Li'l Elvis and the Truckstoppers

Li'l Elvis and the Truckstoppers is an animated musical children's television series and the Australian Children's Television Foundation's (ACTF's) first joint venture under the Distinctly Australian Program introduced by the Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating. The Director of the ACTF, Dr. Patricia Edgar, selected Peter Viska's character Li'l Elvis to design and co-produce the ACTF's first long-form 26-episode-series animation. As an original concept, not commissioned from overseas or based on an adaption of a classic story, production of the series on this scale was a massive undertaking for the Australian animation industry. With Li'l Elvis, an $11.5 million project, the ACTF opened up a new overseas market in partnership with France 2 and France Animation, a French production company, and Ravensburger, a German distributor, with the financial participation of Centre national de la cinématographie. A team of 90 animators and artists worked for 18 months including 39 trainees were employed on the production in support roles.

Plot
The story follows a group of children and their adventures in outback Australia.

The title character of the show, Li'l Elvis, is a ten-year-old boy with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He has a gift for music, a talent for trouble, and a desire for only one thing: to find out who he really is and be a normal kid again. The opening sequence and music reveal that he was thrown out of a gold Cadillac in a guitar case, hinting that he is the illegitimate child of Elvis Presley (in real life, Presley only had one daughter named Lisa Marie ). He is raised by foster parents, truck-stop proprietors Grace and Len, who are fervent fans of Presley. As Li'l Elvis is musically talented at both singing and playing the guitar, Grace is convinced he is Presley's son.

Li'l Elvis and his two friends, Lionel Dexter and Janet Rig, form the band "The Truckstoppers", and the show follows their adventures in the outback town of Li’l Memphis (formerly Wanapoo). Lionel is an Indigenous Australian boy who plays the didgeridoo and has a penchant for exclaiming "deadly", while Janet is a beret-wearing Asian Australian girl who plays the drums standing up, similar to The Velvet Underground's drummer Maureen Tucker.

The Truckstoppers' recurring enemy is the businessman W.C. Moore, who wants to become their manager to exploit them commercially, turning Little Memphis into a tourist attraction. He is also infatuated with finding deposits of the mysterious mineral Berkonium. He has a Berkonium marble, which he uses to beat children at the game of marbles, their major recreational activity. He also frequently electrically zaps his hapless limousine driver, Duncan.

Main

 * Li'l Elvis Jones – voiced by Stig Wemyss (Wendy Stapleton provides his singing voice)
 * Lionel Dexter – voiced by Kylie Belling
 * Aboriginal actor and musician Tom E. Lewis provided Lionel's didgeridoo playing as well as the voice of Lionel's grandfather Dex, while Belling also provided the voice of Lionel's single mother Lillian, the schoolteacher for the children in Little Memphis.
 * Janet Rig – voiced by Marg Downey
 * W.C. Moore – voiced by Bill Ten Eyck
 * Duncan – voiced by Michael Veitch
 * Grace Jones – voiced by Lynda Gibson
 * Len Jones – voiced by David Cotter

Minor

 * Spike − Spike is a juvenile delinquent who picks on Li'l Elvis and mostly sides with Moore.
 * Old Man Viska − Old Man Viska is an elderly European man who runs the local junkyard and is a retired firefighter and miner; he was present for the events that led to the legend of Old Man Izard.
 * Old Man Izard − Old Man Izard is a European miner who was never found after a cave-in in the mines beneath the town; his ghost is said to haunt the now-closed mines.