Poky and Friends was a series of VHS tapes released in 1999, each revolving around the adventures of a character from one of the Little Golden Books; the first was about the Poky Little Puppy, the second about the Saggy Baggy Elephant, and the third about Scuffy The Tugboat.
Each VHS contained five 5-minute episodes revolving around a different adventure had by that tape’s focus character; these episodes were also used as interstitials on PlayhouseDisney. In 2011, all fifteen episodes were released onto a compilation DVD.
Tropes in Poky and Friends include:
- Adaptational Species Change: In the Little Golden Book, Tootle was a full-sized locomotive; when he appears in Scuffy’s tape, he’s a toy train. Scuppers was also a real dog in his original story, but a stuffed dog when he appears in the short.
- Artifact Title: The mention of Poky in the title quickly becomes this in the second and third tapes, which feature Saggy Baggy Elephant and Scuffy (respectively) instead, although the “and friends” part prevents the title from becoming completely dated.
- Circus Episode: “Circus Circus” from the second tape, which has a monkey convincing Saggy Baggy Elephant to start his own circus in the jungle.
- "Double, Double" Title: Two episodes have their titles done like this- “Circus Circus” (starring Saggy), and “Sailing Sailing” (starring Scuffy). Both are oddly missing commas.
- Elephants Are Scared of Mice: Saggy Baggy Elephant’s fear of mice sets off the plot of “A Mouse in the House”.
- Ending Theme: The end credits are accompanied by an instrumental version of the Expository Theme Tune.
- Expository Theme Tune:Gather round and listen
I have a story there for you
About the things Poky and his friends like to do - Hiccup Hijinks: “The Hiccup King” from the Saggy Baggy Elephant tape features the lion, king of the jungle, getting hiccups, and demanding that the other animals help cure him. Hilarity Ensues.
- Inevitable Waterfall: In “Big River Rescue”, Scuffy narrowly saves Beatrice the young beaver from being swept over one of these.
- Iris Out: An odd example; the intro sequence ends with a shot of a bunch of Little Golden Book characters together, before an iris closes on whichever one is the focus of the tape.
- Living Toys: The last tape in the series was about the adventures of Scuffy the toy tugboat; he has more toy friends, inducing Scuppers (a toy dog), Blaster (a toy rocket with an inexplicably southern accent), and this program’s version of Tootle (a toy train).
- One-Word Title: “Surprise”, from Scuffy’s tape, has one.
- Pun-Based Title: “Lucky Ducks”, from Saggy Baggy Elephant’s tape, involves literal ducks.
- Protagonist and Friends: How the title of the series is done, although as Poky never even meets Saggy or Scuffy calling them “friends” is debatable.
- Rhyming Title: “A Mouse in the House” has one, while the title of “Lucky Ducks” almost rhymes.
- Riding into the Sunset: “A Mouse in the House” ends with Saggy Baggy Elephant walking off into the sunset.
- Sentient Vehicle: The third tape is about the adventures of a living toy tugboat named Scuffy; other living toy vehicles include Blaster (a Retro Rocket) and Tootle (a train).
- Stock Animal Diet: Elephants loving peanuts is the source of the plot of “The Golden Peanut” (which, naturally, is part of Saggy Baggy Elephant’s tape).
- Talking Animal: This is natural for the first two tapes, which feature animal protagonists… and the third, about a toy tugboat, still has him conversing with random wildlife.