User reviews

Caillou is a pre-school show about a little 4-year-old boy and his daily life. The events are typical of everyday life from having siblings born to eating food you don't like, to having rough days. It's typical in every kid's life but the kid can react harshly to them. Now, when I was 4, I was a sweet kid, which most 4 year olds typically are until they grow older where they may become brats.

Caillou is a rude boy who lies, picks on his sister, and says naughty words (picked up by someone), which is basically things I don't like to see little kids doing nor understand. These days, kids are more mature than they should be. Despite contrary belief that 4 year olds are rude, this boy can do and say things that makes him a mean person. Rosie is two years old, who also cries, does things she is told not to do, and ruins Caillou's playtime, whom I also don't like and is forgettable.

So, why is he named Caillou anyway? Why is he bald? The story is uninteresting, it just shows typical days and maybe even with friends and disapproval. The drawings and animation is bad.

And I forgot to mention the mom and dad, who do nothing to punish Caillou nor help him out, which every kid gets when misbehaved. The opening is unrealistic, none of the kids in the framing device are even interesting, and voice acting done for Rosie doesn't even sound like a toddler. I wasn't even that interested in the show when I was little.

Avoid this, especially if you do not like little kids misbehaving.

I hate to sound so harsh, but it must be said that Caillou has had one of the worst influences on children I have ever seen. Caillou is a 4 year old bald child who is very spoiled by his parents. They spoil him so much, that when they tell him to wait, he breaks out into a tantrum and begins to cry and scream "I want this now!" Honestly, this is something you would expect from a 2 year old child. The parents don't ever get mad at him nor do they teach any good manners. Instead they give him what he wants almost like a reward and he yells "Yay!", then plays like a little baby.He also has a baby sister Rosie, who is pretty bratty too, but she is little so I can understand. The 2 dimensional cartoon's animation is very, very bad. Pictures are drawn sloppily and appears very fake.

Let me close with this as proof that this show is a bad influence. I have a 4 year old brother. Like most 2 year old, he used to break out into tantrums. Then he began to watch Caillou. The only thing that he has matured in his speech. He still has temper tantrums and is a crybaby for a child his age. I recommend this to a to-be parent that wants to know how NOT to raise a child. As far as children go, don't let them watch this. You'll have a brat on your hands in the near future. Put on The Wiggles.

My daughter is not allowed to watch this show anymore. Caillou is the biggest brat. He is constantly whining and disobeying. Granted, his parents do correct him eventually, but they are like flower children from hell themselves. My daughter, after watching a couple episodes, started acting like Caillou - whining, calling people "stupid".... So we don't watch this show anymore. I can't believe this show was up to PBS standards. I think they need to reevaluate their program guidelines.

Cailou is a TV show that's for kids 5 and younger, about a 4 year old boy as he explores the world in the eyes of a young child. Cailou is one of the few shows in this genre that defines fantasy and reality the right way. Cailou doesn't cross the lines of implausibility and takes events that really do happen in childhood. There's also a sense of innocence in Cailou's life that adults can relate to and remember their childhood days. Like the days when the worst thing in your life was not getting the cookie before dinner.

Cailou's adventures involve episodes that deal with friendship. For example, one episode has Cailou trying to get along with a kid a little larger then him, he gets upset at him breaking his stuff. This works because Cailou learns a valuable lesson in the end, and nothing feels forced. Some people say that Cailou is a bratty child who isn't the right role model. This is beyond untrue. Every episode has Cailou usually getting upset, crying or throwing a tantrum over something, but in the end learns a lesson that kids can relate to.

The show is narrated well to suit the lessons, which usually consist of lines like "Cailou was angry that Andra had broken his chair, but when he saw the cut on his hand, he felt sorry for him" or "Cailou was so excited about the race, that he didn't notice Leo was hurt".

As a 45 year-old parent of a 4 year-old daughter I must say I have to agree with some other reviewers here - this show is terrible. I guess the developers of this show fail to understand that 4 year-olds will see Caillou as a role model and they do not get the character arc. So when Caillou is being whiny or ungrateful and he learns how to behave in the last few minutes of the show, what kids remember is the whininess, not the lesson.

Caillou is a horrible show that teaches kids how not to behave. My daughter actually started to behave much worse after being exposed to this show than she did before seeing it. At one point she even copied Caillou's style of tantrum - where he falls on the floor and kicks his legs while crying - on one level that was amusing but it was clear that our daughter was using the show to learn very bad behaviour. Thanks to the title lock on our DVR this show is now blocked and our daughter has once again become the sweet, well-mannered and happy 4 year-old she was before she saw Caillou.

The negative reviews here are surprisingly harsh and undeserved. Do they really think that this one television show is causing their child to be whiny, spoiled brats? Please.

Caillou is a sweet show that presents the world from a 4-year old's perspective. It's completely harmless and the vivid colors, loving family, and grandmotherly narration are far superior to much of what's out there now (Dirt Girl World? Monkey See Monkey Do? Rubberdubbers?) The sensitive portrayal of different ethnic groups are an additional plus.

For us, nothing surpasses Sesame Street for sheer quality. Calliou isn't in that league, but it's not as bad as some here have suggested.

Seriously?! This show has a freaking terrible influence on kids. My niece was obsessed with this show and would throw tantrums and act out if you didn't put it on for her. She would act like Caillou all the time and be a brat and whine a lot. Even with her parents putting her on timeouts and giving appropriate punishments she would still act out every time she watched the show. When we had her watching other shows she never acted that way. I watched the show myself (several excruciating episodes) and I found it to have very bad influential instances, and it was often "silently" racist... I can't believe they ever aired this show on PBS... If I could give this show a zero rating I would... Whoever wrote/created this show must be clueless about parenting among many other things. I can see from reading the other reviews that a lot of people noticed the same things I did, so why didn't the people screening the show notice all of this terrible crap and halt the production? Freaking garbage show, man...

The little boy, Caillou, teaches children about growing up effectively enough; this without any unpleasant stuff to go along with it like many children's shows that have either unpleasant content (Cow & Chicken) or empty content (Zoom).

Some such shows contantly have things in them parents don't find appropriate whatsoever, yet I cannot object with any of the shows content. It is excellent in that regard.

My only complaint is that Caillou's voice is Chinese water torture. Maybe it's just me, and it strikes a chord that makes me wince, however I do not think that this is the case, as my dog and cats sometimes leave the room (in a full run) when my niece is watching this show.

My little nephew started watching this show, and began imitating Caillou's annoying voice almost immediately. Then he started complaining about everything, and throwing temper tantrums like Caillou. The next week, he killed his kitten, stabbing it while singing "bad cat" in Caillou's voice.

Once we stopped all access to Caillou, and took the boy to see a therapist, his gradually returned to what had been his normal self. The therapist was the one who told us that Caillou had a bad influence on the child. My brother and his wife regret ever letting the boy watch Caillou. They thought because it was PBS, it would have positive messages for young children. They were wrong.

I DESPISE this show! Caillou is nothing more than a terrible role model! I'll at least give credit to Dora for not throwing temper tantrums, even though she still shucks. But Caillou is even worse! If you've ever heard of a "spoiled brat", then Caillou takes the cake for this!

He's pinched his baby sister in one episode, and in another, he whined about his teddy bear shirt being given to his sister because it didn't fit him anymore! And don't get me started with the most infamous episode...the one where he throws a massive temper tantrum, and starts kicking and screaming on the floor because he thought the circus was today when it's tomorrow! WHAT AM I EVEN WATCHING!?

And do his parents do anything to punish him at all? Heck, no! His behavior is unacceptable! His whiny voice gets on my nerves!

The animation is horrible, and the backgrounds are almost unfinished! And the songs are super annoying and pointless!

Overall, Caillou is the WORST show I have ever seen in my life!! It's worse than Barney! It's worse than Dora! Heck, it's even worse than Peppa Pig! To quote Robbie Rotten, DON'T LET YOUR KIDS WATCH IT!!!

While my 3-year-old seems to enjoy this show, I think it may be very bad for him to watch.

Among the many problems I have is the child character's constant bad behavior, mostly his complete lack of manners, I have yet to hear a Thank you or please (often it is "I want").. this could be a cultural difference with the French.

The episode in which he gets scared of monsters at night, rather than helping my son; inspired him to become scared of monsters (he never thought of monsters being in his room until he saw this show).

I often see many safety issues brought up in the show, in one episode Daddy leave a newborn baby (Rossie) unattended on a change table.

The "world view" of the show is too politically correct and homogeneous to the point of encouraging conformity in children. In fact I find the nonwhite characters to be portrayed ina very disturping way, bordering on racism... the Chinese family eats only Chinese food, visits China on vacation, has a house decorated in Chinese decor.. in fact every part of their life we see is completely enshrined in Chinese culture; as if they have no identity other than being Chinese. In another episode a Mexican family has a birthday party, and of course it is a fiesta! I hate children's shows that only define multicultural people/families by their race/nationality as if that's ALL that defines them; it is an ignorant view of our world.

Trying to convince your family that you don't want kids? Here's all the evidence you need: Kids watch Caillou. And Caillou, as it turns out, is absolute GARBAGE!!

Sure, kids seem to love it, but for anybody older than five years old, the show is downright painful to watch. DON'T SHOW THIS TO CHILDREN!!! THEY WILL ENJOY THIS SHOW, AND YOU WILL BE FORCED TO PUT UP WITH IT FOR YEARS!! YEARS I TELL YOU!!

If you mention Caillou to a group of random people who are neither close to young kids nor young kids themselves, they may still enjoy it but they also may go on and on about how annoying it is. Do I find it annoying? Quite the contrary, I think it's cute. If you're really worried about Caillou's whining, I suggest watching the episodes where he's wearing a yellow shirt as opposed to a grey one since he's a bit more mature in the yellow shirt episodes. My thoughts? In all honesty, I greatly enjoy this little show that shows experiences ranging from the everyday to the exciting, all from the perspective of a child. There is one, ONE, episode where he throws an all-out tantrum with kicking and screaming and that's the circus episode. I've also seen some complaints about the animation and while it's not up to the standards of Disney, Studio Ghibli, or Don Bluth I don't think it's that bad. Plus, the show deals quite well with things like patience, fear of the dark, being a good friend, being a good sibling, etc. What stands out to me about Caillou is his kindness, his ability to get along with others, and the gentle way his parents nurture him and Rosie. So yes, I like this show, it's very nice.

Calliou is a show that I loved as a kid, but looking back on it, I wish I hadn't. Considering all the cartoons I could NOT watch as a kid for rude behavior, such as Spongebob, I'm surprised I could watch THIS.

For example, I've seen a clip of an episode where Calliou's parents try to get Calliou to take a bath, and he keeps saying no and runs out of the tub and whines and throws a tantrum.

This is common toddler behavior, I understand THAT, but the parents don't correct him and put their foot down. Calliou is the boss of the house, not them.

If that sounds like a bad episode, guess what? That's the WHOLE SHOW. Calliou whines, he isn't scolded, he gets what he wants, and everything is okay.

On YouTube, there's a funny parody series called Calliou The Grownup where he's 30 and still acting this way- and it's such good satire and 100 times better than the actual show.

There's also parody videos that show him skipping school and blowing things up, again because he's never told NO. These are funny too.

As for the actual show, PLEASE SKIP IT. From Arthur to Sesame Street to Barney to Cyberchase, PBS has far better programming to offer than this garbage.

My daughter (2) loves Caillou. I hate it! It's annoying and encourages temper tantrums and neediness. Before my daughter started watching the show she was willing to try and figure things out on her own, now all she does is throw herself down on the floor and say "I can't do it!" if something doesn't work for her and it's always the worst right after she watches that ridiculous program. The other problem is the parents on the show, they have an unrealistic amount of patience and never punish Caillou for doing something wrong. Sorry, but in the real world there are consequences for negative actions and I want my kids to understand that.

Caillou is a despicable, spineless 4-year-old boy who cannot do anything. He can't grow hair, not because he has cancer or progeria, but because he sucks, and even his own body recognizes that he does not deserve hair or food or love. He has a baby sister who dominates his life because she is a normal, loving child who does not whine about the slightest fart of the breeze. Caillou's parents love her better because she is a better person.