By ChozinFellers

Updated on August 1, 2022. Originally posted on June 26, 2020.

In the 1980s, Latin American audiences were already familiar with Little Lulu and her antics once the Spanish dub of the anime was transmitted in multiple Spanish-speaking countries. [1] 

The original Little Lulu comics were translated into Spanish, with the first issue published in 1951. [2] The Spanish line of comics lasted up until the 1980s. 

John Stanley’s stories became accessible to Latin American readers but were eventually replaced by comics from the post-Stanley era and new stories from anonymous writers/artists. 

ZIV International produced its English version of the anime in 1978, but the production year of the Spanish dub remains unclear. The anime was broadcasted at different years throughout the early 1980s. As seen in the opening and ending sequences, the title cards and credits were not translated into Spanish, remaining as the same ones found in the English dub. One of the few broadcast recordings from TVE2 (currently known as La 2) confirms that the credits were unaltered, even though the theme song was changed. [3] 

The earliest known broadcast of the Spanish dub aired in 1981 on Chile’s Channel 7 and Channel 11. [4, 5, 6] The anime would continue to air in Chile into 1982, being advertised in their children’s programming block that would run from 4:00pm to 6:00pm. [7] Other anime titles such as Captain Future and Angel appeared on Chilean television around the same time. 

Spain’s TVE-1 channel aired the first episode on September 15, 1984, broadcasting the series on Saturdays at 3:35pm. [8, 9] Episodes would continue to air into 1985, with the last episode airing on March 9, 1985. Reruns of the series were transmitted on TVE-1 and TVE-2 during the 1990s. [9] 

Columbia Pictures produced two Little Lulu compilation movies in Spanish, using multiple episodes from the anime to create full-length features. The first movie simply called, “Little Lulu” released on July 31, 1981. [10] That same year, Italian audiences would see its own compilation movie, “The Incredible Adventures of Little Lulu.” The Italian movie was produced by Heritage Cinematografica with unique music and title sequences. 

The following year would see a second movie produced by Columbia Pictures called, “Little Lulu No. 2” on August 6, 1982. Production on the second movie occurred in 1981. [10] If this were the case for the first movie where it would take a year to complete a film, production would approximately occur in 1980. It is unknown whether these two movies had the same voice cast and/or music compared to the Spanish dub seen on television. 

As for home media releases, the first couple of episodes were brought to VHS and Betamax, containing 2 episodes per tape, distributed by Video Tricorp and Vestal Video. [11, 12] The series became available on DVD during the 2000s, although all subsequent releases contained VHS transfers of the episodes. [13, 14] The two compilation movies from Colombia Pictures never received a VHS or DVD release. 

On YouTube, the oldest uploads of the Spanish dub come from user “LuluChibi,” mostly around 2011-2012. These uploads were spliced into different parts, containing flipped video and a watermark (some episodes are not in the correct order). [15] The raw versions of the episodes were uploaded by user “NesGamer90,” first on YouTube and then onto the Internet Archive. NesGamer90 claims that he downloaded the episodes from a forum, although he didn’t provide the name of a specific site. All 26 episodes of the Spanish dub can be viewed on the Internet Archive. [16] 

By ChozinFellers

Updated on August 1, 2022. Originally posted on June 26, 2020.

For the Spanish dub, Mark Mercury’s English theme was replaced with a new song. Composed by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy, the theme song was called, “Lulu no Crezcas” (Lulu, Don’t Grow Up). Juan Guillermo Aguirre sung the vocals, a man who would eventually become the voice of the Spanish theme songs for many cartoons of the 1970s and 1980s. [1]

In 1972, Aguirre migrated to the United States, settling in San Francisco. He first made a living by being a singer in bars and nightclubs. Fortunately, his luck changed when he was offered a job from Sound Connections Studios. [2] 

Aguirre was assigned to sing various theme songs, including Little Lulu. Aguirre also did openings for He-Man, Force Five, Captain Future, Angel and plenty of other shows. 

Latin American people heard Aguirre’s voice from these cartoon and anime titles, though he was credited under the group “Superbanda” (Superband) at the time. In 1981, Superbanda released “La Pequeña Lulú,” a full album containing songs specifically for the Little Lulu anime. [3]

Aguirre continued his career as a musician, composing advertisement jingles and music with other performers. In 2004, Aguirre decided to rebrand himself as Capitán Memo (Captain Memo), forming a new band. Their first album, El Regreso De Los Robots (The Return of the Robots) brought back many of the popular songs that made Captain Memo popular in the first place. [4] A new rendition of “Lulu, Don’t Grow Up” was recorded, notable for being the only song (related to the Lulu anime) to receive a different arrangement long after its original recording. Their second album, Grand Prix, contained more songs from the same era of cartoons. 

After the release of these CDs, Captain Memo rose in popularity. Latin American audiences became nostalgic for anime and cartoons from the 80s. Captain Memo, along with his crew, have been touring around Latin America since 2005. [5] Each concert brings hundreds of people singing along and reviving childhood memories. Captain Memo is still currently active with touring to this very day. 

Out of all of the dubs for the Little Lulu anime, Latin Americans are the ones who are most fond of the show and its catchy theme song, sung by Captain Memo.