A Little Curious About Life

**A Little Curious About Life** is the 12th episode of the second season in the series *A Little Curious,* and the last episode to be produced. It aired on March 20, 2000, and is considered a special, as when it premiered, it was aired in the prime time slot at 7:00 pm, as opposed to the typical episodes that aired in morning hours. The episode focuses on all about life.

## Intro sequence (CGI)

Bob and Mr. String are on a hill looking above the night sky, and Bob wonders if there's life out in space. Mr. String tells them there has to be life out there that grows, moves, and thinks, then worries that the life would come down to visit and he didn't make his bed. He also speculates that there isn't life in space, with no people out there to live on the millions of stars and planets, and then he worries that it's terribly quiet. He tells Bob that maybe there is life in space, or maybe there isn't, or we'll never know.

## Segments

### Beautiful Day (Watercolor)

The characters all sing about the beginning of a beautiful day.

### A Little Reality

A couple of girls look through kaleidoscopes to see plants and flowers.

### Beginning of Life (Stop Motion)

The Shoe Family is at the hospital waiting for a baby. Lacey wants a baby brother, but Mary Jane wants a sister. The two wonder where babies come from, and Mr. Shoe explains that they come from parents because they love each other. Mary Jane asks her father if he will still love her, even though she's not a baby anymore, and Mr. Shoe assures her that her parents have enough love to go around. Eventually, a pair of nurse shoes direct the family to the nursery window where the baby shoes are, and a pair gives the baby boy pair to Mrs. Shoe. She introduces Baby Booties to the family and explains to Lacey that at the beginning of life: Everyone starts small, then grows up into big shoes, and finally, even bigger shoes. Mary Jane asks if she could hold Booties, and she does. Mr. Shoe concludes that being a parent is the best part of life.

### A Little Reality

A father and two girls walk into the hospital to meet their new baby.

### Full of Life (Live Action/CGI blend)

Bob visits a live-action farm and meets a horse, then a box of puppies. The pups climb out of their pen and chase Bob all around the grass. They eventually go away, when Bob finds them back to their mother. He assures that it's their nap time, then he bounces out of the farmyard and says he's going to tell Plush, Doris, Mop, and company about life on a farm.

### A Seed Needs Water (Cel)

Bob and Little Cup are outside by a flower pot, with a seed. Little Cup asks if the seed is a flower, but Bob tells him that it's the seed, and the flower grows from it. Bob plants it when Doris comes by and asks what they are up to. She then tells them that every living thing needs water, so the two run to a nearby faucet, and Bob fills Cup up with water, then he pours some water onto the dirt. The two wait for it to grow.

### I Got Life (Live Action/Cel Hybrid/Mixed Media)

Mop sings about various body parts that she's got in her life, cutting to both various clips of live-action kids pointing and touching them and an animated Mop. Some of the clips towards the end are from previous episodes.

### A Seed Needs Sunshine (Cel)

Bob and Cup are inside, still waiting for their flower to grow. Doris tells them that flowers also need sunshine to grow, so the two take the flower pot outside. Cup comments that the flower's still not growing.

### I Will Love You for the Rest of My Life (CGI)

Pad and Pencil sing together about their relationship, and that they'll love each other for the rest of their lives, regardless of how much wear and tear they gain.

### A Seed Needs Time to Grow (Cel)

The third segment in the "flower" story arc. Bob and Cup are still upset about their flower not growing, and Doris says it takes time for things to grow, and to have some patience. The two decide to wait and fall asleep, and while they nap the sunflower grows right from the pot. They wake up very excited and hug Doris, who says they gave it water, sun, and time to grow, and gave life to the flower. Bob and Cup say hello to the flower.

### A Little Reality

A couple of kids pick raspberries, apples, and corn on the cobs from bushes, as well as pumpkins. In the end, they all eat raspberries from a water bin.

### I Am What I Am (CGI)

Plush sees a record player, which he cranks up and plays a singing record. He also gets a top hat and a cane and dances around, until he hits it with the cane which causes the record to start skipping and slow down. So he cranks it again which causes the record to get faster and faster, his tap-dancing feet also following along with the speed. He hops on the spinning record and jumps and skids on the floor, throwing his hat onto the record player and ending the dance.

### Love of My Life (Cel)

Bob bounces to Doris who seems to look sad. But Doris says she isn't sad and just remembers Irving the Awning, her former lover. She tells him the story and they first met on Flatbush Avenue beside a building. Irving would roll out and keep out rain, snow, and bright sunlight out of Doris's way, the two would read the newspaper together, and laugh and share good times together. One time, Irving wanted to move to Miami because the coldness made him feel old, but Doris talked him out of it.

Then one day, Irving was somehow broken and beaten up, and Doris knew he was dead and gone forever. Bob wishes he could've met Irving, and Doris tells him that he's so full of life, he would've loved Bob.

### Life is But a Dream (Oil Painting)

All the characters, with the exception of The Shoe Family, are on a boat singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and paddling down a river. They all paddle into the night sky, ending the episode and the series as a whole.

## Trivia

* Contrary to popular belief, this episode is technically not the series finale. Many sources, including this HBO Family schedule archive, list it as the 37th episode aired. However, this was the final episode produced and was intended to be the finale, given that the other episodes after this one feature topics that were already produced in other episodes.
	+ Before then, the supposed airdate was August 15, 2000.
* **Differences between normal episodes and this episode:**
	+ The episode begins with Mr. String and Bob on a hill above a night sky, talking about life and planets instead of the intro song.
	+ Plush still hops on the "A Little Curious" logo letters as he does in the regular opening, but the background is in space.
	+ The title card itself has "About Life" below the actual logo. During the 'starring' segment, different clips from the episode are used instead of the regular clips. The opening clip is also used for when the starring segment gets to Mr.String.
	+ Oddly, when the first short starts, the title card with the short's name doesn't appear.
	+ Altogether, the animation seems to be more improved and advanced compared to older A Little Curious episodes, namely the 3D CGI segments.
	+ At the end of the episode after the last short, there is no recap of the episode's subjects, and it cuts straight to the credits. This is mostly because the entire episode focuses on one subject.
	+ The copyright screen at the end of the credits is noticeably laid out differently: it's more centered and the "Dolby Surround" logo appears over it. The copyright itself says this is the only episode produced in 2000, as the other episodes' copyrights date 1999, even the ones that aired in 2000.
	+ We are introduced to two new characters: Irving the Awning and Baby Booties. Previously, the cast never expanded beyond the twelve main characters.
* For a quick second in *Beautiful Day*, Little Cup's juice inside of him disappears, a second before Mop, Pad, Pencil, Mary Jane, Lacey, Bob, and himself look up in the sky.
* The *A Seed Needs Water* short ends with Bob and Little Cup waiting outside for the flower to grow, but the *A Seed Needs Sunshine* short begins with the two inside. In a way, this is a continuity error because the latter segment occurs right after the former segment. It also doesn't make sense why they brought the plant back inside anyway.
* I Got Life includes clips from: live action segments from Over, Under, Balance, Top, Bottom, Jump, Fast, Slow, Spin, First, Last, Step, and Lead, Follow, Act.
* In *Love of My Life*, Doris says "Didn't/Did I ever tell you about Irving? Irving the Awning was his name." twice, when despite the fact she already told him who Irving was at the beginning of the story.
* This episode was pulled from reruns in 2017 due to the covers of “I Got Life” and "I Am What I Am".