A Closer Look at Children’s Television: Caillou

Rating: TV-Y
Target Audience: Preschoolers
Episode Length: 30 minutes
Schedule: PBS weekdays at 2:00pm

I like to think that I am fairly easy to please when it comes to children’s television. There aren’t many shows out there that I have seen that don’t overall have more good qualities than bad. However there is one show that just kind of annoys me a lot. It’s another one of the ones that my family started watching at the beach. The show is called Caillou.

Caillou is an animated show about a little boy who is about 4 years old and has a very big imagination. Now hopefully by now you have read enough of my posts to know that I am all about imagination and thinking creatively, this show just annoys me a little too much. What bothers me is how bratty Caillou can act at times. I understand that he’s 4 years old and so kids at that age are going to misbehave or act selfishly at times, but I’m sorry he just wines a little too much. Also, in other shows when there is a character that acts out or doesn’t demonstrate the best behavior, there is usually another character who balances it out. In Caillou there really isn’t a balancing character. Caillou has a little sister Rosie, bbut she doesn’t really talk and isn’t always involved in the plot. Also, I feel like Caillou’s parents don’t always do a very good job of correcting Caillou when he is misbehaving. Eventually he learns his lesson, but it’s just not done as well or as effectively as on some other shows.

On the bright side, I will say that kids can learn from Caillou. His stories do have lessons behind them like sharing, or having patience in trying times. Even if you just want to be entertained, Caillou can also succeed in that area. It also uses a mix of animation and puppets. Each episode consists of 2 stories and in between each story is a puppet segment with puppet versions of Caillou’s cats. It’s nice and also gives some variety. There is also usually a segment in the show that shows real kids participating in an activity highlighted in the show.

So although I find Caillou himself extremely annoying, after thinking about it a bit more I guess I do have to admit that the show does have some really nice aspect in it like the variety of formats or styles and a nice balance between imagination in the animated story and the real life glimpse of kids doing their thing. It’s a little bit of all types of children’s television mixed in one.

To find out more about Caillou visit: http://pbskids.org/caillou/index.html