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Part of the My Little Pony 'n Friends anthology cartoon series, Glo Friends aired alongside Moondreamers and Potato Head Kids. It ran for 26 episodes and had 3 serials, with a preceding TV special called The Glo Friends Save Christmas.

The Glo Friends are a community of small, glow-in-the-dark insects that live in Glo Land, a magical kingdom located in the middle of a forest. Their homes are built near the Glo Pond, from where they harvest a substance known as Moondrops. These Moondrops literally drip down from the moon and the Glo Friends collect them and take them back to the Glo Pond in plastic buckets. These buckets are then emptied into the lake. These Moondrops are what sustains them and enables their ability to glow in the dark.

At one point, the pond springs a leak and the Glo Friends have trouble finding replacement Moondrops to refill the pond. If they fail, they will cease to glow in the dark. The Glo Friends live a peaceful existence, but it's continually threatened by Starnose, the leader of the Moligans. They are a group of mole-like monsters that wish to abuse the Glo Friends' ability to light up the night. The Moligans were banished from the kingdom of Moleslavia by King Mole for several crimes which include mob action, robbery, looting, cheating, and unlawful digging.

The Moligans have been living underground and planning revenge against King Mole ever since their banishment. They are short-sighted, so they were unsuccessful in their attempts to harvest gold from some nearby mines. As such, the Moligans have attempted to enslave the Glo Friends to power their lanterns, allowing them to see in the darkness of the mines, harvest the gold and then buy out the kingdom of Molslavia.


This show contains examples of:

  • Anachronism Stew: Bamboo Technology, baseball caps, wooden huts, and plastic bags.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
    • The reason why the big bads were banished from Moleslavia. Their crimes includes mob activity, theft, and digging without permission.
    • Garden Ant launches an all out campaign against the Moligans because they were eating the plants in his garden.
  • Bamboo Technology: The Glo Friends have the natural resources of the forest at their disposal, yet are able to make modern appliances and other conveniences and make them work.
  • Batter Up!: Subverted. Slugger Bug is rarely seen without his trusty baseball bat. This being a child friendly show, though, he was never allowed to use it on anyone, though. ...It kind of defeats the purpose, actually.
  • Berserk Button: Calling Nails, a female Moliga who values beauty, "ugly witch" will incite her rage.
  • Big Bad: Starnose, leader of the Moligans. Their goal is to capture Glo Friends and put them inside lanterns so that they can mine for gold.
  • Bioluminescence Is Cool: The Glo Friends. A big part of their selling point was that they were critters that glow.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Glo Bashfulbug. She has an attraction to Glo Bug, but never knows how to say it.
  • Cliffhanger: Much like the Pony segments, any conflict that wasn't solved in ten minutes ended with one of these. Though, the Glo Friends cliff hangers actually tended to be less severe than the former's.
  • Contrived Coincidence: Glo Butterfly believes she can cast magic, but all her "tricks" are the result of coincidences.
  • Dowsing Device: The Glo Friends use what look like dousing rods with crystals on the end to find the much needed Moon Drops.
  • Eccentric Mentor: Glo Frog. He's a mysterious old miser who gives advice to the Glo Friends using nigh-inane riddles along with several other odd habits.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Most of the names of the Glo Friends were indicative of their personality traits.
  • Fantastic Light Source: The Glo Friends, themselves, and both the Red Ant Army and the Moligans want to use this fact to their advantage.
  • Five-Episode Pilot: The first serial was 10 episodes long and was released as a movie in the UK.
  • Friend to All Living Things: The Glo Wees. They ever have a book that allows them to communicate with nature.
  • Furry Confusion: So, we have the Glo Friends and Moligans, who wear clothes, and various talking animals that don't. Huh.
  • Gold Fever:
    • The Moligan's motive, pretty much. It's bad enough that they're willing to harm innocent creatures and the environment to get it, too.
    • This applies to Driver and his Red Ant Army, too.
  • Good Colors, Evil Colors: The Glo Friends and others good guys are brightly colored whereas the Moligans and other villains tend to be earthy toned.
  • Gender Flip: The Jester brothers' gender was changed in the French dub - calling them Les soeurs Jester (Jester sisters).
  • Heavy Sleeper: Glo Bedbug, should not come as a surprise.
  • Hedge Maze: The Glo Friends end up having to pass through one of these in The Quest.
  • It's All About Me: Nails of the Moligans is very selfish and egocentric.
  • The Klutz:
    • Glu Clutterbug, who is always falling into traps and getting his friends into trouble.
    • King Mole, too. The dude manages to fall out of his seat several times just trying to get up.
  • The Mentor: Glo Grannybug, the oldest and wisest of the Glo Friends. She is especially this to Baby Glo Worm.
  • Nice Mice: Country Mouse is a loyal and trusty friend.
  • Nude-Colored Clothes: The Red Ant Army. Particularly the Jesters, who are not red but instead bright pink — which maybe can fool the viewer that they are naked like humans.
  • Our Fairies Are Different: The Glo Wees. They glow like the Glo Friends and serve as caretakers of nature.
  • The Pig-Pen: Skunk Bug. With a name like that...
  • Power Source: Moondrops, which are harvested from Glo Pond, are what keeps the protagonists healthy and glowing.
  • The Quest: The title of their first episode, in fact. The Glo Friends embark on a mighty quest to refill their pond. Yeah...
  • Saving Christmas: The plot of a rare TV special The Glo Friends Save Christmas, which actually predated the series. The Glo Friends had to free Santa from the clutches of an evil witch named Blanche. Can be seen here.
  • Token Good Teammate: Scoop of the Moligans. She's the only nice one, among a team of villains.
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: The Glo Friends...glow. But then, it can be quite powerful in the right situation; for example, they used their glowing powers to melt a giant Ice cage in the winter (once they were able to circle together, holding hands) in Glo Friends Save Chritmas and they manage to help heal a giant tree and have it bloom flowers again ("Love will Light the way!").
  • Wicked Witch: Blanche in the original Glo Friends Save Christmas special is an ice witch who traps Santa and his reindeer in an icy cage in order to stop Christmas from happening.
  • The Worf Effect: Glo Bug, naturally. Whenever somebody needs to get beaten to show how dangerous the villains are, it's always the resident Bad Butt Glo Bug who takes the beating.

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