Slippery, Sticky, Mirror is the fourth episode of the first season of the series A Little Curious, the fourth in total, and the first to be produced. It aired on February 22, 1999. It focuses on the subjects of the words slippery, sticky, and mirror.
Segments[]
Slippery When Wet (Digital Cel)[]
Mop gets done mopping a waxy floor, which she calls "Wax and Shine" as she marvels at her "masterpiece". Mr. String comes down from the ceiling and worries about the slippery floor and that someone could fall and never get up. Just then, The Shoe Family comes stomping down the hallway to go to the circus, which causes Mr. String to worry that if they slip, they won't get to the circus, which would ultimately result in the tent filling up with uneaten food and fall down. Mr. String tries to warn them, but they don't listen and end up falling anyway.
Afterwards, Little Cup comes running up, and Mr. String panics because Little Cup would slip and roll into the forest and live with worms. So he tries to warn him, but Cup walks into String and the two go spinning across the floor, leaving Mr. String on the floor as Cup walks away. Mr. String yells in frustration.
Slippery (CGI)[]
Little Cup hops on a bar of soap on the side of a bathtub, and after counting and rocking, he goes sliding down the tub slope and into the water puddles and the bumps. He pushes it back up to the top and does it again.
Sticky Paws (CGI)[]
Plush walks into the kitchen and sees a plate of pancakes on the table. He tries to jump up to get them when he pushes the chair to the table instead. Plush is too short to reach the top, so he tries to reach the plate with his paw but he ends up knocking a syrup pitcher over and gets his paws stuck on things, and pulls the butter and utensils down, even knocking the chair over. Plush walks off the scene with his three legs because the utensils are stuck on one of his legs.
A Little Reality[]
Sticky glazed doughnuts are being made at the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Factory and a girl is giving one a taste test.
Sticky Stuck (Digital Cel)[]
Doris is on a hill trying to open herself, and Bob comes over to ask what's wrong. She says she's stuck, and Bob says she's sticky, but Doris sings that she's not sticky and is just stuck. The two dance and sing around, and then Bob finally comes up with a way to get her unstuck, so Bob bounces back and goes flying to her, but he misses as she opens herself at the right moment. Doris says "Gotta love that kid!"
Mop's Mirror (CGI)[]
Mop is hopping in a field with puddles, and she spots one where she can look at herself like a mirror. Meanwhile, Bob is bouncing around in the puddles. Mop makes her hairstyle Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile, and then a doctor, and then a surfer. But Mop says she could just be herself, when Bob splashes her as he jumps in the puddle, making her wet. She complains that now she's definitely not her.
Just Like Looking in a Mirror (Inchworm; Stop Motion {Hunt Squibb})[]
An inchworm is crawling on a sidewalk, and Mr. String sees it and admires it. He decides to be a worm-like it, and goes in front of it and copies its every move, like a mirror. The inchworm crawls around in a circle faster and faster, which gets Mr. String dizzy and tangles himself up.
Song: Bob (Stop Motion Cutout)[]
The Bob song "Bob Bounces Back" is sung.
Back at Mop's Mirror (CGI)[]
A sequel to "Mop's Mirror". Mop is looking in a puddle again, unaware of Plush now looking in the puddles in the area. She turns herself into a space princess blasting herself in a spaceship, a rock star, and a TV cartoon character who makes people laugh. Plush dives into a puddle, and comes out of the same puddle Mop is looking in, making her wet again.
Mr. String Looks in a Mirror (Digital Cel)[]
Mop wants to take a photo of Mr. String for her scrapbook and tells him to look his best as she wants to capture the real him. The camera is out of film, so she gets some more. Mr. String looks in a mirror and then thinks if the String in the mirror is really him, or if the real String is the real him. He starts to panic and makes some quick touch-ups to himself, such as straightening his tie and fixing his hair, claiming that someone will mistake him for a pineapple bush, and then he'd have to wear a Hawaiian shirt and do a hula dance in the sand and complains that sand is too sandy and lies on the ground. Mop runs back and tells him to hold his pose, and captures the picture of the frazzled Mr. String as that's the "real him". String groans off-screen.
Slipping Sliding Plush (Digital Cel)[]
Plush is in an ice rink ice skating, where Bob is watching in a booth. He falls and slips around on the ice, eventually falling to Bob's booth. Bob and Plush cheer as confetti falls down.
A Little Reality[]
In this ALR segment, children are ice skating in a rink, with most of them falling or skating safely with cones.
Sticky Lips (Digital Cel)[]
Pad calls Pencil over, where he draws himself over and gets kissed by Pad. She tells him to mail a letter into the envelope, and "seals it with a kiss". The paper gets stuck to Pencil's lips. He tries to get help, but Pad thinks he's "humming a love song". Pencil finally gets himself free, and Pad tells him to put a stamp on the envelope, so he gets one and the stamp gets stuck again. He tries to get help again but Pad now thinks he's speaking French, so he tries to get it unstuck himself. Pad tells him he looks ridiculous with the stamp on his lips and peels it right off.
Sticky Shoes (Puppetry)[]
Mary Jane and Lacey play hopscotch on a sidewalk. Mary Jane goes first and goes to 9, where she tells Lacey to beat that. Lacey goes next to the 9 and ends up stepping in gum. Mary Jane helps to get it off, but she gets stuck as well in the pink goop. The two exclaim "Stickkkyyyyyyy!"
Hot and Sticky (Digital Cel)[]
A radio tells us that it's a hot and sticky day, and then we see the characters complaining and sitting in the heatwave. Mr. String, however, is wiggling around in a window fan, saying how much he loves sticky days.
A Little Reality[]
A bunch of blowing fans with streamers are in a Caribbean-colored background (even if they’re irrelevant to something sticky).
Song: Plush (Digital Cel)[]
The Plush song "He's a Plush" is sung.
Just Like Looking in a Mirror (Fish in a Bowl; Stop Motion {Chel White})[]
Mr. String finds a fishbowl with a Moorish Idol inside. He transforms into a fish resembling the one in the fishbowl and copies everything it does. When the fish jumps out of the bowl, Mr. String tries to copy it but ends up swishing himself around. He laughs as the segment ends.
Back at Mop's Mirror Again (CGI)[]
Mop is back looking at a puddle again, now Bob and Plush are both bouncing in the puddles. Mop lifts up the puddle and dodges the two, and makes a hairstyle, only for the puddle to collapse down on her, making her soaking wet again. She groans and shakes herself.
Trivia[]
- As confirmed through the Library of Congress, this episode is notably the first to be produced. As a result, there are noticeable differences between this episode and other episodes.
- This episode's "Starring" segment features a noticeably different intro, featuring extra instrumentation, including piano keys for Mop, an oboe for Mr. String, an accordion for Pad and Pencil, synths implementing the main theme starting from Doris, and an extended outro.
- Gary Yudman portrays Mr. String's voice noticeably differently in Slippery When Wet and Hot and Sticky, where he has a nasally infliction.
- Slippery When Wet has choppier animation than the rest of the 2D segments.
- Some of the episodes' title cards are oddly positioned, most noticeable in Sticky Paws, Sticky Stuck, Hot and Sticky, and the episode's title card.
- This episode's title card is different from all the others, as its topics are all blue, instead of being green, then blue, then green, like the rest of Season 1.
- Footage from this episode was shown in various bumpers and promos for the show:
- Slippery When Wet, Sticky Lips, Just Like Looking in a Mirror (Chel White; Fish), and Back at Mop's Mirror, Again (as well as various shorts from Loud, Soft, Shake) were featured in the first HBO Family commercial for the show.
- Additionally, a deleted scene for Slippery When Wet where Pad and Pencil dance across the hall is used for the HBO Family promo intro for Non-HBO Family channels.
- The other Just Like Looking in a Mirror segment (Hunt Squibb; Inchworm) was featured in a later 1999 commercial.
- A 2010/2011 commercial for the show features footage from Slippery When Wet, Slippery, Sticky Paws, Sticky Stuck, Mop's Mirror, Bob Bounces Back, Mr. String Looks in a Mirror, Slipping Sliding Plush, and He's a Plush (as well as various shorts from Spring, Fall, Turn).
- Slippery When Wet, Sticky Lips, Just Like Looking in a Mirror (Chel White; Fish), and Back at Mop's Mirror, Again (as well as various shorts from Loud, Soft, Shake) were featured in the first HBO Family commercial for the show.
- Clips of Mr. String in Slippery When Wet, and Little Cup sliding down and splashing in a puddle in Slippery, were used in the "Starring" part of the intro. On a similar note, the clip of Plush shaking in He's a Plush, as well as Bob bouncing on Plush's body, were used for Plush and Bob's segments in the starring intro.
- The clip from Slippery When Wet where Mr. String says, "Couldn't have said it better myself" was also used in an HBO Family promo from 1999.
- In the Mop's Mirror segment where Mop makes herself a doctor, she states that she would have a really cool beeper. A beeper, also known by the name "pager", is a device that vibrates or beeps when it receives messages. It was pretty common back in the late 20th century. The popularity of the device has since declined greatly due to the rise of cellphones and smartphones, so this line could come off as dated today. Nevertheless, it has been said a great number of doctors/hospitals still use the device, but young kids might not know what it still is.
- In the second Mop's Mirror segment, Mop makes herself a "star princess", changing her hair to have two side buns. This is notably referencing Princess Leia from the Star Wars franchise.
- The second Just Like Looking in a Mirror segment is reused in Light, Dark, Bubble (the latter episode was produced later), where it was retitled "Fish Bubbles".
- The A Little Reality segment about donuts was filmed at a Krispy Kreme donut shop.
- Speaking of, it is also the only live action segment narrated by Bob the Ball while the other two are presented in silence, thus making the one with fans seem kind of irrelevant to the episode's topic.
- Mop indirectly breaks the fourth wall when she suggests being a “TV cartoon character”.
- He's a Plush is missing the fade transition at the beginning.
- The word mirror would be focused again along with the words bubble (from Light, Dark, Bubble) and picture (from Rough, Smooth, Picture) in Bubble, Picture, Mirror.