akz209 Reviews

Dragon Tales (1999–2005)

Silly and poorly made show with obnoxious cheerleader quality!

[3/10 · 23 December 2008]

My daughter loves it, but she is under 3. I can barely watch the show, because: 1. The animation is extremely primitive by all standards. 2. Why do those kids have strange head to body size proportions? It makes them look like almost all of them had a vitamin D deficiency in their childhoods. 3. Why do all the characters and creatures in dragon land have to have names or titles with dragon as the prefix? 4. The show is overly cheerful and boring, dragons are overly anthropomorphized and have no personality, and music is overly repetitive and simple. 5. Although the messages this show sends are positive, the poor execution makes them intolerable. I was surprised to find out that Dragon Tales is the product of the Sesame Street Workshop. Very disappointing... I wouldn't necessarily recommend switching to cartoon network as opposed to the suggestions from some of the viewers. I don't find cartoon channel appropriate for immature audiences, and it teaches children poor taste and terrible manners, but if you watch PBS or PBS sprout channel, try to avoid Dragon Tales, unless you want to raise unsophisticated simpletons with no personality.

Caillou (1997–2018)

Most of the characters are lovely, except of Caillou!!!

[4/10 · 23 December 2008]

The show has a primitive animation, to start with its issues. And I'm still trying to figure out why Caillou was not allowed to have hair by his creators? His name means pebble in French, if I'm not mistaken, so, I guess, his character was designed being bold. However, I personally find it strange that two otherwise progressive parents shave their kid's head all the time, while allowing Rosie, his sister, to have a head full of beautiful red hair. The characters in the show move with the robotic stiffness in their joints, the technical details are usually inaccurate and the colors are hurtful to the eyes. Caillou seems to have a large selection of clothes, but he always ends up in a yellow polo shirt with a red collar. His voice and manners are usually disgusting, rather disturbing. Caucasian and Black characters in the show are allowed to wear fancy modern clothes and have a regular furniture in their houses, while Asian girls alway have to wear traditional Chinese clothes with little hats, live in the houses decorated in traditional Chinese style and eat Chinese food. I agree with one particular comment that this show denies Asian people the identity other than Asian, and it sounds racist. However, I have to agree with another user comment, that neither Caillou nor his family are racists. They are lovely and very polite!!! Caillou has Chinese and Black friends, and his mother occasionally takes him to their homes for playdates or the parents take small groups of children to playground, ice-cream parlors and to do other activities. My feelings towards this show are ambivalent. I can not say that Caillou as the show is a complete failure, but I almost hate Caillou, despite the fact that I'm a grown-up woman and he is just a fictional 4 year old boy. However, since I have to watch him on a daily basis with my toddler daughter, who runs home from playground to watch the show and calls his name from time to time, I can barely tolerate him!!!

Angelina Ballerina (2001–2009)

Wonderful show about the power of talent, hard work and kindness!!!

[10/10 · 23 December 2008]

Angelina Ballerina is a lovely animated series about a mouse, who is trained as ballerina and she is very good in dancing. It is based on the series of children books written by Katharine Holabird and illustrated by Helen Craig. Angelina lives in a fictional country of Mouseland, which is populated by grownup mice and mouse-lings of all kinds. Angelina's father is the proprietor of the Mouseland Gazette and her mother is a housewife, and she has a baby sister Polly. Angelina's BFF is Alice, who is loyal and seems to enjoy eating snacks at all times, a young mouse-ling William, who is secretly in love with Angelina, her ballet teacher Ms. Lilly and other family members and friends. She has an ongoing rivalry with twin sisters Priscilla and Penelope Pinkpaws, who are always arrogant and obnoxious with everyone and particularly jealous of Angelina's talents. Angelina appears to be an ambitious overachiever and over-reactor, but it only adds an additional charm to her hardworking and talented character. It shows that her character is not benign or plain mean, like in many other shows, but strong and kind at the same time. She is always full of good intentions, but things don't always go the right way and she has to correct her mistakes with the help from her friends and family. My 2 year and 8 months old daughter adores Angelina and gives us the ballet performances pretending to be Angelina. This show is adorable and I would highly recommend it for kids of different ages.