Tiny power!note
"The story all begins in the town of Littleton
Polly came across a locket that she keeps inside her pocket..."
Polly came across a locket that she keeps inside her pocket..."
Polly Pocket is a Canadian-American animated TV series based on the 2018 rebrand of the Polly Pocket toy franchise. The first two episodes premiered on Family Channel in Canada on July 1, 2018, and the rest of the first season continued on August 4.
Polly Pocket follows the adventures of Polly Pocket, a clever and curious inventor who inherits (and fixes) a magic locket from her Grandma that allows her to shrink 4 inches tall. She embraces her pocket-sized powers and finds the upside of shrinking can open up new adventures for her with her best friends Lila and Shani, all while keeping her locket abilities hidden.
Meanwhile, 60-year-old woman Griselle Grande, along with her dimwitted granddaughter and sidekick Gwen, attempt to steal the locket from Polly to conquer the town of Littleton by shrinking its citizens and trapping them in a model city called "Grandeville" (It's about as weird as it sounds really), and it's up to Polly and her friends to stop her.
The two-part series premiere, labeled as "Polly Pocket Movie: Tiny Power", premiered on Universal Kids exactly one year later in the US on July 1, 2019, and concluded on September 19, 2019. The whole series is available on Hulu
as of 2019, and the official Polly Pocket YouTube channel has uploaded nearly all the episodes for free. It has been released on DVD in the UK and Ireland, Italy, France and Germany, but nowhere else.
Since season two, the series has released new episodes on Netflix. Season two episodes are split into two side-by-side segments. Beginning with season three, the episodes are cut down to eleven-minute increments. The last few episodes of the first half of season three shifted the main setting to an Amusement Park called Rainbow Funland. The series recently aired its fourth season.
Tiny tropes!
- Aborted Arc: The final scene of the S1 finale has the Grandes once again vow revenge on Polly and Grunwalda gain superpowers from Pockite. Griselle and Gwen eventually return in the S5 finale, but the events of the S1 finale are never brought up, and Grunwalda remains absent.
- Actor Allusion: In "Club Flub" Gwen puts on a fake Australian accent while she's disguised as an animal expert. Gwen's voice actor Rhona Rees really is Australian.
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: When Polly's plan to boost Gwen's confidence backfires, Gwen basically becomes an Alpha Bitch with too much confidence.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Lila is a Significant Green-Eyed Redhead.
- Adaptation Name Change: In the 2010 web series, Shani was given the surname Mayne, but in this series proper, it was changed to Smith.
- Adaptational Location Change: Unlike the earlier series, the town is named "Littleton" instead of "Pollyville".
- Adapted Out: Apart from Polly, Lila, and Shani, none of the large cast from the previous toyline/series have made it in.
- Alien Animals: In "Area Fifty-None," it's revealed that at least some Earth turtles (including Shani's own pet turtle) are really space aliens.
- All-Loving Hero: Polly herself, as she's always trying to fix other people's problems out of kindness. She doesn't even expect a thanks or earn credit for it, she's just doing it out of being nice.
- Alliterative Name:
- The titular character Polly Pocket, her younger brother Paxton Pocket, her older brother Pierce Pocket, her grandmother Penelope Pocket, her great grandmother tenth removed Prudence Pocket...
- There's also Griselle Grande and her granddaughter Gwen Grande. When Griselle ran for Mayor of Littleton, she did so under the alias "Bonnie Bain".
- Amateur Film-Making Plot: The episode "Sherlocket Holmes" is about the main cast making a Sherlock Holmes-style movie for an amateur film festival.
- Ambidextrous Sprite: The characters' hairstyles become mirrored depending on the direction they look.
- Amplified Animal Aptitude: Many of the animals on the show are significantly smarter than their real-world counterparts, including ants.
- Animesque: The art style, due to their large eyes, relatively small mouths, etc.
- Area 51: Polly, Shani, Lila, and Nick go on a Class Trip to Area Fifty-None in the episode of the same name. Unlike the Real Life Area 51, Area Fifty-None has actual space aliens (as well as a wide array of mythical creatures).
- Bespectacled Cutie: Shani wears big, round glasses and is just as cute as her friends.
- Big Bad: Griselle Grande, the series' main villain (at least for the first season).
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: In "Bear Necessities," Polly and Shani encounter Bigfoot while tracking a bear that made off with Polly's shrunken camper. They run into him again in "Area Fifty-None" and "Fred vs. Foot."
- Blind Without 'Em: During the second half of "Unlocketing The Past," Shani's glasses fall off because of the Pockite cave collapsing. She fumbles around for them for several seconds before she retrieves them.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Polly is blonde, Shani is brunette, and Lila is the redhead.
- Brainy Brunette: Shani fits this to a T.
- By the Power of Grayskull!: Whenever Polly needs to shrink, she shouts "Tiny power!", and "Go big" in order to go back to normal.
- Cassandra Truth: Ms. Fuss doesn't believe Griselle wants to steal Polly's locket.
- Catchphrase: "Tiny power!"
- Cliffhanger: The Season 1 finale "Unlocketing the Past" ends on a huge cliffhanger where not only the Grandes once again swear revenge on the Pockets, but Grunwalda is revealed to gain superpowers from the Pockite.
- The Chosen One: Polly was chosen by her grandmother to be the one to possess shrinking powers. This is also passed down to the Pocket family (her dad didn't inherit it due to the locket being broken).
- Christmas Episode: "Happy Polly-Days."
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Despite being the main villains of Season 1, the Grandes aren’t seen or even mentioned in the following seasons.
- When Melody returns in the third season finale it's mentioned that Polly and her friends saved her from getting kidnapped, but not who she was kidnapped by.
- Grunwalda makes a very brief appearance in "Sparkle Cove Adventure" as part of recycled footage.
- Griselle and Gwen finally returned in the Season 5 episode "Adventures in Dragon-sitting".
- Comic-Book Time: According to Griselle in her cameo in the season 5 finale, only a year had passed since the first season.
- Composite Character: Lea doesn't appear in this series but Lila has her traits of being a Passionate Sports Girl and a Significant Green-Eyed Redhead.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Nicholas, who believes in such things as aliens, ghosts, and mythical creatures. Shani also slips into this sometimes, but only within the first few episodes. He's proven right in the episode "Area Fifty-None," which he's over the moon about.
- Continuity Nod: Griselle apparently developed a craving for pickles in her time being locked in a bunker with Gwen, as she's seen with a shopping bag full of pickles in "Adventures in Dragon-sitting".
- Cool Car: Polly's modified RC car.
- Cranky Neighbor: Mr. Q, who simply despises Polly for often times bringing her tiny adventures onto his house's porch. Though this doesn't discourage Polly from working to ensure he's not miserable or sad.
- The Cutie: Polly falls into this because of the empathy and sweetness she has for others, combined with a penchant for making inventions and the cheesy puns she makes.
- Dance Battler: Though it's yet to be demonstrated in the show proper, Capoeira is apparently one of Polly's hobbies, if her mother's comments in episode 10 are to be believed.
- Denser and Wackier: From season two onwards, which could be at least partly attributed to the series no longer having its Big Bad. A notable example are the appearances of aliens, Bigfoot, fairies, mermaids, lake monsters, leprechauns, and unicorns.
- Diabolical Dog Catcher: The dog catcher in "Dog-Gone Disaster". He tries to round up and lock up every dog he sees, regardless of if they have collars or not.
- The Ditz: Lila has her moments.
- Dropped Glasses: During the second half of "Unlocketing The Past," Shani's glasses fall off because of the Pockite cave collapsing. She fumbles around for them for several seconds before she retrieves them.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The catchphrase for Polly to shrink in episode 1 is "Pocket Time". In later episodes it is changed to "Tiny Power". Justified as In-Universe she asks her Grandma if she can change it to "Tiny power."
- Karate was referred to as such in earlier episodes where Pierce was practicing it. In season 2, it was renamed/replaced with "kerpow", and "sensei" became "grandmaster" (even if the sensei is female).
- Episode Title Card: From season two onwards, every episode has one.
- Family Theme Naming: The names of Polly’s relatives all start with P.
- Fantasy Sequence: The series opens up on one involving Polly driving in a canyon with her jeep, only to reveal that she was just pretending to drive the family car while parked in the driveway.
- Fiery Redhead: Downplayed with Lila, who tends to be the most confident of the main three.
- Genki Girl: Lila displays a large amount of energy and spunk whenever she gets passionate about something she loves, particularly with fashion. She can also show some Motor Mouth tendencies.
- Girlish Pigtails: Polly has these as her normal hairstyle.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: In "The Con Job" Griselle takes Gwen to a comic convention after promising her one day they wouldn't try to go after Polly's locket, unaware that Polly and her friends are also there. Gwen notices them but keeps Griselle from finding out so her day won't be ruined. Griselle isn't happy when she later reads the news and finds out Polly was there.
- Gone Horribly Right: In "Pocket Poltergeist", Polly and her friends trick her brother Pierce into thinking their house is haunted so he'd no longer interfere with their plans to film there. As Pierce returns with a paranormal investigator, Shani says the plan worked "a little too well".
- Grossout Show: The show can get pretty yucky at points, since being tiny means they can encounter things like mold or run into undesirable areas like Pierce room which is filled with rotted food and stinky socks. Lila, being the tomboy of the group, isn't opposed to unsanitary actions like licking some candy off of Polly's shoes in one episode.
- Growling Gut: Polly gets this near the end of "Socially Awkward" when Lila mentions about the doughnuts Shani couldn't stop eating.
- Halloween Episode: "A Little Fright," "Halloween Queen," and "Follow the Apples."
- Hiccup Hijinks: Invoked by Shani in "Socially Awkward", where she pretends to have hiccups in order to hide a shrunken Polly and Nicolas from the principal.
- I Ate WHAT?!: Everyone at a restaurant that serves caviar has this reaction when Shani tells them caviar is fish eggs. Shani herself doesn't mind eating it.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: Polly has a magical locket that shrinks her and people who hold her hands.
- Insistent Terminology: In "Pocket Poltergeist", Lila says her idol Chloe Parmegiano doesn't walk. She "glides".
- Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Daisy the blind dog from "Littleton Pet Games". She's incredibly talented at flying disc catching, as long as she's playing with her own disc that emits sound when thrown.
- It's All About Me: Griselle is so obsessed with the locket that she actually calls it "[her] locket" several times, in spite of the fact it belongs to Polly's family.
- Kid Hero: Polly is a young girl, and is The Hero.
- Leprechaun: A leprechaun named Fred appears in "Lepre-Can't."
- Locked Out of the Loop: Any character who isn't Lila, Shani, Paxton, Nicholas and Grandma Penelope, and to a lesser extent the Grandes, to the Pocket Locket's power. Mom and Dad's website bio states the reason they're unaware is that they're always busy.
- Lovable Nerd: Shani is a bit nerdy and socially awkward, yet she's also very lovable and is such a geek for science fiction.
- MacGuffin: The Pocket Locket. Numerous villains want to use its power for their own evil purposes, Grizelle in particular. Which is why Polly has to keep the locket's powers a secret from everyone to avoid having them use it for its power.
- Minion with an F in Evil: Gwen usually goes along with her grandmother's schemes without question, but her lack of intelligence means she's not much use to her.
- Multinational Team: English-American Polly (Pia, her cousin in 2 Cool, is from England), black Shani, Scottish-American Lila, and in season 2, Polish-American Bella.
- Named by the Adaptation: In this series, Lila receives the surname "Draper". Shani also gets the surname "Smith".
- New Year Has Come: The "Polly Drops the Ball" two-parter takes place on New Year's Eve.
- Nice Girl: Polly tries to get along with everybody. She doesn't even harbor any personal feelings against her arch-enemy Griselle, she just wants to get away from her and stop her plans of ruling the world using the locket.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
- Half the time, Griselle's efforts to capture Polly and her locket are ruined by Gwen.
- Although Polly deserves credit too, Griselle helped Ms. Mentz's back recuperate by knocking her onto the floor giving her the perfect landing needed to straighten back her spine.
- Noodle Implements: In "Gwen the Great" Gwen starts to suggest a plan that involves her using her hot dog suit to pretend to be a hot dog, but Griselle interrupts before she can explain the rest.
- Our Fairies Are Different: Several fairies attend a party at Area Fifty-None in "Fred vs. Foot."
- Our Mermaids Are Different:
- In "Area Fifty-None," one the creatures housed there is a mermaid. She makes later reappearances when the facility is mentioned or seen.
- An entire kingdom of mermaids appears in the "Mermaid Kingdom" two-parter.
- Parental Abandonment: Gwen lives with her grandmother and her parents are never seen or mentioned.
- Pegasus: At the end of the "Mermaid Kingdom" two-parter, Polly accidentally teleports herself to a world full of pegasi.
- Pet the Dog: Griselle Grande to her granddaughter Gwen.
- In the Season 1 episode "Gwen the Great", when Gwen was in the same dance troupe as Polly, Lila and Shani, Gwen tried to steal the locket for herself, chasing the shrunken trio across the stage, ultimately ending with her getting praise from the audience and Griselle, who all thought she was doing an abstract dance. Considering how obsessed Griselle is with getting the locket and how annoyed she can be with Gwen, it nice to see her be proud of Gwen.
- In the Season 1 episode "Unlocketing the Past: Part 1" Griselle allowed Gwen to get a pet rat at the Resuce Farm Adopt-A-Thon, despite just failing to steal the locket.
- Powers in the First Episode: Polly receives the locket and shrinks for the first time in the first episode.
- Premiseville: The series is set in Littleton, where Polly, of course, uses a locket to make herself little.
- Quarter Hour Short: Beginning with the second season, episodes are now two side-by-side segments, while the third season shifted to single 11-minute increments.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: In "Vet on it", Polly asks if there's a better two-word combination than "snack buffet". Lila says "clearance sale" and Shani says "scientific discovery". Polly says it was a rhetorical question.
- Riddle for the Ages: In "Gwen the Great", what was Gwen's plan to get the locket that involved her wearing a hot dog suit?
- Secret Identity: Polly has to keep her locket's abilities secret to her family, especially her parents.
- Secret-Keeper: The only ones who know about the power of Polly's locket are Lila, Shani, Paxton and her grandmother, and later Nicholas and Bella. By Season 4, the rest of Polly's family is also in on the secret.
- The Series Has Left Reality: The series started relatively grounded, with Polly's shrinking power having a sci-fi explanation with the element pockite, but as the series went on more and more fantastical elements were added. Come "Sparkle Cove Adventure" pockite has become less scientific and more magical.
- Sequel Goes Foreign: The last few episodes of the first half of Season 3 shift the central location to Rainbow Funland.
- Shout-Out: Lila once sat next to a He-Man doll.
- Sixth Ranger: Nicholas finds out about the locket's power in "A Night to Remember" and, after being sworn to secrecy, joins Polly and her friends on their adventures.
- Smart Ball: Gwen occasionally picks this up, like in "The Con Job" when she sees through Polly and her friends pretending to be dolls.
- Solar System Neighbors: A Plutonian named Rosie hosts a party at Area Fifty-None in "Fred vs. Foot."
- Squee: The girls do this with joy after hearing Melody's new single in "Tiny Power."
- The Smart Guy: Shani is pretty intelligent and meant to balance Polly's personality.
- Stock Ness Monster: The aptly named "The Locket-Ness Monster" features lake monsters in Lake Ness.
- Stock Sound Effects: Sound effects from the Hanna-Barbera library are heard every so often.
- Through His Stomach: In "Dog-Gone Disaster", Polly finally gets Smidgen the dog to like her by feeding him some miniaturized steaks.
- Tooth Fairy: Two, one of whom is a tooth fairy in-training, appear in "Nothing But the Tooth."
- Town Girls: Skater chick/Science Whiz Polly (butch); shy, nerdy Shani (neither); and ditzy fashionista Lila (femme).
- Transformation Trinket: Polly's magical locket allows her to shrink or go big at any time and can shrink anyone who holds onto her hands.
- True Companions: Polly and her friends will do anything to help each other out in times of need.
- Ultimate Authority Mayor: The "A Night to Remember" two-parter invokes this at first; Griselle runs for mayor under a false identity, intending to use that authority to sign a decree that would force Polly to give her the locket, and ban dogs from public places (apparently, there is no city council to run such decisions by first). In the end, this is subverted, as the people of Littleton rise up against her, having her removed from office and arrested for her actions.
- Unicorn:
- A few unicorns attend a party at Area Fifty-None in "Fred vs. Foot."
- Polly and her family encounter a herd of miniature unicorns while out camping in "Mini Marshmallow."
- Underwater City: The Mermaid Kingdom, naturally.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
- In "Bear Necessities", this is how Polly and Shani react to encountering Bigfoot while searching for a bear that made off with Polly's shrunken camper.
- In "Adventures in Dragon-stting", at one point the bunny dragon lands on Griselle's head. Griselle can't see it, but Gwen can, and she doesn't find it at all weird.
- Villains Out Shopping: In "Adventures in Dragon-stting", while chasing a bunny dragon through the mall, Polly runs into Griselle and Gwen with shopping bags full of jars of pickles.
- We Used to Be Friends: Griselle and Penelope were once best friends. Then Griselle saw Penelope using the locket and became obsessed with it. After Penelope refused to sell Griselle the locket, Griselle tried to take it by force, resulting in both the locket and their friendship breaking.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The exact location of Littleton is unknown.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: A few days in Mermaid Kingdom are only a few seconds on Earth.
"Keep it, rock it, Polly Pocket, you can do it all!"
