So yummy to love!
Yum Yums play the whole day through, making fun for me and you!
They're so sweet and fuzzy too! We all love the Yum Yums!
They're so sweet and fuzzy too! We all love the Yum Yums!
The Yum Yums were a line of Care Bears-esque toys in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They were created by Kenner and Hallmark, consisting of multicolored animals that smelled like candy. To go along with the toys and general merchandise, Hanna-Barbera released a TV special in 1990, The Yum Yums: The Day Things Went Sour. While the franchise faded in the US, the toys and cartoon became huge in Japan and remain fairly popular.
The special is about the Yum Yums being set for the big opening of the Yum Yum Theme Park, but trouble arises when the mean and nasty Sourpusses, who hate all fun, steal their Magic Toolbox and ruin all of the rides and attractions. It's up to Peppymint Kitty, Jumpin' Jellybean Bunny, Chuckle Chip Bear, and Lucky Lemon Lion to take a dangerous journey to Sour City in order to get the toolbox back in time for the grand opening!
These toys and special contain examples of:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: In order to reach Sour City, the Yum Yums have to travel through one inhabited by a ferocious Sewer Gator and a Swarm of Rats who are nicer than they initially appear.
- Boring Return Journey: Played with, as the heroes make fast tracks away from Sour City only to get lost, requiring a guide the rest of the way home.
- Canon Foreigner: Timmy and Kelley, the Sourpusses, and Smarty Arty were made for the special and don't have toys.
- Canon Immigrant: The Toppins were characters originally made for the special, but were released as plush toys in Japan.
- Engineered Heroics: To stop Sour Sue from getting in trouble for helping them escape, the Yum Yums have her sound the alarm and chase them, impressing the Sourpusses.
- Evil Smells Bad: The Sourpusses smell as sour as their names, which thwarts the Yum Yums' Sourpuss disguises when they smell too sweet.
- Fun-Hating Villain: The Sourpusses hate all fun, and plan to ruin the Yum Yums' theme park.
- Inconsistent Coloring: Official art of Sour Sue depicts her with green skin, while in the cartoon she has brown skin like the other Sourpusses.
- Kid-Appeal Character: The Toppins, including Blueper Bear, Fudgie Wudgie Bunny, Pinky Kitty, and Splitzles Puppy, were younger siblings of the Yum Yums made to appeal to even younger children.
- The Leader: Peppymint Kitty is the leader of the Yum Yums and always has smart ideas on hand.
- Merchandise-Driven: The special was made to promote the toys.
- Messy Pig: The Sourpusses are boar-like creatures who hate fun and love messing up the Yum Yums' sweet rides, with a female Sourpuss turning a delicious candy river into horrible-tasting mud.
- Motor Mouth: Jumpin' Jellybean Bunny has super speed and super fast speech to match.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Sour Sue is the one nice Sourpuss, and helps the Yum Yums get their magic toolbox back.
- Nervous Wreck: Goodie Grape Mouse is constantly worried and frequently says "Oh me, oh my!"
- Phlebotinum Pills: Lucky Lemon Lion is able to make wishes come true once he eats lemon drops, with a larger amount of drops needed for big wishes.
- Plot Tailored to the Party: The special is tailor-made for Peppymint Kitty's smarts, Lucky Lemon Lion's wishes, Jumpin' Jellybean Bunny's speed, and Chuckle Chip Bear's jokes coming in handy.
- The Pollyanna: Cheery Cherry Poodle is optimistic, fun-loving, and believes things will work out no matter what.
- The Prankster: Chuckle Chip Bear is introduced playing jokes on people, and his jokes impress the sewer rats enough to let them go.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: The Yum Yums are adorable creatures, and their younger siblings the Toppins are even cuter.
- Ridiculously Fast Construction: The Magic Toolbox is needed to repair damages to the park quickly enough for it to open on time.
- Sewer Gator: An albino specimen inhabits the Absurdly Spacious Sewer that one has to traverse in order to reach Sour City.
- Token Good Teammate: Sour Sue is the one nice member of the Sourpusses and helps her Yum Yum friends.
- You Dirty Rat!: Downplayed. The sewer rats that the Yum Yums encounter on their way to Sour City are anthropomorphic creatures that are willing to practice the equivalent of cannibalism on fellow sentient beings, but are mutual enemies of the Sourpusses, have a good sense of humor (letting the Yum Yums go when Chuckle Chip plays a practical joke on their leader), and later guide the lost Yum Yums back to the surface world in exchange for a television feed showing them the grand opening of Yum Yum Park.
