Loud, Soft, Shake is the first episode of the first season in the series A Little Curious and the series overall. It aired on February 1, 1999. It focuses on the subjects of the words loud, soft, and shake.
Segments[]
Ring It Loud (Stop Motion)[]
Plush walks up a hill and sees a bell. He pulls the rope, and it starts to move and ring loudly, which causes Plush to shake and vibrate.
Too Loud (Stop Motion/Live-Action Hybrid)[]
Doris opens herself to see -and hear- a jackhammer and an airplane. Ironically, it's Bob's garish bowtie that's the loudest of them all.
A Little Reality[]
Firefighters race down the street, as the sirens and horn from their firetruck roar loudly.
Talk Softly (Stop-Motion cutout)[]
Bob encourages his friends to speak softly and walk quietly as to not wake a sleeping Doris. Mr. String compliments Doris a bit too loudly, which causes her to wake up, scaring Mr. String and making the kids laugh.
Soft Landing (CGI)[]
Mr. shoe moves a laundry basket full of soft blankets and towels. Little Cup jumps from the table, landing squarely in the blankets, much to his delight.
Song: Bob the Ball (Stop-Motion Cutout)[]
The song "Bob Bounces Back" is played.
Shake It Off (Digital Cel)[]
Plush walks out of the bathtub soaking wet following a bath. Mop tells him to get out slowly and Mr. String pressures him to put his paws on the mat with no other movements. Mop tells him to stay while she gets the towel and not to shake. Mr. String quickly interrupts before she could finish, and tries to explain that if they mention "it" in front of Plush, they will be sorry. Mop still asks what, and he yells "THE SHAKE!". Plush grins and shakes the water off, getting Mop and String wet.
A Little Reality[]
A montage plays of dogs shaking off seawater.
Song: Plush (Digital Cel)[]
The song "He's a Plush" is played.
Shoe Business (Stop Motion)[]
Chuck and Mrs. Shoe do a "soft shoe" tap-dance routine and tell jokes onstage in front of an audience. (How did one shoe get rid of the other shoe? She gave him the boot!) Eventually, Mary Jane and Lacey join in on the fun!
A Little Reality[]
Tap dancers tap dance loudly and softly.
Milk Shake (Oil Painting)[]
Little Cup shakes around with ice, strawberries, and milk in himself, spinning and shaking around to make a milkshake as singers are heard in the background. Bob puts a straw in him and drinks out of him while shaking.
A Little Reality[]
Some kids eat soft serve ice cream.
Old Softie (Digital Cel/Live-Action Hybrid)[]
Doris tells Bob about her nostalgic experiences growing up as a young door.
Shake Yourself About (Stop Motion)[]
The Shoe Family does the hokey pokey in their backyard. Mary Jane struggles at first, but soon gets the hang of it.
Song: Pad and Pencil (CGI)[]
The song "A Little Romance" is played.
Shake Down (Digital Cel)[]
Plush walks into a yard and spots a large apple tree. He sees an apple high in the tree and leaps up to get it, failing most of the time. So, he shakes the tree around and then uses his ears to extend himself up to the apple, but he ends up twisting himself when he tries to pull the apple off. Eventually, a whole mountain of apples falls down from the tree, and he eats one.
Shake It Up, Baby! (CGI/Stop Motion Hybrid)[]
Mop, Little Cup, and the Shoe Family dance as Mop sings "Twist and Shout".
A Little Reality[]
Some kids wearing pajamas have a soft pillow fight.
Sleep Softly (CGI)[]
Mop, Bob, Little Cup, and Plush look for soft things to take to Slumberland, a magical world where dreams come true.
Trivia[]
- Despite being aired first, this episode was produced fifth in total.
- Footage from this episode was shown in the first HBO Family commercial for the show. In particular, Ring it Loud, Soft Landing, Shake It Off, Shoe Business, Milk Shake, and Sleep Softly were featured.
- Pas and Pencil are notably only present in Character Songs ("A Little Romance" and "He's a Plush").
- This is the only episode to feature a segment not named after one of its topics, even though it heavily incorporates "soft" in said short.
- Because of the episode's cover of "Twist and Shout," featured in the short "Shake it Up, Baby," this episode was removed from circulation (along with 13 other episodes from its season) in 2004.
- This episode can be viewed at the Paley Center for Media, if requested.
- Bob only narrates two out of the five live-action segments featured. As a result, the ones featuring the fire engine and ice cream would sound irrelevant to some first time viewers, but it wouldn’t be until the recap that do represent "loud" and "soft" respectively.
- The word shake would be focused again along with the words swing (from Near, Far, Swing) and cover (from Above, Below, Cover) in Swing, Cover, Shake.