Carl the Collector

Carl the Collector is a 2024 animated series created by illustrator Zachariah OHora for PBS Kids. The show is produced by Fuzzytown Productions and Spiffy Pictures, with Yowza! Animation providing the animation services. The show premiered on November 14.

The show follows the daily life of a young, autistic raccoon named Carl, who loves to collect things, and uses his multitude of collections to solve problems around Fuzzytown. His friends include his Best Friend Sheldon the beaver, Lotta the fox (who is also autistic), Nico and Arugula the twin bunny sisters, and Forrest the squirrel.

Clips are available here.

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The Trope Collection:

• All Girls Like Ponies: According to "Whole Lotta Lotta," Lotta loves unicorns, and imagines herself riding one.
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Nico and Arugula are pink bunny rabbits◊.
• Amicable Exes: Carl's parents, Harold and Maude, are divorced, and Carl spends some weekends with his dad. However, the two are nice to each other when we see them on screen.
• Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Sheldon doesn't wear any shoes◊.
• Beach Episode: The episode “Wiggle Waggle Worries” features the characters on the beach.
• Birthday Episode:
  • "The Tool Collection" takes place on Carl's birthday and is about him receiving a universal screwdriver, one which he has been wanting for a while.
  • ''The Button Collection" focuses on Carl accidentally breaking a present that was intended for Sheldon's mom on her birthday.
• Black Bead Eyes: All the characters have eyes like this.
• Bland-Name Product: "Fuzzytube," mentioned in "The Marble Collection," is the Fuzzytown equivalent of YouTube.
• Calling Your Bathroom Breaks: Sheldon does this to get out of telling Carl's parents the truth about the screws Carl and he took from the house in "The Tool Collection."
• Character Tics: Carl flaps his hands when he's excited, and wiggles his fingers when he's worried. Lotta is also often seen twirling her tail.
• Cheerful Child: Forrest is very full of energy and optimistic.
• Chekhov's Gun: In "The Rope Collection," Carl decides that a rope may come in handy and holds onto it at the beginning of the episode. Then, when Carl is stuck in his tree fort, he uses his rope to climb out.
• Child Prodigy: Lotta seems to be very skilled at making electronic music for her age.
• Collector of the Strange: Some of the things Carl collects are pretty out there, like stamps issued before 1973 (confirmed in the "The Rope Collection"), fake mustaches, and lint.
• Control Freak: Carl doesn't like when things don't go his way. In "The Lint Dinosaur Collection," he gets upset when Nico breaks the "Lint Dinosaur Monday" rules by making a lint monster instead. However, the kids come up with a compromise so that everyone can play what they want: on Lint Dinosaur Monday, they can make lint monsters for 30 minutes. Carl accepts this, and at the end of the episode, joins in on making lint monsters.
• Determinator:
  • Carl generally has a one-track mind, and when he sets a goal, he will do anything to achieve it. In "The Sticker Collection," he is determined to restore the scent to his sour pickle sticker.
  • Nico is determined to show others that she is a unique individual from her twin sister Arugula.
• Feud Episode: “The Autograph Collection,” “The Lint Dinosaur Collection,” “The Magic Trick Collection,” and “The Fall”. So far, all the feuds involve Carl and Nico.
• Free Prize at the Bottom: In "The Rope Collection," Carl gets a toy whistle in a box of Fuzzy Os cereal.
• Free-Range Children: Carl and his friends roam freely about Fuzzytown without adult supervision, such as going to the Pizza Pyramid by themselves.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Nico is the foolish sibling, Arugula is the responsible sibling.
• Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Carl, Forrest, Nico, Arugula, and Lotta are all fully dressed from head to toe◊.
• Gender-Blender Name: After Carl finds out that Steven, one of his butterflies who was thought to be male but is actually female, she still remains with the name "Steven".
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: Carl's friend group consists of three boys (Carl, Sheldon, and Forrest) and three girls (Nico, Arugula, and Lotta).
• Girls with Moustaches: Nico tries to invoke this on Arugula in "The Fake Mustache Collection," trying to get her to wear a fake mustache as an Identical Twin ID Tag.
• Good Parents: Maude is a thoughtful and supportive mother to Carl. She's always gentle and teaches Carl techniques to calm himself down.
• Honesty Aesop: In "The Tool Collection," Carl learns to tell the truth when he takes the screws from all of his family's appliances in the midst of his excitement about his universal screwdriver.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: "The Fake Mustache Collection" has Nico trying to get Arugula to wear a fake mustache so they won't be mistaken for each other anymore, since the two look exactly alike, and the only way to tell them apart is their voices.
• Identical Twin Mistake: Throughout "The Fake Mustache Collection," Nico is confused for Arugula, which frustrates her.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Zig-zagged. Most of the episodes are titled "The ____ Collection", based on an object(s) that is the main plot point of the episode. However, there are also some episode titles that don't follow this pattern, such as "Lemons!", "Whole Lotta Lotta," and "Leaf It to Carl."
• Injured Limb Episode: Downplayed in "The Autograph Collection." Carl breaks his arm while attempting a dangerous bike trick in order to show Nico that bikes are not for babies, but he's more concerned with the fact that he broke his wristwatch in the process than actually breaking his bone.
• Irony: Forrest is a squirrel with a tree nut allergy.
• Iyashikei: The show is designed to be laidback and not overstimulating. The pacing is slow, but not too slow, the background music is jazzy bossa nova, the colors are muted, and the whole show is about the daily life of a cute raccoon doing cute things with his cute friends.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Forrest is impulsive, and Nico often speaks before she thinks.
• Learning to Ride a Bike: The reason Nico is so judgmental about bikes in "The Autograph Collection" is that she's still learning how to ride but feels frustrated because she isn't very good at it.
• Lemonade Stand Plot: The episode "Lemons!" involves Carl trying to help Sheldon get over his fear of lemons to run a lemonade stand together.
• Literal-Minded: Carl often does not understand idioms. In "The Stick Collection," Carl says "cookies are not smart" in response to the expression "smart cookies." In "The Marble Collection," when Forrest says the temperature is "boiling hot," Carl says that the temperature is not boiling hot because if it were, the water would be boiling.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase: Carl tends to declare bold actions and victories are "for (insert subject)s everywhere!"
• Newspaper-Thin Disguise: In "The Fake Mustache Collection," Carl, Sheldon, Forrest, and Lotta pretend to read the newspaper to hide their faces while being "detail detectives."
• Nice Guy: Carl is a warmhearted little raccoon, even if he gets frustrated with his friends sometimes. Said friends are all polite kids as well.
• No Full Name Given: The last names for Carl, Sheldon, Forrest, and Nico and Arugula haven't been revealed yet.
• No Listening Skills: "Listen Coach" highlights Carl's listening problems. When he gets really fixated on playing with one of his collections, he doesn't listen to those around him. Sheldon becomes his "listening coach" and teaches him how to be a more attentive listener.
• No-Neck Chump: All the characters lack necks.
• Passionate Sports Girl: Nico likes skating, baseball, and soccer.
• Patience Plot: The episode "The Remote Control Collection" is all about Forrest learning to take his turn during the Fuzzy Friends picnic.
• Parental Bonus: Carl's parents are named Harold and Maude.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Forrest is the smallest out of the Fuzzy Friends, but the most athletic.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Nico is loud, extroverted, and always getting into trouble, while Arugula is a bit shy, quiet, and the peacemaker.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Nico is the Red Oni to Arugula's Blue Oni.
• Renaissance Man: Lotta is an artist, a musician, and builds robots.
• Role Called: Carl the Collector. He's Carl, and he's a collector.
• Same Clothes, Different Year: Anytime we get a flashback to the Fuzzy Friends when they were younger, they are all seen sporting identical outfits.
• Sensory Overload: Lotta does not like loud noises. In "The Puffball Collection," she experiences sensory overload from all of the noise at the music championship and runs away.
• Secret-Keeper: In "Whole Lotta Lotta," Lotta tells Carl that she's autistic, but isn't ready to tell anyone else, so she asks him to keep it between the two of them.
• Security Blanket: Lotta has her baby blanket, 'Softy.' She's very upset when it goes missing in "The Pine Cone Collection."
• Shout-Out:
  • Carl's parents are named Harold and Maude.
  • In "The Plushie Collection," Forrest telling Carl that he can organize his plushies by asking himself if a certain one sparks joy, alludes to the KonMar cleaning and organizing method.
  • In "The Bottle Cap Collection," Sheldon mentions wanting to watch a movie called Chompin' 2: Electric Beaveroo.
• Show Within a Show: Lotta's favorite show is Friendicorn High, which is presumably about unicorns who go to high school. She has a toy unicorn from the show named Rainbow Gertrude.
• Signature Instrument: Lotta loves playing synths and has a collection of them.
• Slice of Life: It's about Carl's daily life and everyday challenges a kid might face.
• Slumber Party: "The Super Blue Moon Sleepover" focuses on Carl inviting all of his friends over to watch the titular event but growing frustrated when his friends don't follow the schedule he has created.
• Stage Magician: "The Magic Trick Collection" reveals that Carl is skilled at doing magic tricks. In that same episode, Nico also becomes a magician, and both want Arugula to be their assistant.
• Super-Speed: Forrest is noted for being the fastest runner in Fuzzytown.
• Town Contest Episode: “The Puffball Collection” features Fuzzytown holding a music contest, and Lotta is competing in it.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Forrest loves pizza, especially pizza with kalamata olives and pineapple.
• Title Theme Tune: "Yes! It's Carl the Collector!"
• Treehouse of Fun: In "The Rope Collection," Carl and his friends build a tree fort. However, Carl has his own idea for a tree fort, and tries to build one by himself, but forgets to make a door.
• Two Shorts: Each episode is made up of two 11 minute segments.
• Two-Timer Date: In "A Forrest of Plans," Forrest makes too many plans at the same time, and runs back and forth between helping Carl build a race track, eating pizza with Nico and Arugula, and playing music with Lotta.
• Vague Age: It's unknown how old Carl and his friends are. They are at least in elementary school, but they often go places by themselves, Carl knows some big words, and Lotta has her own laptop. If "The Stick Collection" is any indication, Carl is at least over five years old.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Carl and Nico, due to their contrasting personalities, often argue, but in the end, they are still friends.
• Waving Signs Around: In "The Word Collection," Carl's parents, as well as some other Fuzzytown residents, attend a protest to stop the town from cutting down trees, and they wave signs around.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • Sheldon is afraid of lemons to the point where he runs away at the sight of a lemonade stand.
  • Carl was once afraid of toads, but has since gotten over most of his fear.
• World of Funny Animals: All of the characters are walking, talking, clothed animals.
• Your Tomcat Is Pregnant: Carl finds out that a butterfly in his butterfly collection, who was presumably male, to be actually female, due to her markings.

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