Kaeloo

Kaeloo is a French computer-animated comedy television series created by Rémi Chapotot and Jean-François Henry and produced by Cube Creative in association with Blue Spirit. The series has been airing from June 6, 2010, on Canal+, Canal+ Kids and Télétoon+, and also started airing from September 2017 on C8.

Premise
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.

Main

 * Kaeloo (Kaelou) (voiced by Emmanuel Garijo in French and Andy Chase (Pilot), Doug Rand (Season 1) 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". 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. 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.
 * 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 explosions, superpowers, intergalactic wars and anything remotely dangerous. He has little to no sense of reality and is often delusional. 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, 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 does become slightly nicer while still retaining his mean and tough self.
 * 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.

Secondary
Later seasons of the show introduce new characters:

Season 2

 * Pretty (voiced by Dorothée Pousséo) - a pink rabbit fashionista who is obsessed with fashion and all things stereotypically "girly". She is selfish, narcissistic and quite annoying. Pretty has a crush on Mr. Cat, but the feeling is not reciprocated. In season 5, Pretty befriends the four main characters and stops bullying them, as well as getting 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.
 * Olaf (voiced by Féodor Atkine) - an emperor penguin who would like the whole world to be covered with ice. He is married to an ice cube named Olga and has a robot fridge named Serguei.

Season 5

 * La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Games) (voiced by Valentin Papoudof) - A floating robot-alien that acts like a personification of the rules who imposes bizarre penalties on people who break the rules. She is the overarching antagonist of season 5.
 * Stumpy's sisters (All voiced by Emilie Rollot) - Stumpy's seven younger sisters.
 * Ardoise - The helpful one who is good at handling finances and marketing.
 * Cramoisie - The one who likes insulting and harassing others.
 * Lavanade - The quiet one with supernatural powers.
 * Nombril - Stumpy's younger sister who always wants his attention.
 * Poucave - An inquisitive child who wants to become a journalist, which she practices for by spying on people to write about them.
 * Violasse - The one who carries a balloon everywhere and has terrible luck that constantly lands her into bad situations.
 * Vitamine - Stumpy's sister who is so hyperactive that she moves at super speed and cannot interact with the world around her.

Pilot (2007)
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!!!) and presented to the MIP TV in the same year. It is widely considered the pilot of the series.

Season 1 (2010)
All episodes are directed by Rémi Chapotot.

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?".

Season 3 (2016-18)
The third season was released in France on December 18, 2016 on Télétoon+. It has not yet been dubbed in English.

Season 4 (2019-20)
The fourth season of the show premiered on December 25, 2019. It has not yet been dubbed in English.

Season 5 (2023)
The fifth season premiered on April 8, 2023. It has not yet been dubbed in English.

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, 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".

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 the English dub of Season 1.