Sew magical! Sew cute! And sew NOT going to get a lot of praise from Coraline fans. note
"Lalaloopsy were once rag dolls that magically came to life when their very last stitch was sewn. Each doll has its own charming personality inspired by the fabric used to make it. Lalaloopsy live in a whimsical world full of silly surprises. With love and a little bit of imagination, you'll see why Lalaloopsy are sew magical... and sew cute!"
A line of button-eyed dolls launched by MGA Entertainment in 2010, Lalaloopsy
quickly grew into one of the biggest toy trends of that year. From the original lineup of eight, the Lalaloopsy brand now carries over 25 original characters.
Animated Adaptations, such as webisodes, a Made-for-TV Movie and a short-lived TV series on Nick Jr. were made. A Continuity Reboot series was released on Netflix in January 2017 and lasted one season due to the toyline's cancellation that year.
After a successful petition stunt, the brand returned on August 2021 for a belated 10th anniversary. Past characters were released in redesigned packaging, alongside new faces.
Lalaloopsy provides examples of:
- Adapted Out:
- Half of the Original 8 (Bea, Mittens, Peanut, and Pillow) don't return for the Netflix reboot. The same goes for every Lalaloopsy Little.
- Despite Storm E. Sky being a central character in the reboot, Cloud E. is absent, although Storm E. adopts what looks like Cloud E.'s poodle.
- All Girls Like Ponies: Close enough - Spot Splatter Splash has a pet zebra while Lady Stillwaiting has a unicorn. In the Lala-Oopsies spin-off line, there are 2 brand new pony characters, Tea Biscuit and Scone, along with two pegasi, Macadamia and Almond, and two unicorns, Hazelnut and Cashew.
- The Lalaloopsy Ponies spinoff line has this trope in full effect.
- All There in the Manual: The little biographies on the box and books give more insight to the characters, primarily those who aren't featured in the series.
- Amusing Injuries: In The Search for Pillow, the characters fall from long heights and crash into stuff, yet they remain unscathed.
- Animation Bump: In earlier webisodes and The Search for Pillow, the animation is much more fluid.
- Animal-Eared Headband: worn by Kat Jungle Roar and Teddy Honey Pots (though the latter's ears are part of a hood rather than a headband)
- Holiday-exclusive mini Cotton Hoppalong wears a bunny-ear headband made of real fabric.
- Blossom Flowerpot wears a headband based on the antennae of her butterfly in her Silly Funhouse mini.
- Animal Motif: several.
- Boo Scaredy Cat and Fluffy Pouncy Paws - Domestic Cats.
- Kat Jungle Roar and Whiskers Lion's Roar - Big Cats.
- Cotton Hoppalong - Rabbits.
- Royal T. Honey Stripes - Bees.
- Mona Arch Wings - Butterflies.
- Lucky Lil' Bug - Ladybugs.
- Teddy Honey Pots - Bears.
- Cherie Prim 'N' Proper - Dogs, Poodles in particular.
- Aerith and Bob: Some of the characters have names like Ace or Charlotte,and than there's one named Water.
- Babies Ever After: Jewel and Storm E.'s cats have kittens in the final episode of the 2017 reboot.
- Baffled by Own Biology: In "Belly Laugh", Forest Evergreen eats a purple nut and wonders why his stomach is laughing. It turns out to be the side effect of the nut itself.
- Bizarre Beverage Use: Vehicles apparently run on apple juice, chocolate milk or in rare instance, hot sauce.
- Black Comedy: Oddly recurring for a toyline marketed for little girls.
- Sahara Mirage is afraid of the dark. She is a genie, and genies are commonly known to be trapped in lamps or bottles.
- Her name also counts. She's named after the Sahara Desert, and mirages are illusions... which often happen when someone is exposed to desert heat for too long.
- Resident nurse Rosy Bumps 'N' Bruises' name has a double meaning. "Rosy" either comes from her reddish cheeks or from "Ring Around the Rosy", the nursery rhyme which nowadays is associated with the Black Death.
- Prairie Dusty Trails, a cowgirl, lives across Feather Tell-A-Tale, a native caricature. How did they get away with that?
- Sahara Mirage is afraid of the dark. She is a genie, and genies are commonly known to be trapped in lamps or bottles.
- The Cameo:
- Prince Handsome appears in a book in "Mablenut Muffin Mission".
- Dot and Crumbs appear in cardboard printing on some L.O.L. Surprise toys, a Tiny Toys set and the box for Candylicious respectively.
- Captain Ersatz:
- One of the standalone Lalaloopsy Workshop packs is a blonde sailor with blue eyes and a red bow, but she has braids like the existing sailor character Marina Anchors.
- Snowy Fairest and her little sister Beauty look almost identical to the Disney counterpart if it weren't for the pink in their designs replacing blue.
- Chained Heat: In the episode "Stuck on You" Jewel and Forest's hands get stuck in Misty's magic box, causing their plans for the day to clash.
- Chromosome Casting: As per usual for a girls' toyline, almost the entire cast is made up of females.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
- Pillow's little sister Blanket, disappeared after Season 1. And so did Holly Sleighbells, Little Bah Peep, and Charlotte Charades.
- Not to mention that Cherry, Squiggles, Trace E, Winter, Mari, Sir, Star, Mango, Scraps, and Haley have only appeared once and never again.
- The Ponies, the Oopsies, Sugar and Whirly, Cloud E., and the Buttonettes don't appear outside their debut films.
- Close-Knit Community: All of the characters know each other well enough that they can walk in to each others' houses (after they knock first) and stay over for the night without a second thought. Food is made or delivered, without payment of any kind, and people are frequently invited for meals. Everyone seems to have an interest in the performance or meeting of the day, as well.
- Cloudcuckooland: Lalaloopsy Land is a very odd place with wildly different climates, a flower for a sun, and houses made of everything from cookies to crayons.
- Confession Cam: The Lalaloopsy Girls movie had this for the characters making witty comments regarding the preceding scene.
- Cool House: Everyone has their own impressive-looking house designed to reflect their personality. For example, Bea's house doubles as a library and resembles a school.
- Curse Cut Short: In "Search For Pillow":Jewel: [to Kitty] First, Kitty, we'll go down with you on my lap facing forward, then facing backward. And be careful not to scratch my-Mittens: [offscreen] Watch out, Jewel!
- Cute Monster Girl:
- Invoked with Furry Grrs-a-Lot, whose outfit wouldn't look too out of place in the Monsters, Inc. universe.
- Scraps Stitched 'n' Sewn is a Frankenstein's Monster-based Shrinking Violet that looks as if she came straight from Monster High.
- The Lala-Oopsies are otherworldly creatures that are mutants in all but name, but they're just as sweet and innocent as the Loopsies.
- Cute Witch: Halloween-exclusive Candy Broomsticks.
- Damsel in Distress: Lady Stillwaiting is one to Sir Battlescarred.
- Darker and Edgier: Downplayed in We're Lalaloopsy, which follows a serialized plot that concludes with three surprisingly bleak episodes. They follow Storm E. thinking the Town Square residents don't see her as a friend anymore and they're better off without her, and she packs her bags to leave again. Things don't get better until the finale.
- A Dog Named "Dog": In the webisodes, the girls refer to their pets by their animal names. Pillow refers to her pet as "Sheep", Crumbs refers to hers as "Mouse", and so on.
- Early-Bird Cameo: a Lalaloopsy prototype appeared as an accessory in the Moxie Girlz line.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first movie, "Search For Pillow" is quite different from the rest of the series. Almost everyone has a different voice actor, Jewel is actually into dancing (something that never pops up again after this), Pillow seems to have narcolepsy and falls asleep at random timesnote , the animation is a bit more fluid, and Jewel refers to her Cat as "Kitty".note
- A lot of the pets' pronouns in the show and later films differ from the earlier webisodes and first movie. A particular example has Pillow's sheep be referred to as a "him" in the first movie, when episodes of the show refer to the sheep as a "her".
- Edible Theme Clothing: Several food-themed characters have outfits made of food. For example, Jelly Wiggle Jiggle has a gelatin dress, while Bun Bun Sticky Icing has a cinnamon roll dress.
- Edible Theme Naming: Inevitable, when you release characters "sewn" from food.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: An entire Spin-Off line, Lala-Oopsies, was built around this. To a lesser extent, there's also the Halloween exclusive Scraps Stitched 'N' Sewn.
- Forgotten Birthday: A variation in the first webisode, about Jewel attempting to throw herself the perfect birthday party.
- Funny Photo Phrase: In Lalaloopsy Babies: First Steps!, Baby Bea comes by with a camera she found and tells Baby Jewel and Baby Peanut to say "cheese". Peanut yells, "Mozzarella!"
- Fun Size: Mini Lalaloopsy (mini doll versions of the original dolls). Also the short-lived Micro Figurine blind bags and its successor, Lalaloopsy Tinies.
- Growling Gut: An unusual example in "Belly Laugh"- Forrest's stomach laughs upon him eating a purple nut. The same thing happens to Rosy at the end of the episode.
- Jewel Sparkles' stomach grumbled in the Netflix episode, "Calm Before the Storm E."
- Geisha: Yuki Kimono's design seems to be based on one.
- Genie in a Bottle: Sahara Mirage is based on this trope.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: And so do the boys! Mosr of the characters come with a pet companion based on stuffed animals in appearance.
- Hated Item Makeover: In "Tower of Treasure", Marina cleans up the inside of Patch's ship, but since Patch is more used to the disorganization, he's not particularly pleased about it.
- Holiday Personification: The yearly holiday minis.
- Christmas: Holly Sleighbells and Noelle Northpole.
- Easter: Cotton Hopalong, Lucky Lil Bug (later assimilated into the insect wave of minis), and Sprouts Sunshine.
- Halloween: Candy Broomsticks, Scraps Stitched 'n' Sewn, and Boo Scaredy Cat.
- Valentine's Day: Toffee Cocoa Cuddles, Velvet B. Mine, and Valentina Hugs 'n' Kisses.
- Little Green Men: The green-skinned alien girl Haley Galaxy and her pet, erm, smaller alien appear to be a throwback to this trope.
- Living Toys: Naturally, the dolls' backstory.
- Loud Sleeper Gag: In "Too Close for Comfort", Sunny has been snoring a lot at night, so she and Berry talk to Bea about possible solutions. Not a single one of them is successful, so Berry muffles out Sunny's snoring by covering her own house with pillows.
- Mythology Gag: Haley Galaxy's wire antennae is similar to the Novi Stars' own.
- Meaningful Name: Everyone, but a more subtle example is Bea Spells-a-Lot, whose first name is a homophone of "bee", as in a spelling bee.
- Mistaken for Brooding: In the We're Lalaloopsy episode "Cat and Cat Are Lost", Rosy asks Jewel if her cat has been acting weird. Jewel says her cat had been hungry and moody before she disappeared with Storm E.'s cat. Rosy thinks it's because Jewel's cat was distraught about Storm E.'s cat moving away, but it's actually because she was pregnant, and when the two cats are found, they're revealed to have had kittens together.
- Mouse World
- No Antagonist: There are no villains in this franchise. Certain characters may have an attitude, but the series conflicts tend to stem from good intentions gone astray or physical obstacles.
- Non-Indicative Name:
- Sir Battlescarred has only one barely visible scar.
- Trouble Dusty Trails rarely causes any trouble.
- Pete R. Canfly cannot.
- Non-Human Sidekick: The pets act more like sidekicks to their owners. Notably, Dyna Might's sidekick is her raccoon.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Original 8 character Bea Spells-a-Lot has blue button eyes, along with her sister Specs Reads-a-Lot. Everybody else has black eyes. As of late, a handful of new eye colors have shown up: Toffee Cocoa Cuddles has dark chocolate brown eyes, while Mango Tiki Wiki and her sister Kiwi has dark green eyes.
- Cloud E. Sky and her sister Breeze E. are the latest characters to sport blue eyes.
- Charlotte Charades, her sister Sherri and Yuki Kimono all have white "facepaint". Unlike the other two Yuki's stitched-on smile isn't painted black, having small red "lips" painted on instead.
- The One Guy:
- So far, there are only four male characters: Sir Battlescarred, Patch Treasurechest, Ace Fender Bender, and Forest Evergreen.
- There are also Pete R. Can Fly, Prince Handsome and Wacky Hatter, who so far are only available in mini form.
- Of the Littles (younger siblings of the main dolls), Matey Anchors just so happens to be the only boy.
- Pep-Talk Song: "If You Believed In You" from "Band Together".
- The Perfectionist:
- One predominant trait of Jewel is that she doesn't like going against her planned out schedules and systems.
- Winter Snowflake is portrayed as this in her featured episode "Winter's Wonderful Ice and Snow Show".
- Marina Anchors is a extremely organized and tidy sailor. In the episode "Tower of Treasure", she takes it upon herself to fix up Patch's cluttered house. Patch falls gloomy because of this, and a guilty Marina tries to make him feel better.
- Crumbs adopts these traits in We're Lalaloopsy, and follows set systems to run her café.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Two words: Goldie Luxe.
- The "Super Silly Party" anniversary line gives Jewel, Crumbs, Mittens, and Peanut elaborate party dresses.
- Pink Means Feminine: A common theme. Most prevalent in the Sparkles sisters, Jewel and Trinket.
- Public Domain Character: A whole wave of minis was based on Land of Oz, and that's not mentioning the dolls based on various fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and Alice in Wonderland.
- Punny Name: All over the place.
- Real After All: At the end of the Lala-Oopsies movie, it seems that the titular beings were just characters in a story... until Blossom's butterfly passes by the door that leads to their world.
- Retro Universe: In terms of technology and aesthetics, Lalaloopsy Land has not progressed past the 1950s. There are no computers, cellphones, TVs, or digital clocks. The characters use gramophones and Tin-Can Telephones. The Lalaloopsies are essentially old-fashioned rag dolls living in an old-fashioned, rural environment.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: In the Lalaloopsy Girls music video, the Lalaloopsy Girls are portrayed as live-action humans, but the pets are still animated in their 2D style.
- Sequel Hook: At the end of Welcome to L.A.L.A Prep School, Jewel announces that the L.A.L.A Prep Ball is coming up and that the girls should get well-dressed, along with Mittens finally getting her roommate at the very end, implying that more animated installments of Lalaloopsy Girls were planned at one point.
- Shout-Out:
- Scraps Stitched 'N Sewn is based on Sally, as both are Frankenstein's Monster rag dolls with blue skin and shy personalities.
- In "Stuck on You", Crumbs quotes Shakespeare while trying to follow a pretzel-twisting guide by Peanut. Well, sort of. Instead she says "Is this 'Tube B' or not 'Tube B'? That is the question."
- In "Welcome to LALA Prep School", Storm E. holds up a phonograph playing Cloud E.'s favorite song in front of the school campus to get her out of the hidden rooms so she can talk to her again. This is a platonic version of the boombox scene from Say Anything...
- Speaks Fluent Animal: While we don't get to hear their voices, the Lalaloopsys can understand their pets perfectly well, case in point with Storm E. showing off a project:Storm E.'s Cat: Meow?Storm E.: What do you mean, "what is it"? It's a hat.
- The Netflix series zigzags this, as while they can understand their other pets, they can't understand the newcomer Poodle.
- Spin-Off:
- Lalaloopsy Girls, obviously to compete with My Little Pony: Equestria Girls line of dolls.
- Lala-Oopsies, which had a much more surreal aesthetic than the usual Lalaloopsy fare.
- Spin-Off Babies: Lalaloopsy Babies, obviously.
- Spin-Offspring: Lalaloopsy Littles does this with the original dolls' younger siblings, rather than their offspring.
- Sudden Name Change: Jewel Sparkles's cat is named "Kitty" in "Search for Pillow", but in her subsequent appearances is named "Cat".
- Tag Line: "Sew magical, sew cute!"
- For the 2017 reboot: "The magic of creativity!"
- There Are No Adults:
- The Lalaloopsys are childlikenote with no parents around. This is totally justified, as they were not born, but sewn, perhaps all from one person.
- It gets even stranger in the Lalaloopsy Babies movie, though, as there was no adult running a nursery full of babies.
- To the Tune of...: Many of the commercial jingles are based on pre-existing songs:
- Mini Lalaloopsy - Can Can
- Lalaloopsy Littles - Ach Du Lieber Augustin
- Lalaloopsy Silly Hair - Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay
- Mini Lalaloopsy Silly Fun House Theme Park - Entry of the Gladiators
- Mini Lalaloopsy Treehouse Playset - William Tell Overture
- Mini Lalaloopsy Sew Sweet Playhouse and RC Cruiser - Funiculì, Funiculà
- Stumbles Bumps 'n Bruises - Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah
- Coral Sea Shells - By the Beautiful Sea
- Lalaloopsy Babies - Shortnin' Bread
- Lalaloopsy Babies Diaper Surprise - Pop Goes the Weasel
- Lalaloopsy Baking Oven - Mamma Mia by ABBA
- Lalaloopsy Workshop - Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
- Lalaloopsy Time - Gangnam Style by PSY
- Lalaloopsy Stretchy Hair - The Streets of Cairo/The Poor Little Country Maid
- Lalaloopsy Super Silly Party - For He's a Jolly Good Fellow
- Lalaloopsy Babies Potty Surprise - Turkey in the Straw
- Toyline-Exclusive Character: As there is oh-so-many, you will not see all of them in animation.
- Unconventional Food Usage: Several Lalaloopsies (who are Living Toys) are said to be sewn from food, including Cherry Crisp Crust (who is made from a cherry pie), Candle Slice O'Cake (who is made from cake), Sugar Fruit Drops (who is made from gumdrops), and Whirly Stretchy Locks (who is made from candy).
- Webisode
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The main issue of Pillow being missing in The Search for Pillow started because of Pillow trying to retrieve Bea's ball. While she finds it time and time again while separated from the others, the ball disappears completely near the end of the movie when Pillow is found, and Bea never asks about it.
- White-and-Grey Morality: Typical for a preschool show. There are character rivalries and some aggressive characters (Sticks and Peggy), Gossipy Hens (Berry according to her toy description and Bea in Lalaloopsy Girls), and even protagonists Jewel and Storm E have their moments. However everyone in Lalaloopsyland is overall a well-meaning person, and the series never villainizes anyone fully.
- Winter Royal Lady: Ivory Ice Crystals is a collector’s exclusive winter-themed doll wearing a fur gown.
- World of Technicolor Hair: While normal hair colors have shown up, the norm in Lalaloopsy Land seems to consist of pink or blue hair. Oddly enough, most of the males have had normal hair colors while it's the girls who show up with the unique ones.
