LITTLE DRACULA

 

LITTLE DRACULA
(FOX, Fox Family, September 3, 1991-October 13, 1999)
 
Steven Hahn Productions, Sachs Family Entertainment, Bandai Entertainment

 

 

MAIN CAST:
Edan Gross – Little Dracula
Joe Flaherty – Big Dracula
Jonathan Winters – Igor, Granny
Kath Soucie – Mrs. Dracula, Millicent, Spirits of the Netherworld Operator
Melvyn Hayes – Deadwood
Joey Camen – Werebunny
Brian Cummings – Garlic Man
Neil Ross – Maggot
Danny Mann – No Eyes, Twin-Beaks

 

Little Dracula is a British series of children’s books that centered on the daily adventures of Dracula’s son, nicknamed Little D. Along with his father, Little D lived in Castle Dracula in Transylvania with his mother, Mrs. Dracula, little sister, Millicent, and his Granny. Other residents included Igor, Dracula’s all-purpose servant who had a removable eye; Slave, a zombie servant that was frequently used and abused by everyone, especially Igor; Handy, a disembodied sentient hand; and their pets, Cat, Batty and later Rover, a werewolf cub. During the day, the nearby villagers were out and about, but at sunset they would retreat to their homes and the night belonged to the Draculas.

One of the series' two-page spreads.

The books were written by Martin Waddell and illustrated by Joseph Wright. They took some inspiration from Charles Addams’ The Addams Family strips and its adaptations by blending macabre imagery with humor and enough silliness to be kid-friendly. For instance: liberal use of blood as beverages or condiments; skulls doubling as bowling or croquet balls; emptying the contents of a severed human head into a frying pan for breakfast; eating a sandwich made from a severed human leg; getting blood delivered like bottles of milk; Little D sawing his sister in half and later gluing her back together; an iron maiden complete with skeletal occupant as a Christmas gift, etc. All of this was conveyed through Wright’s highly-detailed artwork, infusing safe-yet-grotesque sight gags into every picture. Each book would open with a two-page spread of the Dracula castle grounds showcasing the occupants and other beings doing various activities within and without. A number next to some characters would correspond to a list identifying who each character was; including random characters that played no part in the actual story such as a werewolf and Frankenstein’s monster.

The first Little Dracula book.

The first book in the series, Little Dracula’s First Bite, debuted in 1986 and was published by Walker Books. Seven books followed through 1992; however, the Fiendishly Funny Joke Book was done by the different creative team of Alan Durant and Paul Tempest. Candlewick Press would pick up the international rights to the series and release the books in North America, and four of the books would see reissues as late as 2001.

Little D with Igor, Deadwod, Dracula, Millicent, Mrs. Dracula, Werebunny, Batty and Granny.

In the 1990s, it was decided to adapt Little Dracula into an animated series. Produced by Steven Hahn Productions in association with Sachs Family Entertainment, the cartoon took deep inspiration from the books. However, since the books were very short, didn’t have too much depth to their stories, and weren’t many of them, some liberties were taken to flesh them out further in order to fill an entire season of television episodes. Little D (Edan Gross) still lived in the caste with Big Dracula (Joe Flaherty, as a nod to his Count Floyd character from SCTV), Mrs. Dracula (Kath Soucie), Millicent (also Soucie), and his Granny (Jonahtan Winters, sounding fairly close to his Maude Frickert character). On his birthday, Little D was gifted the Scepter of the Draculas, which could create a doorway to anywhere or open any locked door, an amulet that would allow him to communicate with anyone, and a hat that would allow him to go out into the sunlight unharmed. Little D combated his difficulty with flying by designing a flying car, the Dracster (a vampire-themed play on dragster).

Igor presenting the Draculas with his Santa-catching trap.

Igor (also Winters), on top of being Dracula’s servant and Little D’s keeper, was also the live-in mad scientist who cooked up bizarre inventions for the Draculas. That included a special top hat that allowed Little D to go outside in the daytime. Slave was renamed Deadwood (Melvyn Hayes), likely to avoid the controversy of the Draculas being slave-owners. He was often Igor’s guinea pig or tool. He would often make sarcastic comments about situations or predicaments, but nobody ever seemed to hear him clearly. Handy helped out around the castle and was excellent at sleight-of-hand magic. Along with their established pets Battie and Wolfie (renamed from Rover), Cat was replaced by a fuzzy spider.

Little D taking Werebunny for a ride in the Dracster.

Newly-created for the series was Little D’s best friend, Werebunny (Joey Camen); a blue-furred half werewolf, half bunny with a single eye. There was also Twin-Beaks (a play on “Twin Peaks”, voiced by Danny Mann), a two-headed vulture that often hung out in the dead trees by the castle and whose heads tended to bicker with each other. Both attended the same Ghoul School as Little D…in Twin Beaks’ case because their right head was held back for 17 years. As Little D was unable to fly just yet, he turned his car, the Dracster, into a flying car to compensate for it.

The sinister Garlic Man.

Other new characters were antagonists for the show. Dracula’s sworn enemy was Garlic Man (Brian Cummings), who wanted nothing more than to destroy him (since vampires hated garlic, after all). He had a garlic head and a stench to match. Whenever he was defeated, Garlic Man would be reduced to a garlic clove, but be could be resurrected via a ceremony of planting it and reciting a chant. He was served by two lackies: the aptly-named No Eyes (Mann), who also had an interchangeable mechanical hand, and the boil-covered Maggot (Neil Ross).

The Man With No Eyes and Maggot saluting their boss (while dealing with his stench).

Little Dracula debuted on FOX on September 3, 1991 as part of the Fox Kids programming block. The series was written by Pamela Hickey and Dennys McCoy, with Frank Ward and Trish Stewart serving as special consultants. Character and background designs were handled by John Norton, Gary Selvaggio, Craig Clark, Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, Jeff Myers, Debbie A. Silver, Sung-Woo Hong, Emily Schwappach Michels, John Petrovitz and Vadim Sokolov. The series’ music was done by The Music Team, Andrew Dimitroff and Stephen C. Marston, and animation duties were handled by Island Animation, Inc. (now part of Dong Woo Animation).

Little D with his scepter and protective hat.

Little Dracula had an interesting run. It aired from Tuesday through Saturday its debut week, and was then replaced by Beetlejuice on weekdays and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures on Saturday. The next episode wouldn’t air until Halloween that year. The remaining seven episodes wouldn’t run until the series was rerun on Fox Family Channel (now Freeform) in 1999. Although it was never seen in North America again, second season of 13 episodes was commissioned overseas by Fance’s M6 network. Co-produced in France and Germany by IDDH and Renaissance-Atlantic Films, it aired exclusively in Europe under the title Draculito, Mon Saigneur.

An equally short-lived toyline was co-produced by DreamWorks, who handled the North American release, and Bandai, who handled other territories. Two versions of Little D, Deadwood, Garlic Man, Igor, Maggot, The Man With No Eyes, Twin Beaks and Werebunny were released, along with the Dracster, the Garlicmobile, the Drac-Moto and the Coffin Car. Additionally, Little D’s scepter and amulet were offered as roleplay toys. Harvey Comics published a 3-issue mini-series seeing Little D on the trail of whoever staked his parents so that they can remove the stakes and bring his parents back to un-death. Like the books, the first issue featured a two-page introduction spread of Dracula’s castle. The comic was done by Michael Gallagher, Dave Manak, Jorge Pacheco, and In Color.

The Harvey Comics version of the two-page introduction spread.

Between 1993-94, Abbey Home Media released episodes of Little Dracula across four VHS collections in PAL regions. Little Dracula’s Fangtastic Video featured “Little ‘D’ Goes Hawaiian”, “Bat Boys” and “Easy Biters”; Little Dracula’s Video Full of Frightfull Suprises featured “Little D’s Surprise”, “Deadwood’s Complaint” and “The Chamber of Unspeakable Terrors”; and Little Dracula’s Video With a Bite had “Little D’s First Bite” and “The Curse of the Ghastly Minimum Wage”. “Little D’s Surprise” was also featured on The Biggest Ever Saturday Morning Heroes Video by Tempo Video, which also included episodes of The Adventures of T-Rex, James Bond Jr., Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, Captain N: the Game Master, and Transformers. The original FOX-run episodes have been uploaded by viewers to YouTube.

 

 

EPISODE GUIDE:
“The Curse of the Ghastly Minimum Wage” (9/3/91) – Little D unwittingly becomes an employee for a new burger joint in town created solely to get rid of Dracula.
 
“Little D’s First Bite / Ghoul Days” (9/4/91) – It’s Little D’s first day of school, and Garlic Man enrolls Maggot in order to steal the Scepter of the Dracula’s from him.
 
“Little D’s Surprise” (9/5/91) – It’s Little Dracula’s birthday, and he’s finally of age to embrace his heritage—if he can master the flying that he’s neglected practicing.
 
“The Bite Before Christmas” (9/6/91) – While the Draculas anticipate the arrival of Santa, Garlic Man decides to disguise himself as Santa in order to infiltrate their castle.
 
“Little ‘D’ Goes Hawaiian” (9/7/91) – Sick of the Transylvanian weather, Dracula decides to take everyone on a vacation to Hawaii.
 
“Little D’s Halloween” (10/31/91) – The Draculas dress as ordinary people to accompany Little D on his first time trick-or-treating in the village with Garlic Man in hot pursuit.
 
“Bat Boys” (9/12/99) – Little D battles Garlic Man and his minions in a game of baseball with his schoolmates.
 
“Easy Biters” (9/14/99) – Igor changes Little D’s bike into a motorcycle, leading to him and his friends crossing paths with a bad motorcycle gang looking for a challenge.
 
“Deadwood’s Complaint” (9/17/99) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
 
“The Chamber of Unspeakable Terror” (9/17/99) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
 
“The Bite at the Ghoul Schol Corral” (10/3/99) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
 
“Midnight Madness” (10/11/99) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
 
“Deadly Screentest” (10/13/99) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.