Kaeloo (original) (raw)

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Not to be confused with Caillou.

2010 French TV series or program

Kaeloo
A promotional poster for the third season.
Genre	Surreal comedy Fantasy Slapstick Black comedy
Created by	Rémi Chapotot Jean-François Henry
Written by	Rémi Chapotot Jean-François Henry
Directed by	Rémi Chapotot Antoine Rota (S1-2) Philippe Rolland (S3-4)
Voices of	Emmanuel Garijo Philippe Spiteri Rémi Chapotot Dorothée Pousséo Féodor Atkine Valentin Papoudof Emilie Rollot
Narrated by	Emmanuel Garijo
Theme music composer	Franck Marchal
Composer	Franck Marchal
Country of origin	France
Original language	French
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	241
Production
Producers	Lionel Fages Bruno Le Lever Majid Loukil
Running time	7 minutes 26 minutes ("Et si on jouait à l'episode très special")
Production companies	Cube Creative Blue Spirit (season 1)
Original release
Network	Canal+ Canal+ Kids Télétoon+
Release	6 June 2010 (2010-06-06) –13 April 2023 (2023-04-13)

Kaeloo is a French computer-animated comedy television series created by Rémi Chapotot and Jean-François Henry and produced by Cube Creative. The series aired from June 6, 2010, to April 13, 2023,[1] on Canal+, Canal+ Kids and Télétoon+, and also started airing from September 2017 on C8.[2]

The show centers around the adventures of a group of anthropomorphic animal friends, Kaeloo the frog (Kaelou in the pilot), Stumpy the squirrel, (Moignon in the pilot), Quack-Quack the duck, Mr. Cat the cat, and as of Seasons 2 and 5, Pretty the rabbit, Eugly the rabbit, Olaf the penguin, The Rules of the Games and Stumpy's seven sisters, who live on a planet known as Smileyland (Pays Trop Mignon in French, which means "Very Cute Country") and 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 (in the earlier seasons), Eugly's emotional vulnerability, Olaf's desire to take over the world, Mr. Cat's constant cheating and abuse of the others, and Kaeloo's ability to transform into a hulking toad monster named Bad Kaeloo (Bad Kaelou in the Pilot) when angered.

• Kaeloo (Kaelou) (voiced by Emmanuel Garijo in French and Andy Chase (Pilot), Doug Rand (Season 1) and Ian Hanlin (Season 5) in English) - the titular character and main protagonist. She is a cheerful and energetic but dangerously emotionally unstable tree frog who's always looking for games to play with her so-called "buddies". While normally gentle and loving (though she does have several crueler moments), 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. Kaeloo is gender-ambiguous in the French dub of the show; no one knowing her gender is a running gag, and it's implied that she is non-binary and goes by she/he pronouns. She is re-written to be female in most of the other dubs of the series; however, the Italian, Serbian and Hindi dubs, and the first 10 episodes in the English dub have her re-written as male, with the former three dubs editing out any suggestive scenes between her and Mr. Cat.
  • Bad Kaeloo (Bad Kaelou) (voiced by Emmanuel Garijo in French and Doug Rand (Season 1) in English) - Whenever Kaeloo gets angry or frustrated enough, she transforms into this form, a hulking and brutish yet slow-witted toad. While she 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.
• Stumpy (Moignon) (voiced by Rémi Chapotot in French and Doug Rand (Pilot and Season 1)) - an extremely dim-witted and accident-prone red squirrel, fascinated by video games, alongside explosions, superpowers, intergalactic wars and anything remotely dangerous. He has little-to-no sense of reality and is often delusional and immature, but generally means well. 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 (Coin-Coin) (voiced by Rémi Chapotot in French and Doug Rand in English) - a diaper-wearing duck who can only say his name. 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 (explaining his numerous stitches), intelligent, extremely lucky and addicted to yogurt. He is afraid of three things: doctors, never finding his creator and expired yogurt.
• Mr. Cat (Monsieur Chat) (Hector) (voiced by Philippe Spiteri in French and Christian Erickson (Pilot), Mike Powers (Season 1) in English) - the main antagonist/anti-hero, a greedy bengal cat, who's an alcoholic and a cheater, always wants to win, 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, he steadily becomes much nicer as a person, though he never completely sheds his cynical and tough edge.

Later seasons of the show introduce new characters:

• Pretty (voiced by Dorothée Pousséo) - a pink rabbit fashionista who is obsessed with fashion and all things stereotypically "girly". She is selfish, narcissistic, aggressive and regularly puts down those around her for petty reasons. Pretty has a crush on Mr. Cat (not that the feeling is even close to being reciprocated) and will go to extreme lengths to woo him. In season 5, Pretty befriends the four main characters, stops bullying them, and gets over her crush on Mr. Cat.
• Eugly (voiced by Rémi Chapotot) - Pretty's fraternal twin sister and polar opposite. Unlike Pretty, Eugly is ugly and fat, but has a very nice personality. Eugly is very emotional, and will burst into floods of tears at even the slightest insult. She eventually becomes Quack Quack's girlfriend. In season 5, Eugly leaves Smileyland to attend an art school, and her role is reduced to occasional cameos as a result.
• Olaf (voiced by Féodor Atkine) - an insane emperor penguin who would like to take over the world and cover it with ice, but is ultimately ineffectual. He is married to an ice cube named Olga and has a robot fridge named Serguei. In season 5, Olaf is now an artist.
• The Rules of the Games/Game Rule (La Règle du Jeu/M. Règle) (voiced by Valentin Papoudof in French and Travis Turner in English) - A floating robot-alien that acts like a personification of the rules who imposes bizarre penalties on people who break the rules. They are non-binary and they are the overarching antagonist of season 5.
• Stumpy's sisters (all voiced by Emilie Rollot) - In the first four seasons, a running gag was that everyone (occasionally including Stumpy himself) didn't know if Stumpy's siblings were real or not, and jokes would often rely on their existence being ambiguous. Starting in Season 5, the existence of them (seven younger sisters) is finally confirmed, and the gag is retired as a result. In order, they are:
  • Checkout (Ardoise) - The helpful one who is good at handling finances and marketing.
  • Moldie (Cramoisie) - The one who likes insulting and harassing others.
  • Lavanade - The quiet one with supernatural powers.
  • Me-Me (Nombril) - Stumpy's younger sister who always wants people's attention, especially his.
  • Poucave - An inquisitive child who wants to become a journalist, which she practices for by spying on people to write about them.
  • Purplish (Violasse) - The one who carries a balloon everywhere and has terrible luck that constantly lands her into bad situations.
  • Vitamin (Vitamine) - Stumpy's sister who is so hyperactive that she moves at super speed and cannot interact with the world around her.

Kaeloo was originally a three-minute short film animation created in 2007, titled Kaelou: Red Light, Green Light, 1, 2, 3 (Kaelou: 1, 2, 3 Je Te Saigne!!!)[3] and presented to the MIP TV in the same year. It is widely considered the pilot of the series.

All episodes are directed by Rémi Chapotot.

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?".

The third season was released in France on December 18, 2016 on Télétoon+. It has not yet been dubbed in English.

The fourth season of the show premiered on December 25, 2019. It has not yet been dubbed in English.

The fifth season premiered on April 8, 2023. It has been dubbed in English.[5]

Release and reception

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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, with Télérama considering it "hilarious" and TV 2 Weeks as "a fast-paced cartoon and humor pest, which accomplishes the feat to entertain young and old".[_citation needed_]

Kaeloo: Hide and Hunt was released on Region 4 DVD by Beyond Home Entertainment on 1 December 2011.[6] It contains the first 13 episodes of the English dub of Season 1.

As of 2025, the remaining four seasons of the show have not been released on DVD.

International broadcasts

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As of 2025, the show is not available in the United States, Spain, Latin America, and Germany.

Awards and nominations

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A video game adapted from the series titled Kaeloo Rush was released on Android on July 18, 2016. In this game, Kaeloo must protect Quack-Quack and Smileyland at large from Mr. Cat's ammunition. The game contains 40 levels. Unfortunately, it has been unavailable in France since 2023 for unknown reasons.

Kaeloo is a comic book series based on the cartoon of the same name. The first issue, titled Let's Play... was released in July 2018.

1. ^ "KAELOO | remichapotot". remichapotot.fr.
2. ^ a b "Kaeloo". facebook.com. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
3. ^ http://www.cube-creative.en/index.php?t=m&fid=18&l=en&lf=18,132,204,257 [_dead link_‍]
4. ^ "Kaeloo en relief à Annecy 2010". Kaeloo.fr. 2010-06-10. Archived from the original on 2012-03-31. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
5. ^ "Annecy 2021 - Canal+ déroule la liste de ses programmes d'animation en cours".
6. ^ "Kaeloo: Hide and Hunt at Beyond Home Entertainment". Beyond Home Entertainment. 2011-12-01. Archived from the original on July 22, 2012. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
7. ^ "des NEWS de l'anim - N°40" (in French). Animation-france.fr. Retrieved 2011-11-10.

• Official website Archived 2023-10-01 at the Wayback Machine
• Kaeloo at IMDb