Kaeloo

''Kaeloo'' is a French computer-animated comedy television series. The first season, comprising 52 episodes, each seven minutes long, was dubbed into English. The second, third, and fourth seasons have not been dubbed into English yet. The series is a CGI cartoon by Rémi Chapotot and Jean-François Henry and produced by Cube Creative associated with Blue Spirit. The series has been airing from June 6, 2010, on Canal+ Family, Canal+ and Télétoon+, and also started airing from September 2017 on C8.

Overview

The show centers around the adventures of a group of anthropomorphic animals buddies, Kaeloo, Stumpy, Quack Quack, Mr. Cat, and of Season 2, Pretty, Eugly and Olaf, who play games to keep themselves from getting bored. Things always go wrong due to Stumpy's ineptitude at almost everything, Quack Quack's addiction to yogurt, Pretty's unkindness, Eugly's emotional vulnerability, Olaf's desire to take over the world, Mr. Cat's constant cheating and abuse of the others, and most of all, Kaeloo's ability to transform into a hulking monster named Bad Kaeloo when angered.

Characters

Main

* Kaeloo (voiced by Emmanuel Garijo in French and Andy Chase (Pilot), Doug Rand (Season 1), Matthew Geczy (Season 2) in English) - The titular character and main protagonist. She is a kind-hearted and imaginative but emotionally unstable tree frog who's always looking for games to play with her so-called "buddies". When pushed too far, Kaeloo enters an intense rage that transforms her into the hulking "Bad Kaeloo". Throughout the series, it is heavily implied that Kaeloo may have a crush on Mr. Cat, who also happens to have a crush on her. She is female in most of the dubs of the series; however, the Italian, Serbian and Hindi dubs, as well as the first 10 episodes in the English dub have her re-written as male, with the former three dubs editing out any suggestive scene between her and Mr. Cat.
* Stumpy (voiced by Rémi Chapotot in French and Doug Rand (Pilot and Season 1), Andy Chase (Season 2) in English) - Uneducated and immature, Stumpy the red squirrel loves anything that is dangerous. He has little to no sense of reality and is not very intelligent. He is fascinated by adventure, explosions, superpowers, intergalactic wars and the like. Stumpy aspires to be like his idol, comic book hero Mr. Coolskin. He hates books without pictures, being made fun of, other people touching his things, and washing. Whenever he doesn't understand something (which is often), is afraid or otherwise agitated, he spouts gibberish as his neck spasms erratically.
* Quack Quack (voiced by Rémi Chapotot in French and Doug Rand in English) - An injured mallard duck, Whilst still in his egg, his parents were killed by a hunter. He was taken into a laboratory as a duckling and repeatedly experimented on. He was made indestructible, intelligent, extremely lucky and addicted to yogurt. He is afraid of three things: doctors, never finding his creator and expired yogurt. He is incapable of speech, only able to say "quack", and is Mr. Cat's favorite punching bag.
* Mr. Cat (voiced by Philippe Spiteri in French and Christian Erickson (Pilot), Mike Powers (Season 1), David Gasman (Season 2) in English) - A proud, macho, perverted, alcoholic, sadomasochistic, selfish, cruel, greedy tabby cat who always wants to win, whatever the means and is even willing to cheat to do so. He especially enjoys torturing Quack Quack, which upsets Kaeloo and is the usual cause of her transformation into Bad Kaeloo. Despite (or perhaps because of) Kaeloo's transformations, he seems to have developed a crush on her; the feeling is reciprocated, and while they are not officially a couple, the other characters often talk about their feelings for each other and about them becoming a couple. As a result of this crush, he occasionally tries to make romantic advances towards her, which she rejects; in cases where Kaeloo makes advances on him, he also rejects her for unknown reasons. Despite all of the factors mentioned above, he is Kaeloo's closest friend and remains loyal to her even when others, including Stumpy and Quack Quack, turn against her. It is implied in several episodes that he had an extremely difficult past and had terrible relationships with his family, especially his brothers. Over the course of the series, however, he does become much nicer while still retaining his mean self.
* Bad Kaeloo (voiced by Emmanuel Garijo in French and Doug Rand (Season 1), Matthew Geczy (Season 2) in English) - The hulking, massive toad into which Kaeloo transforms when angry or threatened. While Kaeloo has stated in an early episode that the transformations must be triggered by anger, she has been seen in several episodes deliberately taking this form to cheat at games that require a level of physical prowess or to intimidate others. The transformations seem to be accompanied by a profound drop in intellectual capacity and reasoning, later followed by remorse once she returns to her "normal" form. This implies that Bad Kaeloo's actions are usually beyond her conscious control. It is hinted at in one episode that this personality will become the dominant one later in her life, though another episode set in the future contradicted this.

Secondary

The second season of the show, which aired in France but was not yet dubbed into English, introduced a few secondary characters:
* Pretty (voiced by Dorothée Pousséo in French and Barbara Weber-Scaff in English) - A narcissistic, selfish and annoying female rabbit who is obsessed with fashion and all things stereotypically "girly". Pretty has a crush on Mr. Cat, but the feeling is not reciprocated.
* Eugly (voiced by Rémi Chapotot in French) - Pretty's fraternal twin sister, who is the opposite of her. She is fat and ugly, but she is extremely kind. Eugly is very emotional, and will burst into tears at even the slightest insult. She eventually becomes Quack Quack's girlfriend.
* Olaf (voiced by Féodor Atkine in French and Matthew Geczy in English) - An emperor penguin whose goal in life is to rule the world and cover it in ice. He is "married" to an ice cube, named Olga, and he owns a robot named Serguei. He used to live with many other emperor penguins, who ostracized him for wishing to marry an ice cube.

Episodes

Kaeloo was originally a three-minute short film animation created in 2007, titled ''Red Light, Green Light, 1, 2, 3'' and presented to the MIP TV in the same year. It is widely considered the pilot of the series.

The episode ''Let's Play the Quest for the Wholly Gruel (La Quête du Greul)'' was released to the Annecy Animation Festival 2010 in 3D.

Series overview

Pilot (2007)

Kaeloo originally started out as a three-minute animated short film made for Annecy 2007, which is the series pilot.

Season 1 (2010–11)

Season 2 (2012–13)

A second season was made and aired in France, but it has not yet been dubbed into English, the sole exception being the episode "What if We Played at Riding Ponies?".

Special Episode (2016)

Season 3 (2017–18)

The third season was released in France on September 4, 2017. It has not yet been dubbed in English.

Season 4 (2019-20)

The fourth season of the show will premiere on January 6, 2020. It has not yet been dubbed in English.

Season 5 (2023)

The existence of a fifth season was revealed at Annecy 2021. Season 5 will have 39 episodes and will premiere on January 23, 2023.

Dissemination and reception

The launch of the series was made June 6, 2010 in the show on Cartoon + in Canal+ Family. The show is also broadcast on Canal+. Kaeloo is also distributed outside the show on Canal+ Family. The series has received good reviews from ''Télérama'' TV 2 Weeks and ''Télérama'' considering it "hilarious" and TV two weeks as "a fast-paced cartoon and humor pest, which accomplishes the feat to entertain young and old".

DVD release

''Kaeloo: Hide and Hunt'' was released on Region 4 DVD by Beyond Home Entertainment on 1 December 2011. It contains the first 13 episodes of Series 1.

International broadcasts

Awards

Wins

* Kids Screen Awards for Best Series of the Year for the Family category.
* Audience Award at the Festival de Liège Stereo media for the episode ''Let's Play the Quest for the Wholly Gruel''.

Nominations

* Selection in the official competition of the Annecy Animation Festival 2011 in the category TV Series for the episode ''Let's Play Prince Charming''.
* Kids Screen Awards for Best Series of the Year for Class Family.

References

External links

*
* {{IMDb title, 1575922, Kaeloo

2010s French animated television series
2010 French television series debuts
French children's animated comedy television series
French computer-animated television series
Computer-animated television series
Parody television series
Animated television series about frogs
Animated television series about squirrels
Animated television series about ducks
Animated television series about cats
Animated television series about children
Television series about shapeshifting
Television series set in fictional countries
Television series set on fictional islands
Television series set on fictional planets