Mina and the Count

Straddling the line between "short" and "TV series" lies Mina and the Count.

Originally created in 1995 by Frederator Studios (the same people behind toons such as The Fairly Odd Parents and Adventure Time), it was originally created as part of Cartoon Network's "What A Cartoon!" show. In the original short, Interlude With a Vampire, the titular Count, a vampire, accidentally stumbles into the room of one Mina Harper, age 7. (He was looking for Nina Parker, age 17.) Mina quickly proves her formidity when she abruptly turns herself into his leg accessory, and despite being dragged into every manner of girly game by Mina, the Count quickly finds himself enjoying it and becomes her friend. The following shorts detailed their various goofy and spooky adventures. During its run of shorts, it migrated from Cartoon Network to Nickelodeon's Oh Yeah! Cartoons.

Among the other shorts on the various Frederator shorts shows, Mina and the Count was highly unusual. While most cartoons only saw either one or two episodes and then a full series, or one episode and then vanishing obscurity, Mina saw a full six shorts released throughout its run, making it a kind of cartoon Miniseries. It even built up a small fanbase throughout the years. But despite fans' vocal interest, it never has been--and probably never will be--expanded to a full show. Not to mention, good luck finding the shorts on DVD. Sigh--well, guess that's what YouTube is there for.

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This miniseries contains examples of:

• Adult Child: The Count. This is probably why he and Mina get on so well.
• All Men Are Perverts: Everyone wants to seem to hit on Mrs. Frankenstein.
• Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: Seems to be the usual monster mindset. "It's monsters like you who give us all a GOOD NAME!"
• Blood Lust: Well, the count is a vampire, after all. However, in one short, he's also shown eating other, "weirder" things. Just so long as it's not "mortal" food.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Mina's older sister, Lucy.
• The Bully: Nick, complete with his two nearly-identical henchmen.
• Channel Hop
• Characterization Marches On: In the first short, Mina barely said anything and Igor was fairly dumb. Mina started speaking more consistently in the second short, while Igor is shown to be somewhat more intelligent in the third.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Count's first attempt to... ahem... "seduce" Mina.
  • To be fair, he thought she was 17 years old at first.
• Dinner and a Show: The fourth episode, where the Count comes to dinner at Mina's house. And her sister Lucy becomes his Instant Fanclub.
• Free the Frogs: Done in quite possibly the weirdest fashion ever in "Frankenfrog." The frog's already dead; Mina just brings it back with Mad Science!
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire
• Genki Girl: Mina. Mina Mina Mina Mina Mina Mina Mina!
• Hartman Hips: Lucy
• Heroic Mime: Mina very nearly was one in the first short; her only line was "He's my best friend!" She got more talkative in the later shorts, though.
• ~Hey, It's That Voice!~: Hello there, Tara Strong, fancy meeting you here! Mark Hamill was the voice of the Count.
  • Tara Strong? Try Ashley Johnson.
• Hypno Fool: One of the Count's vampire powers.
• The Igor: Surprise! His name's Igor.
• Intergenerational Friendship: She's 7, he's about 700.
• Lethal Chef: Mina's culinary prowess in the fourth episode is surprising for a little girl, but still, garlic souffle is probably not one of her better ideas.
• Lightning Can Do Anything: It can bring a dead frog to life as well as Mina's doll.
• The Masquerade: The Count does his best to stay out of the limelight. When he has to, he parades as Mina's violin teacher.
• Meaningful Name: The Count is obviously an Expy of Count Dracula. But Mina Harper is named after Mina Harker of the original Dracula novel and her bratty older sister, Lucy, is no doubt named after Lucy Westenra who ironically was Mina's best friend in the novel and in most adaptions of the tale.
• Miniseries: A cartoon one, but it still kind of fits.
• Missing Mom: Mina's. In the first episode, a picture on her wall seems to suggest she does have a mom, but in a later short, it's revealed that that might just be her older sister.
• Monster Mash: In episode 5, The Count's monster buddies -- which more or less include Kharis, the Gill-man, and the Creature and the Missus -- come over for their monthly card night.
• Morality Pet: Mina for the Count.
  • Kinda devolved into the Count becoming a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire after the first episode. Mina must have really rubbed off on him.
• Oh Crap: The Count has a pretty fanastic moment of this in "The Vampire Who Came to Dinner."

Count: (thinking) "Well, Vlad, it looks as if you'll actually have to eat some mortal food. Ah well, it is disgusting, but as long as it's not-" (Mina reveals her dish) Mina: "Garlic Souffle!" Count: "... My favorite..."

• Offscreen Teleportation: Mina's game of "Peekaboo!" in episode 5.
• Only One Name: In later episodes, the Count's name is revealed to be Vlad.
• Our Vampires Are Different: The Count more-or-less hits most of the Classical Movie Vampire traits spot-on.
• Servile Snarker: Igor comes off as kind of a dunce in the first episode, but in the later shorts, it becomes more questionable as to just who's in charge in that castle...
• She Is All Grown Up: Do a search for fanart of these cartoons, and you will invariably find pictures of an older Mina, more than likely paired with the Count.
• Those Two Bad Guys: Nick's cronies, who look identically, dress identically, and even move directly in-step at all times.
• Vampire Vords
• Vein-O-Vision
• What Could Have Been: ...a great series is limited to about 50 minutes of canonical material. Oh well...
• You Gotta Have Blue Skin