Caillou - WildBrain

Caillou - WildBrain is the official YouTube channel for the Canadian animated series Caillou.
Based on the books by Hélène Desputeaux,"At last, the 2005 Caillou agreement is made public" . Retrieved on November 2, 2015. 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 11-minute episodes some time in 2023, but ultimately began streaming on February 15, 2024, with a batch of seven episodes.
==Plot==
Caillou lives with his mother, father, and younger sister, Rosie. He has many adventures with his family and friends, and uses his imagination in every episode.
Each episode in seasons 1 through 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.
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.
==Reception and controversy==
===Critical response===
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".
====Controversy====
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. One example of Caillou's bad behavior is in the episode Caillou Joins the Circus, in which he throws a tantrum after discovering the postponement of a planned circus event. Another episode, Big Brother Caillou, features Caillou being jealous of the level of attention received by his baby sister Rosie to the point where he pinches her; most considered this to be a minor improvement over the original book the episode was based on, in which Caillou bit Rosie. When the show started airing on Cartoonito in 2021, the pinching scene was cut out.
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 never have hair. This decision led to an asserting that the protagonist has cancer or pediatric alopecia.
==Revival==
===YouTube series===
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.
===Reboot and specials===
In September 2021, WildBrain announced the production of five new 45-minute specials based on the franchise for These specials are the first Caillou related media to be produced in CGI animation, and focus on Christmas, Halloween, Family Day, Summer Vacation and National Anti-Bullying Day. The specials will be produced by WildBrain Studios, with animation provided by IoM Media Ventures.
In June 2022, WildBrain announced they teamed with '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 is now 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.
==Channel==
The Caillou - WildBrain channel was created on March 12, 2014. The channel uploads Caillou cartoons as well as spin-offs from other Caillou series.
==References==
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