Famous 5: On The Case is a British/French animated television series which was broadcast in the United Kingdom, on the Disney Channel, and in the United States, on Qubo. It is a British and French television co-production, loosely based on The Famous Five series of books created by Enid Blyton. At least some of the episodes have been developed for television by Douglas Tuber and Tim Maile, the writers of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. On June 21, 2008, the show debuted in Italy and Australia on Disney Channel. Marathon, of Totally Spies! fame, did the animation.
The central characters, children of the original Famous Five, embark on a new series of adventures. During these adventures the new Famous Five are able to make use of newer technology such as laptop computers and mobile phones which had not been invented in their parents' day.
This show provides examples of:
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: While the kids will snark and sass at each other, they're also fiercely protective of each other.
- Bound and Gagged: Has happened to all the main characters in roughly equal measure as well as background characters who got caught up in the episode's mystery.
- Defiant Captive: When George is kidnapped by the son of thieves she, Dick, Julian and Anne got arrested as children, she has no trouble showing off the sass and strength of character that defined her in the original books, even when she and her husband are left to die.
- Enemy Mine: The Dunston twins have teamed up with the main cast on occasion.
- Everyone Has Standards: Dylan may be willing to do some very manipulative things for money but in "The Case of the Defective Detective", when he discovers that the titular detective faked all of his cases to earn his fame and fortune, he's absolutely disgusted; manipulation is one thing but actual crimes are a no go.
- Expository Theme Tune
- Free-Range Children: The kids are able to go pretty much anywhere by themselves and often don't seem to have to even inform George about their antics.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Dylan.
- Generation Xerox: The concept of the show is that the children of the original Five are a lot like their parent. This can be more or less obvious Depending on the Writer.
- Also seen to a slight degree with George who became a scientist like her father.
- Girliness Upgrade: George, of all people, has become surprisingly accustomed to the domestic life. Somewhat Downplayed in that her actual career is that of a botanist which wouldn't have been seen as a traditional feminine pursuit in her youth and still isn't considered as such in current day.
- Good Parents: It's clear that George and Ravi adore Jo and she in turn loves them dearly.
- Happily Married: George and Ravi clearly adore each other and have quite the healthy marriage.
- Heroic Dog: Timmy, naturally. He's quite protective of his humans and on more than one occasion, has actively served as a full-on Evil-Detecting Dog.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: There's a Running Gag that every time George's husband Ravi is around, his face will be obscured somehow; this can range from the reasonable "working on a car or other machine" to the ridiculous "the crook who kidnapped him and George hung him upside down under a tarp".
- Hoist by His Own Petard: When a culprit who's seeking a treasure in an old fort catches Allie trying to free her cousins and makes it clear he intends to lock her up, Allie asks if he wants her to join the other three; at his yes, she opens the door, knowing that the room behind it happened to be filling with water, sending him crashing into a wall to be cornered by Timmy.
- Hollywood Tonedeaf: As the title "The Case of Allie's Really Bad Singing" implies, Allie's singing is awful, with Jo suggesting it was mistaken for a mating call by a sea gull.
- Identical Stranger: Dylan having one gets him tangled up in a would-be thief's plan to use his hacker nephew (the aforementioned lookalike) to shut down the power all over.
- Ironic Nickname: Somewhat Downplayed but the fact that the main characters are referred to as "the Kirrins" as only Max and Dylan actually have that surname; while Jo and Allie are Kirrins by bloodline, their actual surnames are Misra and Campbell respectively.
- Kid Detective: Kinda the point of the whole show as the main characters are following in their parents' footsteps.
- Lampshade Hanging: Pops up on occasion such as Dylan wondering aloud if he'll crave "rubbish food" when he's older in reaction to Allie and Max both eagerly eating Fudgy Fries despite both of them calling them garbage earlier and Max himself describing why they're garbage just before demanding Allie share with him and later defending himself against his cousins' Lame Pun Reaction to his fart jokes in reference to the methane explosions in a different episode by pointing out he's 11 and thus finds Toilet Humor amusing.
- Lethal Chef: Despite her surprising adjustment to domestic life, George can't cook and the kids aren't afraid to make jokes about it.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: Despite the Generation Xerox, there are some differences between the original Kirrins and their children.
- George would be ordered around by Julian and sullenly obey (usually because he was ordering her to babysit Anne instead of getting in on the investigation and while George understood that Anne would need watching, she resented it always being her job); Jo on the other hand tends to be the one giving the orders with Max generally happily complying.
- While Anne and Allie are both girly girls, Allie has no problem keeping up with the boys and Jo and has in fact insisted on being involved more than once, in contrast to her mother outright stating at least once that she'd "rather stay out of adventures" and is quite the athlete.
- Dick is listed on the books' trope page as a case of Beware the Nice Ones; Dylan, while still a hero, is the Token Evil Teammate of his group. He's also The Baby of the Bunch, being 11 to Max's 13 and the girls' 12 and unlike his father, neither The Quiet One nor inclined to try to be the peacemaker, picking more than one fight with his cousins and at one point, deliberately teasing Max about having a rare disease which turns Max into a total hypochondriac, severely limiting his ability to participate in the mystery du episode.
- Hilariously, while Max isn't a jerk exactly, he has Aunt Anne's tendency to run her mouth (though not as bad as she was implied to be) instead of his father's tendency toward politeness.
- Mythology Gag: Jo most likely got her name from "Ragamuffin Jo", a young girl whom was introduced in the 9th book in the series, "Five Fall Into Adventure".
- In the first episode, Dylan is rather indignant at the idea of christening Jo's boat with a bottle of ginger beer; ginger beer was such a staple of the original stories that the adventure books that were sold as a tie-in listed it as a vital supply contingent with completing the plot.
- Nerds Are Sexy: Dylan gets three groupies in the episode "The Case of Allie's Really Bad Singing".
- Odd Name Out: Max is the only member of the group whose name has no similarity to their parents' names.
- Parents in Distress: On more than one occasion, Jo has led her cousins on a mission to save her parents from one disaster or another, ranging from "we have to get Mum's stolen plants back" to "someone's kidnapped Mum and Dad; we have to find them!"
- Police Are Useless: As to be expected from a Kid Detective series. At least the local constable is generally helpful rather than a hinderance or at least when a hinderance, doesn't get too badly in the way of the investigation.
- Spin-Offspring: Essentially what the series is to the original books, focusing on the kids of the main characters.
- Rich Bitch: Dane Dunston, with her brother being a male example as both of them are extremely wealthy and also utter jerks.
- Token Evil Teammate: Dylan is a Downplayed example. He's still, ultimately, one of the good guys, but he can be very greedy and manipulative.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Jo and Allie, similarly to their mothers before them.
- Unwillingly Girly Tomboy: Jo wears a girly princess costume in the episode "The Case of the Medieval Meathead". She is VERY uncomfortable in it.
- Youthful Freckles: Jo has them, just like her mother.
