in line with Rarity), Minka is a pink monkey with some of the same mannerisms as Pinkie Pie but colors from Cheerilee and Penny Ling appears to be as sensitive as Fluttershy.
  • Probably a little justified since the same animation studio that produces Friendship is Magic^note Studio B Productions, now part of DHX Media, and credited under the latter name also produces Littlest Pet Shop.
  • As on MLP, "Fancy" in used in place of "French".
  • Also with MLP, this may be stretching it but... at the very end of "Frenemies" Penny Ling blasts cake at Zoe and Pepper during her "party" out of a "cannon" Hmm... sound familiar?
• Pepper's speech to Blythe in the two-parter is reminiscent to the film Rush Hour.
  Pepper: (up in Blythe's face) DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE WORDS THAT ARE COMING OUT OF MY MOUTH?
• Brittany 's fantasy plan sequence also bears a lot of resemblance to Yzma's.
• When Russell saw the Biskit twins about to dump the goop, he did a Spin-dash.
  • An inversion. Hedgehogs have always been able to roll into a ball in order to protect themselves and attack enemies. In this case, Russell was just using his natural abilities.
• In Episode 12, the clothes on the street lizard named L-Zard look just like Sacha Baron Cohen's trademark look from Da Ali G Show.
• Vinnie's act and clothes near the end of the premiere bring to mind Michael Jackson.
• Vinnie refers to a "mirror ball trophy", probably a Dancing with the Stars reference.
• The above-mentioned Cyber Cyclops resembles the most famous example. It even says "By your demand" when summoned.
• This may be a stretch, but the music that plays when Sunil attacks the imaginary cobras sounds a bit like the Metal Gear Solid theme.
• In episode 5, Pepper starts bouncing around like Pepé Le Pew while she was looking for Penny.
  • Russell does this in the episode "Secret Cupet" while chasing Penny.
• In episode 8, Zoe says "Get me off this crazy thing"!
• "Who do you think is cuter? Edward or Jacob?"
• Zoe said she had a "wardrobe malfunction" because her beret was "Gone, baby, gone!"
• Episode 9 has a song which parodies West Side Story and similar musicals.
• In episode 10, Russell at one point refers to Vinnie as Agent 006 3/8s and Zoe's hairstyle is similar to that of Pussy Galore.
  • Then in another scene Zoe confronts Scout dressed in a yellow jumpsuit.
• Episode 12 is titled "So You Skink You Can Dance".
  • Episode 12's Cold Open is highly evocative of kaiju movies such as Godzilla.
  • Episode 12 features the popular dance show "Shake-A-Leg".
• Episode 13 has a movie star mongoose named Shahrukh.
• Russell is fond of The Duchess of Lancashire Lane, which sounds like a Downton Abbey parody.
• Mr. Sawdust in "Trading Places" quotes Heart of Darkness at one point.
  • Also in "Trading Places", Russell the hedgehog does a spin dash and rockets off screen.
  • Mr. Sawdust capturing the Prickly Rat saying he has the last one, only for twenty to appear behind his back, is a obvious shout-out to Porky in Wackyland.
• "Sweet (Truck) Ride" has a Star Trek fantasy sequence.
• In the "Humanarian" song, Minka looks like Jem and Penny Ling looks like Shana.
  • As well as Pepper is dressed like a Doctor though that may be coincidental.
• Episode 23, "Door-Jammed", has a "U Can't Touch This" parody sung by Roger Baxter immediately followed by a two-minute homage to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" music video, complete with spooky Vincent Price monologue.
• In "Blythe's Pet Project", Blythe explains to Shivers the squirrel how wonderful the park is. Cue an Imagine Spot called "My Small Squirrel", with three squirrels (one of which has a rainbow-hued tuft of hair) sliding down rainbows and frolicking in an Arcadian paradise. Shivers then asks, "Seriously?", to which Blythe replies, "I'm not saying it'll be exactly like that...."
• The rich lady Judi Jo Jameson shares the same last name and initials as J. Jonah Jameson.
• In "Heart of Parkness": "Cobra Cobra COBRA!!!"
• Blythe's F.U.N Nightmare has the students chasing her with buttons for eyes. This could be a reference to Coraline, which had that as a major theme.
• The Biskits' music video from "What, Meme Worry?" is a parody of "Hot Problems" by Double Take.
• The host of Treasure Hunters is almost impossible to not immediately think of Steve Irwin/The Crocodile Hunter.
• The "I-Guana Lawyer" ads and their titular mascot seem to be an outright parody of the Geico Gecko commercials.
• In "Blythe's Big Idea", the pets have a fantasy of a pet airline. In which Sunil asks "Are there any snakes on this plane?" the reference goes further, later on showing a snake in the toilet which was a infamous scene in the movie.
• In "So Interesting" The King bears a heavy resemblance to The Burger King, though without the smile.
• In "Shanghai Hi-Jinks", everything that Penny's relatives know about America comes from musicals. They refer to a Captain Ersatz version of Singin' in the Rain.
  • As well as they mention the famous Shirley Temple/Bo Jangles staircase tapdancing scene from The Little Colonel.
  • In the same episode, Roger dresses up like Elvis Presley during his 1970s Las Vegas period.
  • Also in that episode the other pets tease Russell about his two biggest phobias, ghosts and marshmallows. Zoe teases him "Hey Russell, look behind you, a Marshmallow Ghost!" This could be a nod to the Staypuft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters.
• The song Rodger and the Biskit Twins sing in "Grounded" is heavily reminiscent of various songs from the band Queen.
• The main premise of "Sleeper" is a parody of Weekend at Bernie's.
• The title "War of the Weirds" is a parody of The War of the Worlds, especially the hysterical reaction to the 1938 radio version.
  • When Russell is trying to make a universal language to speak to the aliens, he utters gibberish. What he says is actually (almost) a phrase used in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and has since been used a lot in popular culture, very notably as a spell from the Necronomicon.
  • Though this may be a little vague. But the aliens seem to have the exact same weakness as the aliens from Mars Attacks!.
• In "Eight Arms to Hold You" the Urban Legend that Russell looks up online looks very Lovecraftian, pretty much a Pink Cthulhu.
• In the Cyril McFlip song, Vinnie and Sunil are dressed similar to Professor Layton and Luke.
• The song Blythe sings at the beginning of "Tongue Tied", sounds like something a Disney Princess would sing, complete with animals doing things for her. (And bluebirds carrying her clothes)
• Tess McSavage from "What's so scary about the Jungle? Everything!" looks like a young Jane Goodall.
  • In the same episode, when Blythe reads off the zoo sign, she says, "Lions, tigers, bears...oh my!"
• The names of the feuding (human) hillbillies in "Feud for Thought", Mr. McHat and Mr. Coyfield, are not very subtle shoutouts to real-life historical feuding Hillbilly families the McCoys and the Hatfields.
• In issue 2 of the IDW's Littlest Pet Shop comic book series there is a background character in one panel who resembles Linkara looking at comic books.
  • Linkara himself even reacted to it at the end of his Sonic Super Special issue 7 video.
• In "The Very Littlest Pet Shop", Blythe advises Dolores to "Answer the second question first."
• The short "Life Of Cake" is an obvious shoutout to Life of Pi as they are both about a character of Indian descent sharing a lifeboat with a vicious animal.
• In "Why Can't We Be Friends?" one of the lolcat pics that Cora sends Blythe is an obvious shout-out to Grumpy Cat (albeit in a wig)
• "In The Loop" is a complete shoutout to Groundhog Day with the "Groundhog Day" Loop, the Groundhog looking somewhat like Bill Murray who starred in that movie (And being incredibly obnoxious) and his name being Harold Winston. The names based off of Harold Ramis, who directed and co-wrote the original movie. and Winston was originally meant to be Russell's name, which further alludes that Russell and Harold are not so different.
• Parakeet Crash Dangerfeather seems to be an expy of Rainbow Dash.
• One of the bands that Blythe gets for the Pet Fest is Adam and the Spider Monkeys.
• "Littlest Pet Shop of Horrors":
  • First of all, the title is a reference to Little Shop of Horrors.
  • As mentioned in Actor Allusion, the pony that Blythe rides as part of her Halloween costume in the opening scene is Applejack.
  • Pepper's story is a one to Misery, of everything.
  • Sunil's story is a reference to Frankenstein.
• The title "Game of Groans" is a reference to Game of Thrones.
  • The episode also has a few references to Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
    • The guards resembling the Black Knight.
    • Russell shouting "Ha-ha!" like Lancelot upon escaping Ye Olde Pet Zone.
    • Shivers hits two acorn shells together to make the sound of a horse trotting while Russell pretends to ride a horse.
  • The beaver king talks like Marlon Brando.
• In "Go Figure!", Blythe and the pets' favorite TV show Agents of Zap sounds very similar to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Russell was upset with the sudden change of his favorite character in the show (like Grant Ward, he's revealed to be a Double Agent).
  • Zapper-Con is just like Comic-Con.
• In "It's a Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy World", Sunil had trouble sleeping due to a drippy faucet. Just like in the classic Donald Duck short "Drip Dippy Donald".
  • The title and episode are both pretty much a direct homage to the movie "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World".
• In “If the Shoe Fits”, twice when the pets are performing their Totem Pole Trench, Pepper gets a negative feeling which triggers her to let out her fumes, which somehow causes the coat to inflate. This could possibly be a reference to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs when Dopey did a Totem Pole Trench to dance with Snow White while standing on top of Sneezy. Sneezy let out a gargantuan sneeze, which caused a similar inflation to the coat he was in, except that time, the air pressure from his sneeze caused Dopey to shoot out of the coat like a cannon.
• Where else have we seen a hedgehog named Russell?