Littlest Pet Shop is a Flash-animated musical children's television series produced by DHX Media and Hasbro Studios. The series is based on the Littlest Pet Shop and Blythe toylines by Hasbro and was broadcast on Discovery Family from November 10, 2012 to June 4, 2016. It centers on Blythe Baxter, a teen girl who, after moving into an apartment in a city named Downtown City, gains the ability to communicate with animals.^[2] Located below her apartment is the eponymous pet store where Blythe works and talks to a group of pets who regularly reside at a daycare in the shop. Worried that a corrupt rival business might drive their shop out of business, it is up to Blythe to drive business into the store with her pet fashion designs.

The series received praise from reviewers for its writing and characters. However, it was criticized for its embedded marketing. Additionally, several crew members received accolades for working on the series. The series was part of the company's franchise reboot. Hasbro released a new line of Littlest Pet Shop toys designed to more closely resemble the characters on the series. A mobile game and comic book adaptation were also made.

The series follows Blythe Baxter, a young girl living with her airplane pilot father, Roger. Forced to move out from her suburban hometown following her father's promotion to the rank of airline captain, she moves into an apartment located in a place called Downtown City. Their complex is located above the eponymous Littlest Pet Shop—a pet shop that also serves as a day camp for numerous pets—where Blythe works as a fashion designer. Her adventure begins when she discovers that she alone can miraculously understand and talk to the pets that regularly stay at the shop, in addition to most other animals on the planet. As she and the pets spend time together, they find the pet shop jeopardized by a larger pet store managed by Fisher Biskit and his snotty twin daughters Brittany and Whittany Biskit. To avoid being dispersed, the pets convince Blythe to remain an employee.

The pets who reside in the day camp of the shop are Pepper Clark, a wisecracking striped skunk who is passionate about comedy; Minka Mark, a bouncy spider monkey with a love for painting and visual arts; Penny Ling, a sensitive giant panda interested in rhythmic gymnastics; Russell Ferguson, a hedgehog who is often the self-appointed leader of his animal bunkmates; Sunil Nevla, an Indian mongoose and hopeful magician; Vinnie Terrio, a clumsy gecko obsessed with dancing; and Zoe Trent, a diva-like Cavalier King Charles Spaniel with a talent for singing. Other human characters include Mrs. Anna Twombly, owner of the shop and Blythe's boss; and Youngmee Song, Jasper Jones, and Sue Patterson; Blythe's friends.^[3]

Hasbro owns the rights of both Blythe and Littlest Pet Shop, toy lines respectively introduced in 1972 and 1992.^[4] Both lines were originally manufactured by Cincinnati-based Kenner Products. Kenner became a part of Hasbro when the Pawtucket-based company acquired Tonka (the parent company of Kenner back then) in 1991. Hasbro sold Littlest Pet Shop toys under the name of this division until they closed down Kenner's original Cincinnati headquarters in 2000.^[5] Claster Television, Hasbro's television arm at the time, had produced an earlier animated show based on Littlest Pet Shop in 1995 for Hasbro,^[6] but the 2012 Littlest Pet Shop series marked the first adaptation of the Blythe doll to a character on television. A prior incarnation of such a character is the protagonist of Littlest Pet Shop Presents, an unrelated animated miniseries produced by Cosmic Toast Studios and released by Hasbro exclusively on the internet.^[7]

Julie McNally-Cahill and Tim Cahill, the creators of Cartoon Network's My Gym Partner's a Monkey, developed Littlest Pet Shop upon joining Hasbro Studios in September 2011.^[8] The two serve as both executive producers and story editors on the show; also working as executive producers are Chris Bartleman and Kirsten Newman.^[8] The show was announced in March 2011,^[9] based on Hasbro's 2010 introduction of the Blythe Loves Littlest Pet Shop toy line.^[10] Margaret Loesch, then-CEO of the Hub Network—a network partly owned by Hasbro and Discovery Communications—commissioned the series.^[11]

Given Hasbro's framework for Littlest Pet Shop, the Cahills pitched their adaptation of the property. Hasbro originally felt discouraged over having the show set at the pet store, finding the exchange of animals they thought would come from that disconcerting. The Cahills saw the studio's definition of such stores as antiquated, convincing them that most modern locations provide grooming and daycare services as opposed to merely selling pets. Production followed quickly, to their surprise.^[8]

The studio defined only Blythe and the pets as characters, so the Cahills sought to expand the human character's fictional universe, designing Blythe's friends, Mrs. Twombly and the Biskit twins.^[8] Julie explained that she and her husband's preference for quirky comedy inspired that of the show. While the show is aimed at a demographic of young girls,^{[lower-alpha 2]} Julie explain that she and the writers attempt to cater to boys of the same age and parent viewers simultaneously.^[13] Original music for the show is accomplished by film and television composers Daniel Ingram and Steffan Andrews.^[8] Ingram wrote that the urban setting of Littlest Pet Shop prompted the use of a modern style of music. The score incorporates pop and different cultural influences for the same reason.^[14] Ingram found Hasbro's pushing of the limitations for music in daytime television a source of pride.

Each 22-minute episode takes approximately a year to complete; three to four episodes are produced simultaneously. Storyboard artists depict scenes using SketchBook Pro. Adapting these boards to limited animation, studio DHX Media handles the designs, poses, and keyframes of movement for each character appearing in a given scene for an episode, as well as background art. DHX hands these assets to a separate studio, where the remaining animation is finished using Adobe Flash. The speed of production is throttled slightly by Blythe having two unique outfits per episode, according to director Joel Dickie.^[8] Supervising director Dallas Parker similarly explained that the variety of assets created for each episode challenged the process of Flash animation in reusing movements.^[13]

Littlest Pet Shop became one of the Hub Network's top programs in 2013.^[26] Both the show and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic were outperforming shows aimed at similar demographics internationally, according to Stephen Davis, president of Hasbro Studios.^[27] Hasbro rebooted their toy line in accordance with the show; newer collections features customizable sets for fans to "create, decorate and personalize their own scenes" inspired by episodes.^[28]

Writing for the parent-focused organization Common Sense Media, Emily Ashby found the show unimpressive. She praised Blythe as a model of "integrity, self-confidence, loyalty, and creativity" but found fault with product placement and the "run-of-the-mill" pet characters.^[12] Mercedes Milligan of Animation Magazine, however, described the varied personalities of the pet characters as the most endearing trait of the show.^[13] Writing in Entertainment Weekly, Hillary Busis found the Biskit twins amusing as characters.^[15] Busis praised the twenty-first episode of the first season in particular, which contains a parody of both Toddlers & Tiaras and the Christopher Guest–directed film Best in Show.^[29] An homage to Star Trek was singled out by Hanh Nguyen in TV Guide.^[30]

Tori Michel of About Entertainment gave praise to a DVD set containing five episodes of the first season. She wrote that despite the intended demographic, older children in elementary and middle school would find the writing humorous, while girls would find the pet characters entertaining the most. The Dove Foundation member Donna Rolfe gave the same set a full five stars.^[31]

The show was nominated at the 40th Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards for the song "If You're a Guy" in 2013, but it lost this to 3rd & Bird.^[32] Oliver's portrayal of Zoe won her an award from ACTRA and the Union of British Columbia Performers.^[33] New, who voices Sunil, was nominated for this but lost to Oliver.^[34] Ingram and Andrews were nominated for Leo Awards for their work as composers of the episode "Lights, Camera, Mongoose!" in 2014. The duo later won this nomination in common.^[35]