A nine-year-old becomes the adult her family needs because her dead mother left her the tools to do it. The candy is not a power fantasy; it is a necessity, and every transformation costs something, time, childhood, the chance to grieve. Melmo has to grow up in the exact moments she should be allowed to fall apart, and the show watches her do it without looking away.
Nine-year-old Melmo faces an impossible task: raising her two younger brothers after their mother dies in a car accident. While she is still grieving, her mother's ghost appears with a final gift, a bottle of magical candies. A blue candy ages her into an adult. A red candy turns her into an infant. Mix them together and she can become any animal she pictures. With a seemingly endless supply, Melmo uses the candies to handle the problems that come her way while caring for her family and trying to keep up a normal life. Her younger brother Toto ends up as a frog through his own candy mishap, and a cantankerous mentor, Dr Nosehairs, helps her along. The result is a magical girl adventure that mixes comedy with drama.
