Caillou

Caillou (/kɑːjʊ, -juː/ kah-yuu, -⁠yoo; French: [kaju], stylized in lowercase) is an animated educational children's television series that aired on Teletoon (both English and French versions) – with the first episode airing on the former channel on September 15, 1997 – until the fourth season. After that, the fifth season channel was moved to Treehouse TV, and the series finale aired on April 17, 2011. It also aired on PBS and the PBS Kids Channel.
Based on the books by Hélène Desputeaux, it focuses on a four-year-old boy named Caillou who is fascinated by the world around him. The series was produced in Canada by the CINAR Corporation (later Cookie Jar Entertainment), while the fifth and final season was produced in association with the South African studio Clockwork Zoo.
In 2023, it was announced that the show would be rebooted. It was originally set to premiere on Peacock with 52 eleven-minute episodes some time in 2023, but ultimately began streaming on February 15, 2024, with a batch of seven episodes.
Caillou lives with his family (his mother Doris, father Boris, younger sister Rosie, and pet cat Gilbert). He has many adventures with his family and friends, and uses his imagination in every episode.
During the first season, many of the stories in the animated version began with a grandmother (who is also the show's narrator) introducing the story to her grandchildren, then reading the story from a book. Starting in the second season, the narrator and grandmother is an unseen character.
In PBS Kids, each episode in season 1 through season 3 has a theme and is divided into several short sections that mix animation, puppet skits, and video of live-action children in real-life situations. In seasons 4 and 5, the episodes are divided into three short sections; the puppet segment was dropped, alongside the "Real Kids" version of the segment.
Caillou (voiced first by Bryn McAuley from 1997 to 2000, then Jaclyn Linetsky from 2000 until her death in 2003, and then Annie Bovaird from 2003 to 2010) meaning pebble or stone in French (nicknamed by himself The Prince of Imagination), is the title character of the show. Caillou was first shown in the episode "Caillou Makes Cookies", which aired in 1997.
Caillou is an imaginative four-year-old boy with a love for forms of transportive machinery such as rocket ships and airplanes. A dreamer, Caillou is inclined to frequent dream sequences in some episodes, visualizing his daydreams and wishes, and many episodes describe his normal daily experiences with his parents, friends, and neighbours. Caillou particularly loves his stuffed dinosaur, Rexy, and teddy bear, Teddy, along with his pet cat Gilbert, all of whom are depicted as puppets in segments featured in the earlier episodes. He is Boris and Doris's son as well as Rosie's older brother.
The puppet segments were used only on the PBS broadcasts of Caillou from 2000 to 2003 as continuity to fill time usually taken up by commercial breaks during the original Teletoon broadcasts; later episodes on PBS did not include the puppet segment continuity.
Caillou consists of five seasons of 92 half-hour episodes, as well as the 90-minute Christmas film Caillou's Holiday Movie.
Caillou books have been published by Chouette Publishing Inc. since 1989.
The series was originally broadcast in French in Canada, and the episodes were later translated into English. The original books were also in French. Caillou was designed primarily for toddlers. It was created by child developmental psychologists. In 1997, 65 five-minute episodes of Caillou were aired in Canada and in selected markets worldwide, including the US. In 2000 there were 40 30-minute episodes of the show, containing a mixture of the five-minute episodes plus new stories, songs, real kids segment and puppets. This was followed by another 16 30-minute episodes containing all-new stories in 2003. The film Caillou's Holiday Movie was released on October 7, 2003. On April 3, 2006, a new set of 20 episodes finally premiered after a three-year hiatus. Caillou started attending preschool and there were new themes and a new opening. New character redesigns were handled by Travis Cowsill, a storyboard artist on Timon and Pumbaa and Invasion America. The show was renewed for a second and third season in 2003, and later a fourth season. The fifth season was animated by South Africa-based studio Clockwork Zoo.
On November 14, 2012, the fourth season of the series was pre-sold to PBS Kids in the United States.
Caillou initially received generally positive reviews from television critics and parents of young children. The staff of Entertainment Weekly wrote that its protagonist "embellish[es] everything he sees with his rich imagination." The New York Times wrote "Caillou looks at the world through the eyes of its 4-year-old namesake [and] takes life's not-always-so-simple lessons and presents them in a way preschoolers can understand," while Lynne Heffley of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "each animated episode is an unusually realistic reflection of a preschooler's daily fun, family interaction, challenges, disappointments and misunderstandings as Caillou grows and learns to make sense of his world", also describing it as "a virtual guidebook for parents and caregivers".
As the years progressed, however, the show drew criticism for the perceived incorrectness of the lessons gleaned through numerous events, mostly from the first season, as well as some episodes from the second season and third season. In a National Post column, writer Tristin Hopper identified Caillou to be "quite possibly the world's most universally reviled children's program." A common criticism towards the series is that the titular character behaves like a spoiled child and suffers no consequences from his parents for his behavior. Hopper once said: "Unlike most children's programming, Caillou makes almost no attempt to educate its young audience. There are no veiled math problems, spelling lessons or morality tales; it's just calm, non-threatening, bright-coloured people navigating everyday tasks." These criticisms of the show's titular character have been echoed on online platforms. Last Week Tonight host John Oliver referenced Caillou in a comparison of boring things against net neutrality, going on to insult Caillou for its themes.
As Caillou appeared as a much younger child in the original line of children's books, he originally had no hair. When illustrators found that adding hair made him look unrecognizable, it was decided that Caillou would be bald. This decision led to an internet meme asserting that the protagonist has cancer or pediatric alopecia.
Caillou first aired on Canada's French-language Télétoon channel on September 15, 1997, and was the first show aired on the English-language Teletoon when it launched on October 17 of that year. The series was moved to Treehouse TV in 2010. Caillou made its US debut on PBS Kids on September 4, 2000, and ran on that network until December 27, 2020. Reruns started airing on PBS Kids Sprout (later known as simply Sprout) on its launch on September 26, 2005. While Sprout rebranded into Universal Kids on September 9, 2017, the show remained on the channel until it was taken off the line-up at the beginning of April 2019.
On January 5, 2021, PBS Kids announced on Twitter that they would no longer broadcast reruns of Caillou. Deadline Hollywood reported that many parents and viewers celebrated the news of the cancellation, as they have complained that Caillou had taught their kids bad lessons and encouraged them to be bratty and whiny. On August 16, 2021, it was announced that Cartoon Network had acquired the US-broadcast rights to the show after PBS' rights expired, with reruns of the series airing on Cartoonito from September 13, 2021 to May 4, 2022 in its HD remastered form. PBS ultimately sold the rights for US$6.4 million. In Canada, Family Jr. continues to broadcast reruns since February 5, 2018. PBS Kids currently retains the physical media and streaming rights for the original series. Comcast/NBCUniversal acquired global streaming rights for the reboot series (via Peacock) as of 2022.
In the United States, Caillou videocassettes and DVDs have been released by PBS Distribution (Originally distributed through Warner Home Video until 2004, and then Paramount Home Entertainment from 2006 to 2010, and now self-distributed). From 2003 to 2006, the DVDs with puppets and Jaclyn Linetsky were compilations from 2003 through 2006, and one of them is in memory of Linetsky herself.
For the franchise's 25th anniversary, a DVD/book combo pack reissue of Caillou's Family Favorites was released on October 14, 2014, by PBS Distribution, while a DVD reissue of Caillou's Holiday Movie was released on November 11, 2014 by NCircle Entertainment.
In Canada, Sony Wonder originally released Caillou on VHS and DVD, and after the closure of the division by Sony, were moved to Vivendi Entertainment Canada. Since 2012, Caillou DVDs are distributed by Entertainment One and after their purchase of Phase 4 Films in 2015, are released through the KaBoom Entertainment label.
In 2003, an album titled Caillou's Favorite Songs was released by Kid Rhino under the Cinar Music imprint.
Beginning in late 2016, a new Caillou web series for YouTube premiered on the official Caillou channel and was later released onto Amazon Prime. These shorts are mainly remakes of older episodes and are produced by WildBrain Spark Studios, a subsidiary of WildBrain that produces original content for their WildBrain Spark network. However, the videos were not made available to YouTube users in the United States until 2021.
In August 2021, it was announced that Cartoon Network licensed the series for broadcast on US television.
In September 2021, WildBrain announced the production of five new 45-minute specials based on the franchise for Family Jr. These specials were the first Caillou related media to be produced in CGI animation, and focused on Christmas, Halloween, Family Day, Summer Vacation and National Anti-Bullying Day. The specials were produced by WildBrain Studios, with animation provided by IoM Media Ventures.
In June 2022, WildBrain announced they teamed with Comcast's streaming platform, Peacock, to produce a new series of the show, consisting of 52 11-minute episodes to go along with those specials. It was set to premiere in 2023, with IoM also providing animation production as the specials are. Despite the specials being released on Peacock, it would later be confirmed to stream on February 15, 2024.
The first special: Rosie the Giant, which focuses on the effects of bullying, simultaneously premiered in Canada and the United States on Family Jr. and Peacock respectively on July 10, 2022.
The second special: Adventures with Grandma and Grandpa, which focuses on Caillou visiting his grandparents for a sleepover at their beach house, premiered on Peacock on August 25, 2022.
The third special: The Bravest Wolf Boy, which focuses on Halloween, premiered on Peacock on October 15, 2022.
The fourth special: The Silver Knight, which focuses on imaginative play, premiered on Peacock on November 13, 2022.
The fifth special, Caillou's Perfect Christmas, which focuses on Christmas, premiered on Peacock on December 2, 2022.