Caillou (1997)

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♥ This article is dedicated to Jaclyn Linetsky (January 8, 1986 - September 8, 2003, from traffic collision/a car accident at age 17).
Caillou
"🎶I'm just a kid who's four, each day I scream some more, I ruin children, I'm Caillou!🎵🎶"
— How parents see Caillou.
Genre: Educational
Slice-of-life
"Comedy"
Running Time: 22 minutes (3–4 5–7 minute segments)
Country: Canada (Quebec)
China (production services, 1997-2003)
South Africa (animation production, 2009-2010)
Release Date: September 15, 1997 - October 3, 2010
Network(s): Télétoon (Quebec)
Teletoon, Treehouse TV (Canada)
PBS Kids (2000-2020)
Universal Kids (2005-2019)
Cartoon Network (Cartoonito) (2021-2022) (United States)
Tiny Pop (United Kingdom)
La Cinquième/France 5, Télétoon (France)
Created by: Hélène Desputeaux
Christine L'Heureux
Distributed by: WildBrain
Starring: Bryn McAuley (1997-2000)
Jaclyn Linetsky (2000-2003)
Annie Bovaird (2003-2010)
Jennifer Seguin
Pat Fry
Seasons: 5
Episodes: 144
Next show: Caillou's New Adventures


Caillou is a Canadian animated "educational" children's television series that was first shown on Télétoon and Teletoon, with its first episode airing on the former channel on September 15, 1997; the show later moved to Treehouse TV and then PBS Kids with its final episode being shown on that channel on October 3, 2010. The series is based on the books by Hélène Desputeaux. It centers on a 4-year-old boy named Caillou who is fascinated by the world around him. In 2023, 13 years after the original television show's cancellation, it is set to return by Peacock and WildBrain Studios with a CGI reboot of the series.

Why It Won't Grow Some More

Overall

  1. For starters, it is known for being one of the most infamous shows that either PBS Kids or Teletoon ever aired due to Caillou's whiny, naughty, and overall bratty behavior that caused young children who watched it to emulate his behavior, which led to many parents of these children to make petitions as an attempt to get the show canceled, in addition to others boycotting PBS Kids because of it despite them still having good/decent shows such as Arthur, Cyberchase, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Sesame Street, etc.
  2. The traditional animation, while decent, tends to suffer from a few animation errors here and there, which is especially common in the earlier seasons.
    • For example, in the infamous episode "Caillou Joins the Circus", which is a misleading title, when Caillou tries to play with his toy car in the bathroom, a wheel falls off; in the very next shot, it completely disappears for no reason.
    • The animation took a nosedive in later seasons due to the switch from traditional animation to Flash animation, in which the latter itself looks very mediocre, choppy, and stiff.
  3. Almost all of the characters in the show are either just bland, generic, or flat-out unlikable, due to the poor writing in the show.
    • Caillou himself as stated above is a very annoying, whiny, naughty, and overall bratty character who is shown to frequently either cry or throw tantrums just to get his way, which (as stated above) caused many children who watched the show to emulate his bratty behavior.
      • When Caillou was 2.5 years old, in the 2nd infamous episode "Big Brother Caillou", he pinches Rosie out of pure jealousy, which caused her to scream a very realistic sounding cry all because, according to him, she was getting more attention than him.
      • Starting with Seasons 4 & 5, despite being magnificently well-behaved, Caillou became bland and a huge Gary Stu. Despite that, there are a few occasions where he is a jerk, especially in Season 5.
    • Rosie, while not as bad as Caillou, still tends to be annoying and unlikable and even cries more than Caillou as well, though this is partly justified as she is only 2 years old.
    • Boris and Doris, while not entirely horrible, are just wet blankets who rarely, if ever, scold Caillou for his bratty behavior, even when he pinched Rosie in the face as stated above in the episode "Big Brother Caillou". However, the only time where they do scold Caillou is in the episode "Caillou Joins the Circus" where, after throwing his tantrum, Boris tells Caillou to "stop all that racket" as he woke up Rosie, which is a rare moment of him actually scolding Caillou, but still doesn't punish him for it.
      • Speaking of Boris and Doris, they don't even look like husband and wife at all as they look more like flat-out siblings and even have very similar sounding names, which caused many to make up theories that the two are siblings.
    • Leo and Clementine are generic friends.
    • Ms. Martin is a generic teacher.
  4. The show actually did introduce some interesting characters, such as Andy and Alan who were shown to have autism and down syndrome respectively. Sadly, this is wasted as the two were never seen again in the series.
  5. As the series progressed, the plots got even more cliched and stale, even for that of a cartoon aimed at young children. This is especially shown in the later seasons.
    • They also tend to rehash plots from earlier episodes, especially in the later seasons. These are examples:
      • "Caillou the Patient" rehashed elements of "Caillou Hurts Himself" because of Caillou accidentally injuring himself.
      • "Play With Me!" rehashed "Caillou's All Alone" because everyone was too busy to play with Caillou; however, unlike in the original version, Caillou tends to get himself busy.
      • "Stronger Every Day" and "Am I Big Yet?" both rehashed "I Want to Grow Up" because they're involved Caillou wanting to grow bigger.
      • "Caillou Makes a Meal" rehashed "Caillou the Chef" because it involved Caillou making pizza.
  6. Painfully slow pacing. Even just trying to watch it will still make you feel bored, or, in exaggeration, go to sleep. This is especially shown in Season 4 because of its animation mentioned in WTSWGSM#2B.
  7. The theme song, while it can be catchy for some, it sounds pretty overbearing, laughable, ridiculous, and, as some might say, cringeworthy, even for preschool show standards.
    • In addition, the songs from Season 4 can sound a bit obnoxious, generic, and sometimes annoying.
  8. Extremely stale humor and "jokes". The show even uses gross-out humor sometimes, such as in the episode "Big Brother Caillou" where Boris changes Rosie's diaper as it smelled. While diaper changing is natural, it's not really something that you would show in a cartoon aimed at young children.
  9. The grandmother's narration is annoying and unnecessary since Seasons 2-5 stopped using the framing device since she points out the obvious similar to Peppa Pig. In fact, that's pretty much why the pacing of this show is so slow.
  10. Pretty bland background music and soundtrack that has no variation or style in them at all. Sometimes you can barely even hear the background music because of this.
  11. Despite the show being highly infamous due to reasons stated above, it still got a reboot titled Caillou's New Adventures, which has even worse-looking animation, with the voice acting being just as bad, if not worse, than the voice acting in this show. Much like Teen Titans Go!, the colors are so unnecessarily bright as an attempt to appeal to its young kid audience. What doesn't help is that it has yet another reboot, but in CGI animation, which, while it fixed almost everything from the original series and New Adventures, is still flawed.
    • Speaking of, the CGI animated revival special is awful, due to Rosie acting like a bully, even if Caillou actually improved himself (though he reverts back to becoming a Gary Stu).
    • Granted, this series has a split audience, one side would obviously be younger kids who like watching Caillou's adventures, so there's no doubt why those reboots happened, because of the popularity among young children.
  12. The show ended Jaclyn Linetsky's career on a poor note as she would go for 7 more voice acting roles before dying at the age of 17 in a car crash in 2003.
    • Not only that, but it was also a sour start on Bryn McAuley's voice acting career as her voice as Caillou was presumably the worst out of the three voice actresses.
  13. Very questionable-at-best morals.
    • In the banned episode "Caillou Goes Around the Block", hence the title, Caillou goes around the block unattended despite his very young age, which is a very bad decision for a parent to do that considering the many dangers of their child, especially a four-year-old, walking alone in the street.
      • What's even more shocking is that this episode marked the debut of Sarah; due to the episode being banned, it would feel like Sarah appeared in the show without any explanation at all.
    • In the aforementioned infamous episode "Big Brother Caillou", he pinches his sister and gets away with it.
    • The later seasons often rub the morals in the viewer's face, although this is a preschool show, that doesn't excuse the morals to be repeated.
  14. Poor, bland, and otherwise annoying voice acting, especially Caillou's voice when he whines, cries, or throws a tantrum, with the other characters sometimes even sounding straight up robotic, such as in the aforementioned banned episode "Caillou Goes Around the Block".
  15. Lots of bad, mediocre, or generic episodes:
    • "Caillou Hates Vegetables"
    • "Caillou Joins the Circus" (counts as one of the worst episodes)
    • "Big Brother Caillou" (also counts as the worst)
    • "Caillou's Teddy Shirt"
    • "Rosie Bothers Caillou"
    • "Caillou Makes a New Friend"
    • "Caillou's Quarrel"
    • "All in a Day's Work"
    • "Caillou's Bad Dream"
    • "Three's a Crowd" (counts as a Caillou torture episode)
    • "Caillou Stays Up Late"
    • "T-Shirt Trouble"
    • "Caillou's Cross Word"
    • "Caillou's Promise"
    • "Sharing the Rocketship"
    • "That's Mine!"
  16. Much like what the later seasons of Family Guy did to Fox and what Fred: The Show did to Nickelodeon, the show ended up nearly damaging PBS Kids' reputation as a whole, leading to many hating PBS Kids because of it despite them still having good/decent shows as stated above.

Seasons 3-5

  1. Starting with season 4 (2006/2007), the puppet segments and live-action kid segments were unfortunately removed.
  2. Julie, Caillou's babysitter, disappeared without explanation, even though Caillou's grandparents take over as supplemental caregivers to Caillou, and it looks like Julie is retconned out the show and series as if she never even existed in the first place.
  3. Caillou, despite being significantly better-behaved, is a huge Gary Stu, yet he’s still more loud and obnoxious than he was previously.
    • In Season 3, although not as much as the first 2 seasons, he was still a spoiled brat.
  4. The animation took a nose-dive as it switched to Flash animation from traditional hand-drawn animation most likely to cut corners and save money. The Flash animation itself looks very horrendous, stilted, cheap and lazy in comparison to the hand-drawn animation in the first three seasons (1997-2003).
    • The animation got worse in Season 5 as it got choppier, despite the colors and visuals looking better than the last season.
  5. The morals are often shoved down the viewers' throats.
  6. The theme song is still annoying and cringe-inducing.
  7. The plots are extremely clichéd and stale as the series went on to these seasons.
  8. The characters are still generic and bland.
  9. Most people still find Caillou's voice annoying.
  10. There are still times when Caillou is selfish because of Rosie, even in the later seasons. Here are some examples:
    • Caillou takes a book from Rosie and ends up ripping one of the pages in "Caillou the Librarian".
    • Or when Caillou was taking back his toys from Rosie and never letting her play with them again, just because Rosie scratched Caillou's bike by accident in "That's Mine!".
    • Or in the episode "Where's Mars", he blamed Rosie for stealing his red ball for his model even though it was Gilbert who took it.
    • Despite the latter two, at least Caillou apologized to Rosie in the end.

Qualities That Can Grow Some More

  1. The concept of a show about a four-year-old boy being obsessed with the world around him is pretty good for a children's show, but it's unfortunately poorly executed here.
  2. Most of the voice acting is passable at the very least, despite WIW'tGSM#14.
    • Jaclyn Linetsky did a great job voicing Caillou, and so did Annie Bovaird, despite sounding older and more like a teenage girl in Season 5, but that's probably due to puberty.
    • Some can actually be funny such as the one-liner "Your mommy's gone!".
  3. Despite the animation becoming worse in Season 5, the transition to widescreen 16:9 HD was pretty decent, and the camera panning was more realistic.
  4. Decently smooth animation in the earlier seasons, despite suffering from a few animation errors here and there. With it being done by Morning Sun Animation Group.
  5. While a majority of the episodes are bad and generic, there are actually some decent episodes here and there:
    • "Caillou Makes Cookies" (which started the series decently)
    • "Caillou's Picnic"
    • "Star Light, Star Bright" (which started Season 2 in a good way)
    • "Caillou in Space"
    • "Caillou's Big Sale"
    • "Surprise Party"
    • "A Helping Hand"
    • "Everyone's Best"
    • "Caillou's Dance Party"
    • "You're Not Miss Martin!" (which ended Season 5 and the original series in a great way)
  6. The background music, despite being bland, can be actually good at times. One of the few examples is in "Caillou's Dance Party".
  7. Caillou's imagination sequences in Season 4 can be enjoyable to watch.
  8. While not so much, Seasons 3-5 can actually be considered a semi-improvement over the first two due to Caillou's temper tantrums and whiny behavior being phased out, although that really isn’t saying much.
  9. The puppet skits in the American airings of the show from 2000 to 2003 are generally considered to be the best parts of the show and make up for everything else that counts as a problem in the show.
    • The songs from the Caillettes are also great.
    • In addition, the interactive Game Time segments in American airings of Season 4 are alright.
  10. Some likable characters.
    • Gilbert is a great and adorable cat who is also shown to be smart and mature in the puppet segments.
    • Andy and Alan are interesting characters who have a great representation of children on the autism spectrum and down syndrome.
    • Sarah is quite likable and charismatic as she serves as an older sister-like figure to Caillou, being wiser and more mature than him.
    • Daniel from Season 5 is quite likable.
    • Julie is a likable babysitter of Caillou who treats the latter with respect. Unfortunately, she disappeared after season 3.
    • While Rosie can be annoying just like Caillou, she can also be treated with some sympathy due to how mean Caillou is to her, especially in "Big Brother Caillou", and her crying is actually justified because she is only 2.
    • Caillou can be likable or tolerable at times when he's not mean-spirited or throwing his tantrums. He also improved a little bit starting in Season 3 or 4, despite being a bland Gary Stu, and can be admittedly cute at times. Sometimes, he does get his comeuppance, although it's very rare.
      • His design with his yellow shirt starting in Season 2 making his design less bland compared to the beige/gray shirt he had in Season 1.
  11. The theme song, while annoying and overbearing, can actually be quite catchy, especially its instrumental version. There is even a fan-made remix of it involving one with instrumental and one with lyrics that sounds better than the actual song.
  12. It does at least stay true to the original source material as it is based on the books written by Christine L'Heureux.

Reception and controversy

Caillou initially received generally positive reviews from television critics, and parents of young children as well as viewership and its target preschool demographic. However, as the years progressed, the series was heavily more panned by older viewers and critics alike, especially in the first season of the show. The titular character's misbehavior throughout the show has made him an infamous character among older viewers and parents since Caillou's troublemaking and whining were considered to be annoying and his parents accepting his actions rather than disciplining him didn't clearly show that his actions were wrong and as such he rarely learns anything from his mistakes. Many parents have even claimed that their children became brattier and naughtier when watching Caillou and copying the titular character's behavior. When PBS Kids stopped doing reruns in 2021, many parents celebrated online.

Over the years, the show has been popularly satirized and mocked on social media and in some forms of entertainment, with numerous parodies and memes based on the show. Four notable examples are Grounded videos on websites like Vyond and Plotagon, a series named "Caillou at 22" made by AOK, the premiere episode of Season 19 of Family Guy titled "Stewie's First Word" and a parody series made by TikToker/YouTuber TheVincentMottola. All of which made fun of and pointed out the problems Caillou has been criticized for. There were several "I hate Caillou" Facebook pages and petitions on Change.org for the show to stop airing.

It is known for being not only one of (if not the) worst PBS Kids shows, but also one of the worst television shows of all time.

The series currently holds a 3.8/10 on IMDb and 4.7/10 on TV.com. On Google, it has a 2.5 audience rating, and 65% of Google users liked it.

Trivia

  • The word "Caillou" actually means "pebble/little rock" in French.
  • Jaclyn Linetsky, Caillou's second voice actor, died on September 8, 2003 in a car crash at the age of 17.
  • Caillou was extremely popular in Turkey and Portugal. It is still popular in the United States, especially African-American community despite the title character himself being white.
    • On top of that, the show succeeded the most in the United States as it aired there for longer than it did anywhere else in the world
  • After its cancellation in 2010, reruns still aired on PBS Kids until December 27, 2020 with it being on PBS for over 20 years. Despite this however, reruns continued to air on Cartoon Network's preschool block Cartoonito when it launched. The show was phased out on the said preschool block by May 2022.
  • WildBrain and Peacock developed a new animated series and five original CGI-animated Caillou specials in 2023.
  • As mentioned in the reception section, videos of Caillou getting grounded got popular on Vyond and Plotagon.

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