text: littlest pet shop ( 2012 tv series ) littlest pet shop is a canadian – american children 's animated television series developed by julie mcnally - cahill and tim cahill for hasbro studios . based on the littlest pet shop and blythe toys owned by hasbro , the show follows a blythe baxter , a teenage girl who , after moving into an apartment in a metropolitan area , gains the ability to communicate with animals . located below her apartment is the eponymous pet store where blythe works and talks to a group of pets who regularly reside at a day care in the shop . worried that a corrupt rival business will drive their shop out of business , the pets depend on blythe to drive business into the store with her pet fashion designs . the show debuted on november 10 , 2012 , and ran for four season and 104 episodes . littlest pet shop is produced by hasbro studios and dhx media . animated using flash , completion of a single episode takes roughly one year , with several in production at once . the show has received mixed reception ; it has been criticised for its embedded marketing , while reviewers have given praise to the writing . several crew members have additionally received accolades for their work on the show . the series finale aired on june 4 , 2016 . the series is a part of the company 's franchise reboot , where hasbro released a new line of littlest pet shop toys designed to more closely resemble the characters on the show . a mobile game and comic book adaptation were also commissioned . plot and cast the series follows blythe baxter ( ashleigh ball ) , a teenage girl living with her air pilot father , roger ( michael ) . forced to move out from her suburban hometown following her father 's promotion , she moves into an apartment located in a crowded city . their complex is located above the eponymous littlest pet shop — a pet store that also serves as a day camp for numerous pets — where blythe works as a fashion designer . her adventure begins when she discovers that she alone can miraculously understand and talk to the pets that regularly stay at the shop , in addition to most other animals on the planet . as she and the pets spend time together , they find the pet shop jeopardized by larger pet store managed by fisher biskit ( samuel vincent ) and his snooty twin daughters , and brittany biskit ( shannon chan - kent ) . to avoid being dispersed , the pets convince blythe to remain an employee . the pets who reside in the day camp of the store are pepper ( tabitha st. germain ) , a wisecracking skunk passionate about comedy ; minka ( kira tozer ) , a bouncy spider monkey with a flair for painting and visual arts ; penny ling ( loewen , laura in song ) , a sensitive giant panda interested in rhythmic gymnastics ; russell ( vincent ) , a hedgehog who is often the self - appointed leader of his animal ; sunil ( peter new ) , a mongoose and magician hopeful ; vinnie ( kyle rideout ) , a clumsy gecko obsessed with dancing ; and zoe ( nicole oliver , epp in song ) , a diva - like dog with a talent for singing . other human characters include mrs. twombly ( kathleen barr ) , owner of the shop and blythe 's boss , and song ( chan - kent ) , sue patterson ( tozer ) , and jasper jones ( barr ) , blythe 's schoolmates . background hasbro owns the rights of both blythe and littlest pet shop , toy lines respectively introduced in 1972 and 1992 . manufactured through their kenner products division , hasbro acquired the cincinnati - based company , then owned by tonka , in 1991 . hasbro sold these toys under the name of this division until they closed down kenner 's original cincinnati headquarters in 2000 . television had produced an earlier animated show based on littlest pet shop in 1995 for hasbro , but the 2012 littlest pet shop series marked the first adaptation of the blythe doll to a character on television . a prior incarnation of such a character is the protagonist of littlest pet shop presents , an unrelated animated miniseries produced by cosmic toast studios . this series was released by hasbro exclusively on the internet . julie mcnally - cahill and tim cahill developed littlest pet shop , having joined hasbro studios in september 2011 . the two serve as both executive producers and story editors on the show ; also working as executive producers are chris and kirsten newman . the show was announced in march 2011 , based on hasbro 's 2010 introduction of the blythe loves littlest pet shop toy line . margaret loesch , then the ceo of the hub network — a network partly owned by hasbro and discovery communications — commissioned the series . production given hasbro 's framework for littlest pet shop , the developers cahills pitched their adaptation of the property . hasbro originally felt discouraged over having the show set at the pet store , finding the exchange of animals they thought would come from that disconcerting . the cahills saw the studio 's definition of such stores as antiquated , convincing them that most modern locations provide grooming and day care services as opposed to merely selling pets . production followed quickly , much to their surprise . the studio defined only blythe and the pets as characters , so the cahills sought to expand the human character 's fictional universe , designing blythe 's friends , mrs. twombly , and the biskit twins . julie explained that she and her husband 's preference for quirky comedy inspired that of the show . while the show is aimed at a demographic of young girls , julie said that she and the writers attempt to cater to boys of the same age and parent viewers simultaneously . original music for the show is accomplished by film and television composers daniel ingram and steffan andrews . ingram wrote that the urban setting of littlest pet shop prompted the use of a modern style of music . the score incorporates pop and other cultural influences for the same reason . ingram found hasbro 's pushing of the limitations for music in daytime television a source of pride . each 22 - minute episode takes approximately a year to complete ; three to four episodes are produced simultaneously . storyboard artists depict scenes using pro . adapting these boards to limited animation , studio dhx media handles the designs , poses and key frames of movement for each character appearing in a given scene for an episode , as well as background art . dhx hands these assets to a separate studio , where the remaining animation is finished using adobe flash . the speed of production is throttled slightly by blythe having two unique outfits per episode , according to director joel dickie . supervising director dallas parker similarly explained that the variety of assets created for each episode challenged the process of flash animation in reusing movements . release the hub network aired the first two episodes of littlest pet shop in succession on november 10 , 2012 . the network scheduled these episodes to succeed the third season premiere of friendship is magic , based on the my little pony toy line , also owned by hasbro . the network ordered 26 episodes for its first season , concluding it on april 27 , 2013 . a second season , also of 26 episodes , premiered on november 2 , 2013 , and concluded on april 12 , 2014 . a third season of the same amount of episodes aired from may 31 , 2014 , to march 7 , 2015 . during this season , the network shifted management and was renamed to discovery family . according to show writer roger , a fourth and final season will be aired , beginning november 7 , 2015 . related products mobile game as part of a contractual agreement with hasbro , gameloft developed a mobile game based on the show . released in the same year the show premiered , on november 22 , the game is of the city - building genre . the game , littlest pet shop , is freemium software — microtransactions allows users to speed up the progression of the game . the game provides over 150 animal companions for users to collect ; minigames allow players to take care of these pets . its initial release was for the ios platform . an android port was released shortly afterwards . writing in toucharcade , jared nelson wrote that the game is unexceptional for players who are not fans of the toy line . while in the united kingdom the game was subject of controversy concerning its incorporation of in - app purchases , the advertising standards authority deemed it acceptable . the organization found that the instructions detailing purchases did not coerce players to make such purchases . comic book idw publishing was commissioned to adapt littlest pet shop to a comic book . an adaptation made up of five issues , released from may 7 to september 17 , 2014 , was written by georgia ball and matt anderson and illustrated by nico peña and antonio campo . anderson had worked on the shorter , contained stories , while ball had scripted the remainder of each issue . different from the other hasbro properties ball had worked on , she explained that hasbro wanted the comic to entertain readers rather than be morally didactic . she likened this to the principle of " no hugging , no learning " coined on the set of seinfeld . apart from that , the studio gave ball license to give blythe hobbies not depicted on the show . ball focused on writing stories that would appeal to readers transitioning from primary to secondary education . she described the structure for the comic as a daily drama , while anderson thought of it as slice of life . home media shout ! factory has secured north american distribution rights for programs broadcast by the hub network and discovery family , releasing several dvd sets for littlest pet shop . primal screen , a distributor located in the united kingdom , obtained the rights for its first two seasons for most of western europe and the middle east . beyond home entertainment handles distribution in australia . reception littlest pet shop became one of the hub network 's top programs in 2013 . both the show and friendship is magic were outperforming shows aimed at similar demographics internationally , according to stephen davis , president of hasbro studios . hasbro rebooted their toy line in accordance with the show ; newer collections features customizable sets for fans to " create , decorate and personalize their own scenes " inspired by episodes . writing for the parent - focused organization common sense media , emily ashby found the show unimpressive . she praised blythe as a model of " integrity , self - confidence , loyalty , and creativity " but found fault with product placement and the " run - of - the - mill " pet characters . mercedes milligan of animation magazine , however , described the varied personalities of the pet characters as the most endearing trait of the show . writing in entertainment weekly , hillary busis found the biskit twins amusing as characters . busis praised the twenty - first episode of the first season in particular , which contains a parody of both toddlers & and the christopher guest – directed film best in show . an homage to star trek was singled out by hanh nguyen in tv guide . tori michel of about entertainment gave praise to a dvd set containing five episodes of the first season . she wrote that despite the intended demographic , older children in elementary and middle school would find the writing humorous , while girls would find the pet characters entertaining the most . the dove foundation member donna rolfe gave the same set a full five stars . the show was nominated at the 40th daytime creative arts emmy awards for the song " if you 're a guy " in 2013 , but it lost this to 3rd & bird . oliver 's portrayal of zoe won her an award from and the union of british columbia performers . new , who voices sunil , was nominated for this but lost to oliver . ingram and andrews were nominated for leo awards for their work as composers of the episode " lights , camera , mongoose ! " in 2014 . the duo later won this nomination in common .