Robert Hargreaves Google Doodle

On the 9^th May 2011 Google embarked on one of the biggest doodle projects to date with a Robert Hargreaves Google Doodle. The doodles marked the 76^th birthday of the author and illustrator Robert Hargreaves. Hargreaves was made famous by his Mr Men and Little Miss short stories. The British author was born in the town of Cleckheaton in Yorkshire on 9^th May 1935. Unfortunately Hargreaves died in 1988 aged just 54 as the result of a stroke.

Hargreaves began writing the Mr Men series in 1971. The series contains characters who have names such as Mr Tickle and Mr Bump. The characters in the series have physical attributes and characteristics which match their names. To demonstrate, Mr. Happy is very happy and Little Miss Chatterbox talks a lot. Each book introduced readers to an individual title character and their unique dominant characteristic. This characteristic was then used to convey a simple moral lesson to readers. The books are easily recognisable due to their simple stories, bright colouring and boldly drawn illustrations.

In total the series of short stories contains 48 individual Mr Men books and 42 Little Miss titles. His books were much loved by children and continue to be popular with children. The popularity of the series has resulted in over 100 million sales in 28 countries globally.

Due to its popularity a number of television adaptations of the books have emerged. The first adaptation occurred in 1974 and consisted of 28 episodes. The series was played by the BBC and Arthur Lowe provided the narration and characters voices. Later television adaptations occurred in 1983 and 1995. In an attempt to make the show popular to an American audience, Renegade Animation produced a new television series in 2006. This series was named The Mr Men Show and in 2008 it debuted on Cartoon Network in the U.S. and Channel 5’s Milkshake in the U.K.

The Robert Hargreaves Google Doodle was one of the most extensive projects to date for the doodlers. The Robert Hargreaves Google Doodle featured no less than 18 individual doodle designs. The designs included Mr Messy giving the Google logo a new paint job, to view this doodle click here. In another doodle design Little Miss Chatterbox was sat chatting away on a phone forming the G in the logo, whilst the second G was formed by a table with the phone on, to see this doodle click here.

The characters which received their own doodle design included Mr Messy, Mr Rush, Mr Happy, Mr Forgetful, Mr Bump, Mr Tickle, Mr Dizzy, Mr Slow, Mr Funny, Little Miss Chatterbox, Little Miss Magic, Little Miss Tiny, Little Miss Shy, Little Miss Naughty, Little Miss Naughty, Little Miss Sunshine and Little Miss Curious. Other designs included Mr Bump seeing stars after bumping into the Google logo,  this doodle can still  be viewed by clicking here. The doodle which featured Mr Tickle saw him tickling a post man, who made up the second O in the logo. In this design the second G was formed by Mr Tickle’s body, whilst his right arm spelled out the E. In order to view this doodle, click here. Alternatively, to view each of the 16 unique Mr Men inspired doodle designs click here.