Lady Lovely Locks

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Lady Lovely Locks
Lady Lovely Rocks.jpg
Logo of the series.
Also known asLady Lovely Locks and the Pixietails
Created by Andy Heyward
Written byJack Olesker
Directed byBernard Deyriès
StarringTony St. Vincent
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes10 [1]
Production
Executive producerAndy Heyward
ProducersAndy Heyward
Tetsuo Katayama
Running time30 minutes
Production companies DIC Enterprises
Paramount Television
Those Characters from Cleveland
Original release
Network Syndication
ReleaseApril 4 (1987-04-04) 
June 6, 1987 (1987-06-06) [2] [3]

Lady Lovely Locks and the Pixietails is a character property created by American Greetings subsidiary Those Characters from Cleveland (creators of Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears and Popples among others) in the mid-1980s which soon expanded into a toyline by Mattel. An animated television series produced by DIC Animation City was produced in 1987, running for a single series of ten half-hour episodes (each consisting of two segments); and was syndicated by LBS Communications on the Kideo TV strand. [4]

Contents

Animated series

Lady Lovely Locks is the princess of the Kingdom of Lovely Locks. She and her friends are aided by the Pixietails in keeping the kingdom safe from its enemies. Among the hero characters of the show are Lady Lovely Locks, Maiden Fair Hair, Maiden Curly Crown, the Pixietails, Prince Strong Heart, Shining Glory, Silky Pup (a puppy), and Silky Mane (a pony). [5] The main villains are Duchess Ravenwaves, Hairball and Comb Gnomes, the latter of whom tend to speak in rhyme. The show was cancelled after one season. [6]

The series was produced by the French and Japanese animators of Rainbow Brite and Jem , among other cartoons of the '80s. The music of the series was composed by Shuki Levy and Haim Saban and supervised by Marty Wereski. The original "Lady Lovely Locks" theme song was composed by Shuki Levy and produced by the music department of Saban Productions and performed by Donna De Lory. The original full theme song can be heard on Shuki Levy's official website.

Hi-Tops released five Lady Lovely Locks videos in the 1980s. More recently, the videos re-appeared on the market. They resurfaced as part of the DVD set "Girls Rule Vol. 1" which included the following cartoon series: Jem, Rainbow Brite, and Lady Lovely Locks. Several of the episodes are also available on a DVD in the "Biggest DVD Ever" series for Lady Lovely Locks. Two episodes have never been collected except on the Australian VHS edition. As of 2024, the series is currently owned by WildBrain. [7]

List of episodes

No.TitleWritten byOriginal release date
1"To Save My Kingdom"
"Cruel Pretender"
Jack OleskerApril 4, 1987 (1987-04-04)
2"Vanished"
"The Wishing Bone"
Jack OleskerApril 11, 1987 (1987-04-11)
3"The Discovery"
"The Lake of Reflections"
Jack Olesker
Jody Miles Conner
April 18, 1987 (1987-04-18)
4"The Menace of Mirror Lake"
"Blue Moon"
Phil Harnage April 25, 1987 (1987-04-25)
5"The Bundle"
"In the Kingdom of Ice"
Howard R. Cohen
Phil Harnage
May 2, 1987 (1987-05-02)
6"The Power and the Glory"
"Prince's Broken Heart"
Jeff Rose
Howard R. Cohen
May 9, 1987 (1987-05-09)
7"The Noble Deed"
"The Doubt"
Jack Olesker
Susan J. Leslie
May 16, 1987 (1987-05-16)
8"The Dragon Tree"
"The Capture"
Jack OleskerMay 23, 1987 (1987-05-23)
9"The Keeper"
"The Rally"
Jack OleskerMay 30, 1987 (1987-05-30)
10"Fire in the Sky"
"To Take a Castle"
Jack OleskerJune 6, 1987 (1987-06-06)

Broadcast

Broadcast USA history
Broadcast Polish history

Broadcast UK history

VHS UK history

Characters

Protagonists

Antagonists

The Pixietails

The Pixietails are fairy-like animals, who help Lady Lovely Locks when she is in need for a problem or someone's in trouble. Lady's Pixietails are rabbit-like, FairHair's Pixietails are chipmunk/squirrel-like, and CurlyCrown's Pixietails are bird-like.

Dragons

Dragons exist in the kingdom. They can breathe fire and have wings to fly with. Instead of eggs, newborn dragons are born from the Dragon Tree. A plant called Dragon’s Hair has some connection.

Toy line

The Lady Lovely Locks toyline was created by Those Characters from Cleveland toy company and produced from 1987 to 1989. The toyline consists of character dolls that are approximately 8.5 inches tall, with certain dolls having long, colorful locks. [8] Most dolls came with three to four Pixietails (small plastic squirrel-like animals with long silky tails). The Pixietails could be worn in the hair of either the doll or the child. Additional items in the toyline were other pets and playsets.

Books

A number of tie-in books were released alongside the toyline and animated series. Among these books are "An Enchanting Fairy-Tale Adventure", "For the Love of Lovely Locks", "Lady Lovely Locks Original Story" (1987), "Silkypup Saves the Day", "Silkypup's Butterfly Adventure" (1987) and "The Golden Ball".

Pop culture

In the eighth season episode of the series That '70s Show , "Killer Queen", the character Randy says: "Donna, Hyde's already given me a nickname. It's Mrs. Lady Lovely Locks". This is an anachronism, as the Lady Lovely Locks line of products were not produced until after the mid-1980s.

A customised version of the tape was chosen by film critic Gene Siskel as his worst gift for the 1987 holiday season during the Holiday Gift Guide episode of Siskel & Ebert. [9]

German audio tapes

In Germany, ten audio tapes were produced by label Europa, which extended on and continued the story lines that were never resolved by the short running TV-show. Not only did the tapes dive into Lady's childhood, they also resolved Prince StrongHeart's curse by turning him human, featured the couple's wedding, the birth of their daughter, as well as the infant's kidnapping by Duchess RavenWaves and her glorious rescue. While each character had her or his own voice actor, the series was narrated by Hans Paetsch. The voice actors differed from those used in the animated series.

Voices

Releases

In Germany, the first three episodes (six, counting the way Germans numbered them) were released on three VHS tapes. The tapes contain just the plain episodes dubbed in German with the intro and outro scenes as well as a TV commercial for the Lady Lovely Locks toy series.

In November 2015, the entire series has been released on DVD in Germany containing both, German and English audio (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono) under the name "Lady Lockenlicht" which translates into "Lady Locks Light". It uses the broadcast TV material as seen on German television, which is 1:1 identical to the English video material except that it is converted to PAL and therefore slightly faster than the original NTSC format (PAL-SpeedUp).

Notes

    References

    1. DIC Entertainment DIC Shows
    2. "New York Magazine". April 6, 1987.
    3. "New York Magazine". June 8, 1987.
    4. Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 350. ISBN   978-1538103739.
    5. Terrace, Vincent (2014). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 Through 2010. McFarland & Co. p. 578. ISBN   9780786486410 . Retrieved March 19, 2020.
    6. Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 486–487. ISBN   978-1476665993.
    7. "WildBrain Library Catalogue by WildBrain_Official - Issuu". issuu.com. April 24, 2024. Retrieved July 7, 2024.
    8. Brewer, Susan (2010). Collecting Classic Girls' Toys. Pen & Sword Books Limited. pp. 104–107. ISBN   9781844680689 . Retrieved March 19, 2020.
    9. "Siskel and Ebert's 1987 Holiday Gift Guide". YouTube. Buena Vista Television. Retrieved February 24, 2024.