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Post by Nurse Dunkley on Jul 9, 2006 21:23:50 GMT
aka, Probably my all time favourite works of literature.
The new book culture icon reminded me, not that I really needed reminding since I spent a sleepless night a few months back reading about 30 of them. My aim is now to pick up from my childhood and complete the set.
I bought Mr Cheerful the other week. His story isn't very good. Basically he's cheerful about everything apart from the fact that he hasn't got much hair. This is just silly, since only 3 or so other Mr Men actually have hair. I also wasn't keen because Little Miss Splendid appeared half way through, and I don't like my Mr Men tales to be contaminated by the Little Miss characters. I never took to that series. Possible proof that Roger Hargreaves has shaped my life path.
Is anybody else a fan? What's your favourite? Mine is of course Mr Bump. It would be Mr Tickle, but part of me has always been worried that he'd one day use his roaming hands to grope.
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Post by [james] on Jul 9, 2006 21:28:24 GMT
I remember loving Mr Tall as, being a tall chap, I can associate with him.
When I first saw the new icon, I misread it as Little Miss Splendip. That's taking product placement a bit far I think.
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Post by Bungle on Jul 9, 2006 21:37:24 GMT
My favourite was Mr Mean, I even remember the punchline. 'Two lumps of coal!' I'll leave it to you to work out the story that led up to that.
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Post by [james] on Jul 9, 2006 21:38:15 GMT
Is it a testicle transfer operation that went horrible wrong?
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Post by audrey notwhatsheusedtobe on Jul 10, 2006 13:02:32 GMT
My favourite was Mr Tickle, primarily because I envied how he could retrieve a biscuit from the kitchen while lying in bed. Mr Strong was a favourite too.
I remember when the cartoons were quite rare - it was always an amazing treat to catch a Mr Men cartoon.
The Little Misses are totally rubbish. I hate them. Silly cows.
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Post by marknyc on Jul 10, 2006 17:23:12 GMT
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ruthie
Su Pollard
I'm not Miss March, Miss May, or Miss anything else! I'm Miss Madolyn Hayes and I own this dump!
Posts: 276
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Post by ruthie on Jul 11, 2006 13:24:15 GMT
Mr Greedy was the best - he went to a world of giant people and stole one of their dinners, and was made to eat all the food he stole, even though it made him sick. It always reminded me of my sister.
Aren't there lots of new ones now - Mr Magic and stuff? They should just stick with the classic Mr Men.
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Post by LoveMusic on Jul 12, 2006 11:38:07 GMT
I loved the books, thats why they were ruined for me when fat chavvy girls had tshirts saying 'Little Miss Chatterbox' or thongs with 'Miss Naughty'
Thats wrong.
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Post by zaffra on Jul 12, 2006 11:51:47 GMT
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Post by Nick on Jul 12, 2006 14:18:24 GMT
I dunno how I feel about the idea of not liking the Little Miss indicating future homosexuality. I always thought the fact that I DID like the Little Miss meant that I was 'different' from other little boys. Little Miss Magic, in particular. She could do magic! Real magic, not that garbled Latin rubbish Harry Potter gets away with nowadays. And Little Miss Late! She was always late! They each had their own unique, breathtaking talent.
When they stuck a Mr Men cartoon and a Little Miss cartoon together (aka 'Little Miss[es?] and Mr Men') during my formative years, it was always the Little Miss cartoon that came first, and that was the part I got more excited about. Sorry. I loved the Mr Men, too, but they didn't have such a great theme tune, and I could tell they were old and wonky-looking (but, that said, the updated Mr Men and Little Miss series that ran on Channel 5 when it first started was horrible because it was 'modern'). If anybody has a YouTube of an original Little Miss cartoon, complete with the shrill opening song, PLEASE post it on the YouTube board.
And I KNOW it came out years and years after the books, and I KNOW it's a CD, not a book, and I KNOW that by this point the Mr Men and Little Miss had completely lost their magic and had been completely prostituted by Hargreaves Jnr and and army of marketing people, but 'The Best Mr Men Album In The World... Ever!' (not to be confused with the original Mr Men album that we had on 12" vinyl in a big red sleeve at some point in the 1980s) has a couple (I'd like to stress that I do mean a couple, out of maybe 43 tracks) of really brilliant songs with some staggeringly good lyrics on it. For example:
"He is so very tall / With one step he walks half a mile / He has such long, long legs / He is so very, very tall / (Chorus:) Mr Tall, he is so very tall / The tallest person that you've ever met / He's the tallest man you'll ever see / He's taller than the highest hill."
That particular song sounds a lot like the Supremes. I would give The Best Mr Men Album In The World... Ever! 2 stars (**). It's a bit like an abridged version of 69 Love Songs, but with a poorer quality of song overall, and (slightly) more lyrics about physical and emotional defects.
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Post by marknyc on Jul 12, 2006 15:47:51 GMT
And I KNOW it came out years and years after the books, and I KNOW it's a CD, not a book, and I KNOW that by this point the Mr Men and Little Miss had completely lost their magic and had been completely prostituted by Hargreaves Jnr and and army of marketing people, but 'The Best Mr Men Album In The World... Ever!' (not to be confused with the original Mr Men album that we had on 12" vinyl in a big red sleeve at some point in the 1980s) has a couple (I'd like to stress that I do mean a couple, out of maybe 43 tracks) of really brilliant songs with some staggeringly good lyrics on it. For example: "He is so very tall / With one step he walks half a mile / He has such long, long legs / He is so very, very tall / (Chorus:) Mr Tall, he is so very tall / The tallest person that you've ever met / He's the tallest man you'll ever see / He's taller than the highest hill."That particular song sounds a lot like the Supremes. I would give The Best Mr Men Album In The World... Ever! 2 stars ( **). It's a bit like an abridged version of 69 Love Songs, but with a poorer quality of song overall, and (slightly) more lyrics about physical and emotional defects. It is a bit like a momus album.
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Post by Nick on Jul 12, 2006 20:31:41 GMT
It is a bit like a momus album. THIS Momus album: which gets more than **. But can you guess each Mr Man from the following lyrics? "Mr ----- stammers like a n-n-nervous j-j-jelly..."
"Mr ------ he was a greedy man, the more he ate, the more that he wanted..."
"He's so noisy, Mr -----, shouting loud and stamping round..."
"Mr -----, he's so funny and he always makes you smile..."
"Nosey Mr ----- has a nose that's far too long..."
"Mr ------, he's so clumsy, every day is like a Monday (?!)"
"If you're ticklish in any way, Mr ------ will make you tickly all of the day..."(You get the idea.)
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Post by Nick on Jul 12, 2006 20:32:05 GMT
Those were Mr Men lyrics, not Momus lyrics, by the way.
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Post by Nurse Dunkley on Jul 12, 2006 20:59:06 GMT
Ooh quiz time is fun time! It is a bit like a momus album. But can you guess each Mr Man from the following lyrics? "Mr JELLY stammers like a n-n-nervous j-j-jelly..."
"Mr GREEDY he was a greedy man, the more he ate, the more that he wanted..."
"He's so noisy, Mr NOISY, shouting loud and stamping round..."
"Mr FUNNY, he's so funny and he always makes you smile..."
"Nosey Mr NOSEY has a nose that's far too long..."
"Mr CLUMSY, he's so clumsy, every day is like a Monday (?!)"
"If you're ticklish in any way, Mr TICKLE will make you tickly all of the day..."That was so satisfying. Mr Jelly always issed me off, the same with Mr Snow. I like my Mr Men to be based on adjectives/verbs goddammit.
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Post by mackenzie on Jul 15, 2006 20:42:54 GMT
Mr Bump for the win.
I love Mr men & Little Miss. Whenever I have a spare £1.99, it's straight down my local Wilko's to buy the next one in the set.
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Greg
Jane Asher
Chattin' Shit
Posts: 221
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Post by Greg on Jul 16, 2006 20:10:06 GMT
I loved the satisfaction of completing the collection when I was a tiddler and having the worm on the side.
I loved the Mr Men. I don't think I ever had a favourite. Mr Chatterbox drew many parallels with my life when I was 6. As did Mr Bump. Mr Happy pissed me off a bit. Even age 6, I was bit too cynical to believe he didn't have some underlying motive. I used to like Mr Jelly, if only because he was the only one I could accurately draw.
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Post by groopie on Jul 17, 2006 13:14:31 GMT
If anyone can point me in the direction of a Mr Greedy's Little Light Lunch MP3 or even just a stream of it somewhere I will die happy.
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Post by Nick on Jul 17, 2006 18:33:20 GMT
I dug out the LP and listened to it earlier. The songs are brilliant. I mean, really, properly brilliant. Real songs, rather than the crappy late-90's tie-in CD I was plugging the other day (sorry about that). And the sequencing is masterful. It's like a REAL album! With lyrics by Roger Hargreaves! A thoroughly rewarding listening experience, etc etc.
'Mr Greedy's Little Light Lunch' DOES still sound fantastic, but the Mr Topsy-Turvy, Mr Bump and Mr Sneeze songs are also particular highlights. 'Let's Go To Misterland' will bring a wistful tear to the eye of even the most hardened rapist or vivisectionist. And 'Mr Silly's Nonsenseland Band' sounds a bit like 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band', but with a tune! Breathtaking.
Obviously, the Mr Happy song is a bit smug and worthy, as they always are, and 'Daydreaming' on this album isn't as good as 'Daydreaming' on the later album, and the Mr Snow song about Christmas goes on for about twenty minutes, but these are minor complaints.
I would give The Mr Men Songs With Arthur Lowe (and the uncredited man with a very high voice/woman with a very deep voice) 4 stars (****).
I've no idea how to turn it into a sound file, what with it being a 12" LP and my computer being four rooms away from the turntable, but if you would like to send me a cheque for two or three thousand pounds, I can try my best to purchase the appropriate equipment for transferring the record onto the internet.
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Post by zaffra on Jul 18, 2006 11:58:42 GMT
What about the Mr Impossible song?
Nothing is impossible, impossible for me. Nothing is impossible, no siree.
Or was that just for the cartoon?
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Post by [james] on Jul 23, 2006 8:30:22 GMT
'Let's Go To Misterland' will bring a wistful tear to the eye of even the most hardened rapist or vivisectionist. Wow, Mr Men are really trying to branch out their target audience.
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Golden Meg
Jane Asher
"pour me a port, Anne"
Posts: 102
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Post by Golden Meg on Jul 28, 2006 11:34:18 GMT
Mr Daydream set the tone for the rest of my life. Look... I'm doing it right now!
My parents used to call me Mr Fussy because I apparently used to pick the bits out of the marmalade (I have since stopped all that).
But Mr Messy was the best story because Mr Neat and Mr Tidy turn up on his doorstep one day, give him a wash, sort his house out and clear up his garden. It was like the forerunner of every makeover show ever!
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Post by Nurse Dunkley on Aug 2, 2006 11:00:29 GMT
Mr Messy is brilliant. Upon rereading it Mr Neat and Mr Tidy have now developed Colin and Justin voices in my head. Those two annoy me, since I hate it when supporting characters have Mr Men style defining names but are still real people.
T'other day I bought Mr Good and Mr Brave. The latter was bloody rubbish, and not just because it featured some of the Little Miss monsters. I wasn't too taken with Mr Good to start with either, since he's a wanker for living in "Badland" in the first place, and all that happens in the book is him going for a walk and ending up in Goodland. However, I reread it and really warmed to the character and feel that we could all learn something from his everyday, pre Goodland, struggle of remaining up beat when life is shit to you.
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Post by [james] on Aug 2, 2006 11:21:40 GMT
I found the special version of Mr Tall my friend made for me for my 18th last year. As I am tall and she is not, she had Tippexed out Mr Tall on ever page and written James in it's place. For such a rather cheap gift, it's quite touching.
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Post by Michael on Aug 2, 2006 13:19:47 GMT
I loved Mr Strong. He was just so solid and so square. :-)
I bought my boyfriend Mr Greedy as a joke gift once, he didn't get it. I did explain how much I loved Mr Greedy because he walked around with his hand on top of his stomach. That didn't help.
Mr Messy was very, very easy to draw great for a five year old. When he's all tidied up it's a bit disturbing.
I loved Arthur Lowe doing the voice on the original cartoons. That music...
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Post by Sparkle on Aug 2, 2006 19:42:25 GMT
I found the special version of Mr Tall my friend made for me for my 18th last year. As I am tall and she is not, she had Tippexed out Mr Tall on ever page and written James in it's place. For such a rather cheap gift, it's quite touching. I have Little Miss Neat, as altered by my friends, for my 18th! Also, I used to like Little Miss Magic. And I did buy Little Miss pyjamas when I was old enough to know better. Happy days of shopping with my grandma, who bought me all these books, and Little Miss and Mr Men ribbons for my hair.
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