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The Littl' Bits, known in Japan as Mori no Youkina Kobito-tachi: Belfy to Lillabit (Cheerful Dwarves of the Forest: Belfy and Lillabit) was a children's anime created by Tatsunoko in 1980, first aired on what is now TV Tokyo, then brought to North America by Saban Entertainment and shown on Nick Jr. and YTV in the early 1990s. It focused on a race of tiny people living in a place known as Foothill Forest, and emphasized harmony with nature and the animal kingdom. While the show usually had lessons to teach, it did so in a subtle, non-Anvilicious manner.

Contains examples of:


  • The Ace: Willabit is a minor version
  • Adults Are Useless: Subverted; the children go on a lot of wild adventures but their parents and other guardians are always there to worry about them and help them out.
    • Played straight on a few occasions though. In "Election Day," it falls to the kids to remind the apathetic adults of their civic duty to vote. And then there's "The Wanderbits," in which the kids only convince the adults to let Lillibit's parents stay by threatening to leave the village along with Lillibit.
  • Art Shift: Some episodes had two different chief animators handling different halves of the episode, and eagle-eyed viewers can notice the differences between the different art styles.
  • Beach Episode: "Let's Go To The Sea".
  • Betty and Veronica: Gender-flipped and averted; while the two guys fought over the girl, Lillibit made her preference for Willabit perfectly clear, and saw Snagglebit as just a friend.
  • Bowdlerise: Uncle Snoozabit was originally a habitual drinker; in English they edited that to his being simply lazy (though his red nose is a dead giveaway). And what was obviously wine that he was drinking was explained away as "dandelion juice."
  • Children Are Innocent
  • Clear My Name: Susiebit, whose mother suffers from severe allergies due to pollen from Mayor Bossabit's flower garden, is the prime suspect when said flowers are apparently trampled, and Willibit and Lillibit set out to help Susie prove her innocence. The culprit: moles.
  • The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Snagglebit, sort of. He tended to argue with the others and want his own way a lot, but he was never painted as a bad person because of it or humiliated into learning a lesson every episode. Anytime he did mess up and get called on it, he was forgiven and made an effort to do better.
  • Cultural Translation: Although the original Japanese version predated "The Smurfs", the show did not make its way Stateside until the early 1990s, thus the reason why a "Smurf"-like naming scheme is used in the English version. Most other versions of the show kept the original Japanese names for the characters or some variation thereof, but in English, Belfy became "Lillibit", Lillibit became "Willibit" (yes, Lillibit was the name of the male, and not the female, lead in the original), Chuchuna became "Teenybit" and so on. The English name changes even carried over into some later European dubs (i.e. Dutch).
  • A Day in the Limelight: "Doctor Snoozabit" for Chip and "The Mystical Monument" for Browniebit.
  • The Determinator: Willibit. He'll do anything to help a friend (especially Lillibit), and he'll never give up, even if it means putting his own life in danger (and it almost does cause his own death in "The Winter Strawberries").
    • Chip in episode 2. He wants to be a doctor and he won't take no for an answer, he'll even wait out in the rain until Dr. Snoozabit agrees to take him on as an assistant.
  • Dub Name Change: While most foreign dubs of the series retained the original names of Belfy for the female lead and Lillibit for the male, two notable exceptions are English (where Belfy became Lillibit, and Lillibit is Willibit) and French (Lutinette and Lutinou). Other characters who underwent name changes in the English dub include: Napoleon to Snagglebit, Chuchuna to Teenybit, Dr. Docklin to Dr. Snoozabit, Monga (the flying squirrel) to Snuffly, Pion (the hedgehog) to Blue, Margie to Scarybit, and so on.
  • Friend to All Living Things: Lillibit, so much that she can even communicate with animals
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Snagglebit's feelings for Lillibit every now and then. And if he gets to do something with Lillibit (like skating) and Willibit can't come along, he delights in rubbing Willibit's nose in it.
    • In "Madam Bella the Weaver," Rosiebit, jealous of Lillibit's weaving talent, steals Lillibit's yellow dye to sabotage Lillibit's chances of winning a contest to determine the village's next head weaver. Her jealousy puts Lillibit's life in danger, as Lillibit undertakes a dangerous journey to get flowers for more dye.
  • Hey, It's That Studio! Would you believe that this was created by the same studio that made Speed Racer? Or Science Ninja Team Gatchaman?
    • On the other hand, so was Superbook, which this show predates by a year, and actually used many of the same staff.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Willibit's Japanese voice actress would go on to voice Krillin, Ryuunosuke Fujinami, and perhaps most famously, Monkey D. Luffy. Lillibit has the same seiyuu in Japanese as Yuki Mori, and her uncle also voiced Suneo in Doraemon for over 25 years.
  • It Was with You All Along: Browniebit's quest to find a certain feather he was told would grant him courage. Though he failed to actually get it, the fact that he'd climbed a treacherous mountain in order to find it was bravery in and of itself.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Snagglebit and his father, Mayor Bossabit
  • Keep Circulating the Tapes: These are pretty much your only means of getting the show on video or DVD.
  • Let's Get Dangerous: Willibit epitomizes this - if Lillibit's in danger, he'll save her, or die trying. And then there's Lillibit's uncle. Dr. Snoozabit is a lazy drunk, but when there's serious medical business to be dealt with he'll do it 110%. Even if he himself is in pain after falling into a hole.
  • Lilliputians: The Spanish dub even refers to the protagonists' village as Lilliput.
  • Lost Episode: Four episodes are extremely rare in English. One of these four, "Winter Strawberries," was dubbed but not shown on Nickelodeon (likely due to its dark themes, including death; Willibit himself nearly dies in the course of the episode). However, its English dub has been found and posted on YouTube; the other three dubbed episodes remain missing, though they were shown on Nickelodeon.
  • Mouse World
  • My God, What Have I Done?: In "The Mystical Monument". Snagglebit, after being a first-class Jerkass to Browniebit over losing a bullfrog rodeo, immediately regrets his behavior when he finds out Browniebit has gone off to explore a dangerous cave. He even outright admits it's his fault.
    • "Help the Squirrel": Willibit and Snagglebit attack a squirrel for stealing their picnic basket, only to learn that the squirrel was a mother gathering food for her hungry babies and has developed a dangerously high fever as the result of the boys' actions and may even die. The boys trek into the mountains to gather ice to bring down the mother squirrel's fever.
    • "Madam Bella the Weaver": Rosiebit tries to sabotage Lillibit's chances of becoming the village's next head weaver (a position Rosiebit, being Madam Bella's granddaughter, believes is rightfully hers) by breaking Lillibit's jar of yellow dye. When she learns that Willibit and Lillibit went into the snowy, avalanche-plagued mountains to get flowers for replacement dye, Rosie realizes her jealousy has put her friends' lives in danger, and is remorseful.
    • Even the normally sweet-tempered Lillibit (Belfy) had such a moment in the episode "Earthquake!"... she yelled at Snuffly (the flying squirrel) after he kept disrupting her play with Willibit and Snagglebit, and only after he ran away as a result did she realize how she'd hurt his feelings.
  • Names to Know In Anime: Aside from the studio (Tatsunoko), there was composer Takeo Watanabe (of Cutie Honey and Heidi fame) and episode director Mizuho Nishikubo, who later worked on Miyuki, The Mysterious Cities Of Gold, Zillion, and Video Girl Ai. The series director, Masayuki Hayashi, is the brother of Ninja Scroll and Metropolis director Rintaro (nee Shigeyuki Hayashi). Shigeru Yanagawa, who co-created the series, would go on to be a prolific screenwriter on shows like Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2, and Sailor Moon, to name just a few.
  • The Napoleon: Snagglebit. His original name even was Napoleon!
  • Parental Abandonment: Lillibit is an orphan who lives with her uncle. It's later revealed that her parents are actually still alive, but were members of a shunned race called Wanderbits and gave up their daughter so she could live a happy life in Foothill Forest.
    • Missing Mom: Snagglebit's mother died when he was very young.
  • Plucky Girl: Lillibit. In "Let's Go to the Sea," she resents the boys leaving her out of their plans just because she's a girl.
  • Tagalong Kid: Willabit's sister Teenybit
  • Three Plus Two: Snagglebit, Willabit and Lillibit are the lead trio. Chip and Browniebit are Snagglebit's close friends outside the two others and while important, they don't get so much face time as the former three. Late in the series, a third boy (called Ricky in the English dub) joined their posse.
  • Two Guys and a Girl: Lillibit, Willabit and Snagglebit most of the time
  • Wham! Episode: The end of the series gives us not one, but two: in episode 25, the revelation that Lillibit's parents are actually alive, and then the earthquake that destroys the village in episode 26.
  • You Are What You Hate: A Lighter and Softer version with Snagglebit. He picks on Browniebit for being a coward (especially in Browniebit's Day in the Limelight episode), despite being quite the coward himself!