Little Audrey

Little Audrey
First appearanceNoveltoon Santa's Surprise (December 5, 1947)
Created bySeymour Kneitel
Bill Tytla (design)
Portrayed byMae Questel
Tiffany Taubman
Stephanie Lemelin
In-universe information
AliasAudrey Smith
SpeciesHuman
GenderFemale
RelativesMrs. Smith (mother)
Suzie (cousin)
Grandma (grandmother)
Pal (dog)
Patches (brother)
NationalityAmerican

Little Audrey (full name: Audrey Smith) is a fictional character, appearing in early 20th century comics[1] prior to starring in a series of Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios cartoons from 1947 to 1958.[2] She was devised after Paramount decided not to renew the license on Little Lulu, the comic strip character created by Marjorie Henderson Buell (a.k.a. "Marge"). Despite some superficial similarities between the two characters, the Famous animators were at pains to design Audrey in contrast to Lulu, adopting an entirely different color scheme and employing the stylistic conventions common to Famous Studios' later 1940s repertoire, as opposed to Buell's individualistic rendering of Little Lulu. Veteran animator Bill Tytla was the designer of Little Audrey, reportedly inspired by his daughter Tammy (who was also his inspiration for Famous' version of Little Lulu, on which he also worked and for which he directed several shorts).[3] The original voice of Little Lulu was performed by actress Cecil Roy (who also provided the voice of Casper the Friendly Ghost). Little Audrey was, instead, voiced by Mae Questel, who also voiced most of Paramount's other major female cartoon characters, including Betty Boop and Olive Oyl from the Popeye cartoons.

  1. ^ "Little Audrey Laughs and Laughs". Queenslander. 9 July 1936. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  2. ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 98–99. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  3. ^ Cartoon Brew article "Facebook Fun" (Dated: April 5, 2010) - containing the original 1946 model sheet of Little Audrey by Bill Tytla.