Mr Bump. Little Miss Sunshine. Mr Tickle. Little Miss Brave. They’re all back thanks to a new animated series created by Maga, an animation studio in Italy.
Since 1971, the Mr Men and Little Miss characters created by Roger and Adam Hargreaves have entertained children and inspired creatives worldwide. While we think of them as a quintessentially English creation, they’re an international phenomenon. When rights owner Sanrio decided to create a new YouTube series featuring 12 of the Mr Men and Little Misses, Maga Animation Studio in Monza, Italy, stepped up to the task.
Bringing characters designed over 50 years ago to life in 2025 meant some updating would be necessary. The creative team at Maga wanted to preserve the spirit of the original Hargreaves creations while attracting a new generation. The graphic qualities of the books – which have inspired everyone from graffiti artists to logo designers – formed the starting point for the look.
“The idea was to keep the simplicity of the elements and the originality of the shapes,” says art director and production designer Alessia Garofalo. “In the books, there is a lot of breathing space, so we chose not to overload the backgrounds with too many elements to not lose this lightness. We initially experimented with different possibilities, like adding textures and shades, but the use of flat colours was the best choice to preserve the authenticity of the brand and the original design.”
However, whereas in the books, you’ll notice that the heavy linework of the characters is often replicated in the background, for the animated series, a lighter approach was chosen. This decision was taken in consultation with Sanrio’s UK team. “We also worked together to enhance the colour palettes, making them more lively and vibrant,” says Alessia.
The storyboard sketches.
Planning a transition.
Toon Boom Storyboard Pro.
These creative decisions set the stage for putting the Mr Men and Little Miss characters in motion, which was the domain of director and animation supervisor Francesca Peitrobelli. The in-print characters were studied in detail to ensure the animators wouldn’t miss a single nuance or trait. The focus was on creating motion that was fluid, simple, theatrical and charming, with a touch of humour.
“The pose-to-pose style was perfect for these animated shorts that are meant to resemble an illustrated book coming to life and to keep the characters consistently aligned with their original models,” explains Francesca. “For the same reason, in each episode, there are scenography transitions with elements entering and exiting from all directions, similar to a theatrical set changing as the characters perform.”
The characterisation of each Mr Man and Little Miss was planned before animation began, taking into account their visual forms as well as their dialogue and the expressions and emotions they’d need to convey.
“For example, Little Miss Princess needs to have sweet and shy poses, and when she laughs or cries, it needs to be more restrained. On the other hand, Little Miss Surprise and Little Miss Sunshine express their enthusiasm in everything they do with open poses and a constant smile. On the contrary, Mr Grumpy has more closed-off poses and a sad or angry mouth, except when he explodes with anger,” says Francesca.
A traditional, paperless 2D animation process was followed, utilising Toon Boom Harmony, with pose-to-pose animation rigs supported by a custom-built library to achieve consistency and efficiency. Compositing was also carried out in Harmony.
Left to right Francesca Pietrobelli, Serena Beltrame, Eleonora Di Nardo; front centre Alessia Garofalo.
“I became very fond of Little Miss Princess because she’s a bit clumsy and awkward,” says Francesca.
“While working on this series, I grew very fond of Little Miss Sunshine, who really inspired me with her positive energy and optimist view of life, even though I think it’s totally fine to relate more to Mr Grumpy sometimes,” adds Alessia.
