Angelina Ballerina

Angelina Ballerina
Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps logo
Format	Animated
Created by	Katharine Holabird & Helen Craig
Directed by	Roger McIntosh Kitty Taylor
Starring	Finty Williams Judi Dench Jo Wyatt Keith Wickham Adrienne Posta Rob Rackstraw
Composer(s)	Colin Towns
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	20 (List of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Ginger Gibbons
Running time	12 minutes
Production company(s)	HIT Entertainment
Broadcast
Original run	5 May 2002 – 2007

Angelina Ballerina is a fictional mouse, created by author Katharine Holabird and illustrator Helen Craig, who is featured in a series of children's books. The series is set in Chipping Cheddar, a place similar to 1920s London, England in the United Kingdom. The first book in the series was published in 1983, and since then, there have been over twenty books in the series.

In 2001, a British animated TV series of forty fifteen minute episodes based on the books was produced by HIT Entertainment in the United Kingdom. The series featured actress Finty Williams as the voice of Angelina, and her mother Judi Dench as Miss Lilly. The series aired on PBS in the United States, where it was presented by Connecticut Public Television; and can currently be seen on Nick Jr. in the United Kingdom and PBS Kids Sprout in the United States.

A computer-animated revival, Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps, premiered on PBS stations in September 2009. It is directed by Davis Doi and animated at SD Entertainment. WNET, after purchasing CPTV's production unit, is the producer of the program. English National Ballet took a live version of Angelina Ballerina called Angelina's Star Performance on tour in autumn 2007.

Characters

• Angelina Jeanette Mouseling (Voiced by Finty Williams) is the main protagonist of the series. She is a feisty little mouseling who loves to dance and dreams of becoming a famous ballerina. She often wears a pink leotard, tutu, hair ribbon, ballet slippers.
• Miss Lilly (Voiced by Judi Dench) is Angelina's ballet teacher. She grew up in Dacovia, a far away land. She is sometimes mentioned in the TV series Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps, and a picture of her is seen at Angelina's new school.
• Alice Bridgette Nimbletoes (Voiced by Jo Wyatt) is Angelina's best friend and secondary protagonist, who is very skilled at gymnastics. She often wears a green leotard, tutu, hair ribbon, and ballet slippers. She also appears in the TV series Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps.
• William John Longtail (Voiced by Keith Wickham) is one of two boys in Miss Lilly's ballet class. In one of the episodes, it's shown that he loves Angelina.
• Mr. Longtail is William's father who works as a cab driver and praises his son for any efforts he tries to make especially if its his first time.
• Priscilla and Penelope Pinkpaws (Voiced by Jo Wyatt and Jonell Elliott) are twin sisters who tease and belittle nearly everyone, including each other. They are particularly jealous of Angelina for her dancing talent. Priscilla wears blue leotards, tutus, and pointe shoes and wears a purple hair ribbon, and Penelope wears a purple leotard, tutu, and ballet slippers, but wears a blue hair ribbon.
• Felicity is one of Angelina's dance class mates. Wears a sky blue bow.
• Flora is another of Angelina's dance class mates. Wears a yellow bow.
• Sammy Watts (Voiced by Jo Wyatt) is an older mouseling in Angelina's school, who often causes trouble for William and Angelina particularly but has a heart of gold.
• Mr. Maurice Mouseling (Voiced by Keith Wickham) is Angelina's father and the proprietor of the Mouseland Gazette.
• Mrs. Matilda Mouseling (Voiced by Jonell Elliott) is Angelina's mother. Her maiden surname is Fielding. She has a sister Amanda, who has a son.
• Polly Anne Mouseling is the second child and daughter of Mr. Mouseling and Mrs. Mouseling and younger sister of Angelina. In the TV series Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps, Polly is a four-year-old child with white fur instead of brown.
• Grandma Sophia and Grandpa Jeffrey (Voiced by Adrienne Posta and Keith Wickham) are Angelina's grandparents and Maurice's parents. They are sometimes mentioned in Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps.
• Uncle Louis (Voiced by Rob Rackstraw) is Mr. Mouseling's brother and Henry's father.
• Henry Tyler Mouseling (Voiced by Jo Wyatt) is Angelina's cousin.
• Mrs. Harriet Hodgepodge (Voiced by Finty Williams) is Angelina's next door neighbour. She always appears grumpy and is viewed with fear by most of the Chipping Cheddar mouselings, but occasionally helps the mouselings often when they least expect it.
• Doctor Tuttle (Voiced by Keith Wickham) is the doctor in the town of Chipping Cheddar.
• Miss Quaver is Miss Lilly's pianist, who plays the piano during dance classes.
• Mr. Ivor Operatski (Voiced by Derek Jacobi) is an old friend of Miss Lilly's. Angelina is convinced (wrongly, as it turns out) that he hates mouselings.
• Queen Seraphina is a childhood friend of Miss Lilly's, who is now the Queen of Mouseland.
• Princess Valentine is the daughter of Queen Seraphina.
• Anya is a mouseling who comes to Chipping Cheddar as part of a migrant family working through the harvest season. She has ears of unalike color which the Pinkpaws twins make fun of. She befriends Angelia and later joins Miss Lilly's ballet class.
• Mrs. Pinkpaws is the mother of the twins Priscilla and Penelope and their baby brother. She appears in a couple of episodes. She has a Southern Aristocracy accent and wears a lot of jewellery.

Episodes

Main article: List of Angelina Ballerina episodes

Availability

DVD Releases

• Meet Angelina Ballerina (2002) (The Ballet Tickets, Two Mice in a Boat)
• Angelina Ballerina: Friends Forever (2002) (Ballerina Rag Doll, Angelina's Surprise, Arthur the Butterfly, Alice's Present)
• Angelina Ballerina: The Magic of Dance (William the Conjurer, Angelina and Grandma, Miss Lilly Comes to Dinner)
• Angelina Ballerina: The Dance of Friendship (2004) (Angelina and Anya, Alice's Present)
• Angelina Ballerina: All Dancers on Deck / Angelina Ballerina: Angelina Sets Sail (2006)
• Angelina Ballerina: The Big Performance (2005) (The Royal Banquet, Angelina the Mouse Detective, Angelina's Baby Sister, The Costume Ball)
• Angelina Ballerina: Angelina Follows Her Dreams (2007)

CGI series

In August 2009, WNET announced that they were working on a new CGI series called Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps. The series is about Angelina as a teenager going to a performing arts school. The series debuted on September 5, 2009.

Bibliography

Book title	Year written
Angelina Ballerina	1983
Angelina and the Princess	1984
Angelina's Christmas	1985
Angelina at the Fair	1985
Angelina on Stage	1986
Angelina and Alice	1987
Angelina's Birthday	1989
Angelina's Baby Sister	1991
Angelina's Ice Skates	1993
Angelina's Halloween	2000
Angelina and the Butterfly	2001
Angelina's Ballet Class	2001
Angelina and Henry	2002
Angelina Loves	2002
Angelina and the Rag Doll	2002
Angelina Ballerina's Invitation to the Ballet	2003
Angelina, Star of the Show	2004
Angelina's Silver Locket	2004
Angelina at the Palace	2005
Angelina at the Royal Wedding	2010

External links

• Official Angelina Ballerina website
• Official Angelina Ballerina, The Musical website
• Angelina Ballerina opening theme song (:23 min)
• English National Ballet performs Angelina's Star Performance
• Angelina Ballerina, The Musical presented by Vital Theatre Company
• Angelina Ballerina at the Internet Movie Database
• Angelina Ballerina at the Big Cartoon Database