Spot (franchise)


Spot is a children's book series by English author and illustrator Eric Hill. The success of Hill's books about Spot led to other media productions, including television and home video titles, music albums, and CD-ROM titles.

History

First published in 1980, Where's Spot? was inspired while Hill was working in creative marketing; he noticed that his three-year-old son was fascinated by the process of lifting up a paper, on a design that he was creating. Captivated by this thought, Hill created a story about a puppy which incorporated the flap design. During the late 1970s, this was an extraordinarily innovative concept, and it took some time for any publisher to take any notice of the idea before Puffin books decided to publish his book. Within weeks of the first book being released it topped the Bestseller list.
Hill said that, "When I first drew Spot I realised that when I came to draw the spot on his body and the tip of his tail I was copying the markings on an aircraft. I grew up drawing aircraft – that is how I learned to draw. "I am quite convinced now, as I look back, that the actual training of drawing cartoons – which is, of course, my style – led to my producing Spot. Cartoons must be very simple and have as few words as possible and so must the Spot books. I designed Spot out of my previous background as a designer and illustrator. It was quite unconscious but I can see now that I have created a ready-made trademark of its kind, with the essential spot on the body and a bit on the tail."
Over time, the book was translated into more than sixty languages. In the Afrikaans version of the book Spot is translated to "Otto", widely believed to be the surname of a South African friend of Hill's. This name has been attributed to Spot, as many of the books were believed to be inspired by the life of aforementioned friend, J. Otto. In the Netherlands, Spot is known as Dribbel.

Characters

Main characters

  • Spot – The protagonist of the series. A yellow puppy with a brown spot on each side of his body and a brown tip on his tail. Spot's breed is never directly mentioned in the books, but bears some similarities to a beagle or a golden retriever; his parents share this resemblance. Spot is full of curiosity, helpfulness, and a huge desire to learn.
  • Sally – Spot's mother. She is also yellow and has a brown spot on her back that goes around the back of her body, as well as two brown spots on each side of her body and a brown tip on her tail. Much of the first story, Where's Spot?, involves her wandering around the house looking for Spot.
  • Sam – Spot's father. He is also yellow, but without any spots on his body.
  • Susie – Spot's little sister, she is yellow but has a brown spot on her back. Like her big brother Spot, Susie also appears to be a mixed breed.
  • Helen – A blue hippo who is Spot's best friend. She is dark blue and she has sags under her eyes in the first series of The Adventures of Spot. In later episodes of the first series, she is redesigned with a more youthful and less intimidating appearance, and is light blue without the sags under her eyes. Starting with the second series, she becomes a more lighter shade of blue.
  • Steve – A brown monkey with a tan face, who is playful, full of surprises and Spot’s second best friend.
  • Tom – A green crocodile who is Spot's third best friend. In the first series of The Adventures of Spot, he was dark green with white eye sacs, rather sharp-looking incisors and the inside of his mouth was red. Starting with later episodes of the first series, similar to Helen, he was also redesigned with a more youthful and less intimidating appearance, losing the sharp incisors and white eye sacs. In the second series, he is a lighter shade of green. He loves going fishing. Tom also loves playing with the drums, considered to be his favourite instrument. His dad is the mayor of the town.
  • Ginger – A ginger cat who appears in the books as the family pet.

    Supporting characters

  • Grandma – Spot's maternal grandmother and Sally's mother. She appears in the book Spot Visits His Grandparents and the video Spot and his Grandparents Go to the Carnival.
  • Grandpa – Spot's maternal grandfather and Sally's father. He appears in the book Spot Visits His Grandparents and the video Spot and his Grandparents Go to the Carnival.
  • Miss Bear – A brown bear who is Spot's preschool teacher. She first appeared in Spot Goes to School.

    Minor characters

  • Billy — A brown bear who loves to eat.
  • Betsy – A brown bear who only appears in Spot Goes to the Circus. She is one of the characters who takes Spot's ball, and insists its hers when Spot asks for it.
  • Clare – A green turtle who is one of Spot's classmates and appears in Spot Goes to School. She is the only other girl in Spot's nursery/preschool class besides Helen.
  • Sidney – A yellow-green snake.
  • Sybil – An orange cat who is the series' antagonist. She has a very rude personality, as seen in the episodes Spot's Lost Bone and Spot's First Walk as well as the book based on the latter episode. She appears only in the first series of The Adventures of Spot. In the U.S., her rude personality was toned down.
  • Mr. Kangaroo – Spot's neighbour, a brown kangaroo who speaks in an Australian accent, since kangaroos are only found in Australia. He appears only in the first series of The Adventures of Spot.
  • Leo – An orange lion.
  • Steve's Mom – Steve's mother. She appears only in Spot Sleeps Over. She is voiced by Linda Gary.
  • The Mayor – Tom's dad. He appears only in Spot Goes to the Carnival and the book from the book series Spot Goes to School. He does not speak.

    Books

Since 1980, with the success of Where's Spot?, the late Eric Hill went on to write and illustrate numerous other books, with most being translated into Welsh, some have also been translated into Scottish Gaelic, and Where's Spot? has been translated into Cornish.
  • Where's Spot?
  • Spot's First Walk
  • Spot's Birthday Party
  • Spot Goes to School
  • Spot Goes on Holiday
  • Spot Goes to the Farm
  • Spot's First Easter
  • Spot's Goes to a Party
  • 'Spot Visits his Grandparents'''''

    List of Spot sound books

In the 1990s, a number of books were released with sound effects, produced by Publications International and published by Frederick Warne. The U.S. edition of the sound books were somewhat different from the UK editions of the book. The text in these editions is slightly altered, and in some cases, the title is changed as well. They are produced and published by Publications International.

Book design

The books are set in the typeface Century Schoolbook Infant, a very rare, single-story version of Century Schoolbook.

Television

With the success of the books, the BBC commissioned an animated series, which first appeared on 9 April 1987; with Paul Nicholas providing the narration, and re-narrated in 2000 by Jane Horrocks. The series aired on television channel across the world, including RTÉ in Ireland, with the series dubbed into Irish Gaelic with the title Echtrai Bhrain. A DVD version was released in Japan in 2005 with Japanese, English and instrumental audio tracks. The DVDs used the same name for Spot as the books in Japan, that being コロちゃん. The series aired on Playhouse Disney and CBeebies.
In February 2024, it was announced a new animated series is currently in production from Guru Studio, which marks a revival.

''The Adventures of Spot'': series 1 (1987)

The first series of The Adventures of Spot, which was animated and produced by King Rollo Films, aired on the BBC between 9 April and 17 July 1987. It consisted of 13 episodes, each 5 minutes long. The episodes were narrated by Paul Nicholas and the music was composed by Duncan Lamont.
Episodes in this series:
  1. "Spot's Surprise Parcel"
  2. "Spot's Lost Bone"
  3. "Spot's First Walk"
  4. "Spot in the Woods"
  5. "Spot's Birthday Party"
  6. "Where's Spot?"
  7. "Sweet Dreams, Spot"
  8. "Spot Goes to School"
  9. "Spot Goes to the Circus"
  10. "Spot Follows His Nose"
  11. "Spot Goes Splash"
  12. "Spot's Windy Day"
  13. "Spot Goes to the Beach"

    ''The Adventures of Spot'': series 2 (1993)

The second series of The Adventures of Spot aired between 6 September and 20 December 1993, and, like the first series, consisted of 13 5-minute episodes. Once again, the episodes were produced by King Rollo Films. Paul Nicholas returned as the voices and Duncan Lamont returned as composer of the music.
Episodes in this series:
  1. "Spot Goes to the Farm"
  2. "Spot Sleeps Over"
  3. "Spot Makes a Cake"
  4. "Spot Goes to the Park"
  5. "Spot Finds a Key"
  6. "Spot in the Garden"
  7. "Spot Goes to a Party"
  8. "Spot's Winter Sports"
  9. "Spot Goes to the Fair"
  10. "Spot's Favorite Toy"
  11. "Spot's First Picnic"
  12. "Spot at the Playground"
  13. "Storytime with Spot"

    ''Spot's Musical Adventures'' (2000)

Spot's Musical Adventures, similar to The Adventures of Spot, aired between 25 October and 10 November 2000. Like The Adventures of Spot, this series consisted of thirteen episodes, but this time, with a short song in them. The format of the series reverted to the narration format used prior to the specials. For these episodes, however, comedian Jane Horrocks was given the role of the narrator and voices, instead of Paul Nicholas. The episodes and the songs were all written by Andrew Brenner, and the songs were performed by American London-based actor Dan Russell. The music was also composed by Kick Production.
Episodes:
  1. "Spot's Show"
  2. "Spot's Treehouse"
  3. "Spot's Breakfast"
  4. "Spot's Horse"
  5. "Spot's Grandpa"
  6. "Spot's Umbrella"
  7. "Spot's Band"
  8. "Spot's Bath"
  9. "Spot's Tent"
  10. "Spot Tidies Up"
  11. "Spot Helps Grandma"
  12. "Spot's School Trip"
  13. "Hide and Seek"