The Littl' Bits (1980)
The Littl' Bits is a Japanese anime television series with 26 episodes, produced in 1980 by Tatsunoko Productions in Japan. First shown on TV Tokyo, its Saban-produced English translation was featured on the children's television station Nick Jr. from 1991 to 1995 alongside other children's anime series such as Adventures of the Little Koala, Maya the Bee, Noozles, The Mysterious Cities of Gold. Due to their similar size and naming scheme, an analogy is often drawn between the Littl' Bits and the Smurfs.
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Episode 1 - The Children's Festival
Release Date: 1980-01-07Every Spring there is a festival in Foothill forest for the children. One of the traditions of the festival is the election of a "king" and "queen" of the festival. Snagglebit is so sure that he is going to be voted "king" he has even made a wreath for Lillibit whom he believes will be elected "queen."
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Episode 2 - Doctor Snoozeabit
Release Date: 1980-01-14Chip has been inspired to become a doctor like Lillabit's uncle, Dr. Snoozeabit. But he may find it harder than he thinks.
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Episode 3 - The Old Mill Stream
Release Date: 1980-01-21Willibit and his family, and Lillibit are helping the Bakeabits preparing the pastries and cakes for a wedding. All is going along fine except that for some reason the mill seems to be slowing down. Mr. Bakeabit and Mr. Grumpabit investigate and discover that the reason is because the stream that powers the mill is slowing down to a trickle.
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Episode 4 - The Rainbow Firefly
Release Date: 1980-01-28Several Miners disappear in a cave. When Mayor Bossabit and some men hear about the disappearence they decide to launch a search party to find the miners. Elderbit tells the Lillibit, Willibit, Snagglebit, and a couple other boys about the legend of the Rainbow Firefly which has been rumored to live in the area of the caves.
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Episode 5 - Election Day
Release Date: 1980-02-04It is November in Foothill Forest and all the adult littlebits are concerned with the winter harvest preparations. Mayor Bossabit however is busy running for mayor once again. He has a little lunch party and invites the children over. The children enjoy various desserts that Helpabit made. Confusing democracy with monarchy Snagglebit says that he will automatically be mayor after his father. Chip and Willibit tell Snagglebit that the only way that he can be mayor is if he gets elected.
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Episode 6 - Scarybit the Witch
Release Date: 1980-02-11An old witch, called Scarybit, has lived alone all of her life because everyone is afraid of her. All except Tinibit.
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Episode 7 - Winter Strawberries
Release Date: 1980-02-18Lillabit, Chip and Browniebit fall into a deathlike coma (referred to as "cold sleep") after drinking some tainted water, and Willibit and Snagglebit set out in search of the legendary Winter Strawberries, said to be the only thing that can revive their friends.
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Episode 8 - The Snow Woman
Release Date: 1980-02-25Snagglebit has always tried to impress Lillibit. He tries to impress her with his sledding skills by letting her ride with him, but unfortunately the sled ends up crashing into Elderbit. Elderbit tells them to watch out for such behavior or the Legendary Snow Woman will get them. Willibit comes over in time to see what happened after Elderbit leaves. Snagglebit says he isn't scared by Elderbit's storey, but Lillibit says that she "sees a castle" in her dreams. Lillibit wonders if there really is a castle over the mountain ridge. Snagglebit looks up in the sky and then gets an idea.
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Episode 9 - Save the Raccoon!
Release Date: 1980-03-03A hockey match between Willbit, Lillibit, Snagglebit, Chip, and Browniebit; vs. a bully named Ivn and his teammates decides the fate of a baby raccoon. Lillibit let's the raccoon go without telling anyone. At first her friends are mad at her, but then Willibit assures them that she only did what she thought was best for the raccoon. It's a good thing to because when the ice on the lake breaks the baby raccoon and his family come to rescue the children.
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Episode 10 - Madam Bella the Weaver
Release Date: 1980-03-10As the granddaughter of Madam Bella the Weaver, Rosiebit is convinced that she should win the weaving contest. Lillibit is also in the contest, but she really doesn't want to win all she wants to do is make a yellow dress for Teeneybit (Willibit's sister). However Rosiebit becomes convinced that Lillibit is going to win when she overhears Madam Bella say that she thinks Lillibit will win to Elderbit and Mayor Bossabit.
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Episode 11 - The Baby Bears
Release Date: 1980-03-17Lillibit befriend a baby bear cub that the rest of the village think is dangerous. When the villagers try to scare the bear cub off Lillibit gets angry. Her uncle Dr. Snoozabit tries to tell her that the only reason that they are trying to drive the bear from the village is for his own saftey as well as the villagers, but Lillibit won't hear any of it. She runs off with the bear cub and plays with him until his mother calls for him. She urges her ursine friend on to his mother, but is sad when he leaves. Lillibit is sad, but then someone calls her name. She turns around and sees her uncle who tells her that the village was only doing what they thought was right, and that while the bear cub is gone Lillibit isn't alone because the people of the village will always be there for her.
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Episode 12 - Looking at the Stars
Release Date: 1980-03-24Williebit, Lillibit, and Snagglebit are over at Lillibit's house talking in partial boredom until Willibit accidentally tears the leaf off of a plant that Lillibit had. Despite her protests that her Uncle Snoozabit should not be bothered the two boys go to the next room to see if he can help them with the plant. When they see him they find him looking through a telescope. The children forget about the plant and become curios about the telescope that Snoozabit has. He lets each of them take turns useing it and then tells them to wait until night so that they can see the stars through it. While it is her turn to look through the telescope Lillibit sees a shooting star. Willibit and Snagglebit also see the shooting star. The next day Dr. Snoozabit has Fixabit build him a bigger telescope. He has an idea to put the telescope on top of Mount So-High, which is the highest point in Foothill Forest.
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Episode 13 - Poor Old Helpabit
Release Date: 1980-04-07Mayor Bossabit decides to enter a honey-making contest with the help of Helpabit whose has a secret family recipe that promises to make great honey with blue lovelies (a type of flower found in Foothill Forest) which happens to grow in the Mayor's garden. The children help Helpabit gather flowers for the honey along with a little aid from Grumpabit.
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Episode 14 - Storm Baby
Release Date: 1980-04-14 -
Episode 15 - The Mystical Monument
Release Date: 1980-04-21When Snagglebit and his friends accuse Browniebit of making them lose a bull-frog rodeo because of his cowardice, Browniebit decides that he must really be a coward. He comes across Elderbit who tells him the storey of the Feather of Courage. According to Elderbit anyone who possess this feather will automatically get great courage. He then tells Browniebit that the feather is supposedly in the Mystical Monument.
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Episode 16 - Help the Squirrel
Release Date: 1980-04-28Willibit and Snagglebit injure a squirrel by making it fall from a tree. The next day they and Lillibit find the squirrel very sick in a tree with a concerned squirrel family around. Dr. Snoozabit is called up and even he has his doubts about weather of not the squirrel can be saved because of her high fever. Willibit and Snagglebit get the idea to the top of a mountain where there is ice on top.
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Episode 17 - Legend Of Red Light
Release Date: 1980-05-05After hearing one of Elderbit's stories about the time that he and a group of miners were in a cave and how they were nearly harmed by a red light that Elderbit claimed was a demon light; Willibit, Lillibit, and Snagglebit decide to go into the cave to search for this light as well. However disaster strikes. There is a cave-in and Snagglebit is hurt. Willibit and Lillibit wonder how they are going to get out of the cave because no one knows they are there to help them and Snagglebit out.
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Episode 18 - The Cowardly Colt
Release Date: 1980-05-12Dr. Snoozabit tells Willibit, Lillibit and Teeneybit about horses. Willibit asks if he's seen a horse and Snoozabit tells him that horses can be seen in a big field downstream. Although it is off limits to children, Snoozabit says that when he was young he wanted to see the horses so bad that it didn't matter. However he says that he had lost his nerve and didn't see any horses
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Episode 19 - The Strange Egg
Release Date: 1980-05-19While out having a picnic one day Lillibit, Willibit, and Snagglebit come across an egg floating in the river. They take the egg back to the village and Willibit shows it to his parents and asks if he can keep it. Fearing that there might be a monster inside his father tells him no and that they should take the egg away from the village.
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Episode 20 - Let's Go to the Sea (1)
Release Date: 1980-05-26Willibit discovers some fish trapped in a pond. He wants to keep it a secret so he isn't real happy when Lillibit not only finds out about it, but also tells Bakeabit the town baker about the fish. Willibit draws him a picture of one of the fish in the dirt with a pipe stick, and Bakeabit tells them that the fish are probably trapped salmon and that the two children should try to free the salmon.
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Episode 21 - Let's Go to the Sea (2)
Release Date: 1980-06-02 -
Episode 22 - The Red Rainbow
Release Date: 1980-06-09It is an incredibly hot day and Scareybit is not at all happy about it. Infact she is in such a crabby mood that she scares off a bunch of the children playing in a pond. Teeneybit however stays behind and decides to take Scarybit to Dr. Snoozabit. At Snoozabit's Snoozabit treats Scareybit and yells at Willibit and Lillibit for running off and leaving Teeneybit behind. A storm comes along and temporarily grounds them nside with its severity.
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Episode 23 - Earthquake!
Release Date: 1980-06-16Lillibit is playing with her friends, well at least trying to. Snuffly the flying squirrle wants to be a part of the fun too so he just keeps getting in Lillibit's way and Lillibit gets mad at him for it. Later on when Lillibit can't find Snuffly she and Willibit ask her uncle Dr. Snoozabit to help them. After being told what happened Snoozabit tells Lillibit that she needs to apologize to Snuffly and respect his as well as all the animals' of the forest feelings.
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Episode 24 - Forget-Me-Nots
Release Date: 1980-06-23While visiting at Lilibit's house, Willibit and Lillibit notice that Mayor Bossabit is going off to his garden. Willie wonders why flowers are so important to the Mayor. Dr. Snoozabit tells Willibit and Lillibit that flowers, especially forget-me-nots, have a special importanence to Mayor Bossabit because they bring him memories of his late wife, Mrs. Bossabit.
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Episode 25 - The Wanderbits
Release Date: 1980-06-30Two mysterious wanderers are found in bad shape in the village by Snag and some of his friends. Later Lillibit notices that her uncle is acting strange. First he nervously insists that everything is perfectly fine after he has gotten back from the Bakeabits. Then Dr. Snoozabit accidentally slips and asks Lillibit if she would like to see her parents whom Lillibit knows to be dead.
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Episode 26 - Awful, Awful Days
Release Date: 1980-07-07Strange weather is plauging Foothill Forest. When the village suffers a few small tremors and a small earth quake they then feel they are safe. Grumpabit knows differently though. He has been digging a cave in the mountains because his father told him that a massive earthquake would occur in Foothill Forest and that the small tremors were a precursor to the big earthquake. Grumpabit warns the villagers and soon everyone is rushing out of the village end heading up to Grumpabit's cave for saftey.