Caillou

"Silly old car! Silly, Silly, Silly! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

- Caillou, "Caillou Joins the Circus"

Caillou is the titular main protagonist of the Canadian animated TV series of the same name, its 2016 reboot Caillou's New Adventures, and its upcoming 2023 CGI reboot of the same name. He is a 4-year-old bald boy who is Rosie's older brother. His interests include cars and dinosaurs and he owns a stuffed dinosaur named Rexy.

He was voiced by Bryn McAuley from 1997 to 2000, then the late Jaclyn Linetsky from 2000 to 2003, and then Annie Bovaird from the same year afterward until the original series' ending. In the 2016 reboot, Caillou's New Adventures, he is voiced by Laurie Hymes. In the upcoming CGI reboot (2023), he is voiced by Logan Nicholson.

Why Each Day, He Won't Grow Some More

 * 1) To get the elephant out of the room, he is infamous for his constant whining, crying, and temper tantrums. Most infamously, in “Caillou Joins the Circus”, he throws a fit after finding out that he is going to the circus tomorrow when he thought it was today. Not next week, not next month, not next year, but tomorrow. This obviously proves he cannot handle not going to the circus.
 * 2) *These temper tantrums got so out of hand that many parents complained about their children's behavior changing after they watched Caillou.
 * 3) *His second most infamous temper tantrum is in "Caillou's Teddy Shirt", all because of Rosie wearing his teddy shirt. He even shouts at Doris so loudly that the whole house could hear him. And when Doris tells him that it was too small for him, he just shouts back at her by saying "NO! IT'S NOT TOO SMALL FOR ME!", when it actually was too small for him.
 * 4) His voice is extremely annoying, obnoxious and grating, especially when it was provided by the late Jaclyn Linetsky (in the 2nd and 3rd seasons of the original series), and especially when he cries. It is even worse in New Adventures, where he sounds older than a 4-5-year-old most of the time.
 * 5) * As shown in the CGI reboot, his voice by Logan Nicholson isn't any better, as it's less mature than it was in New Adventures but is louder and more obnoxious (although it could be considered as a minor improvement over the last two shows).
 * 6) *On that note, his crying will most likely get on your last nerves. The worst offender of this is in the New Adventures episode "Caillou and the Bully", as it sounds so realistic.
 * 7) He is very selfish and often refuses to share.
 * 8) He is cruel to his little sister Rosie, even going as far as pinching her in the face in "Big Brother Caillou" (and he acts even more spiteful in the book version by biting her on the face).
 * 9) He is basically the male version of D.W. Read from the first fifteen seasons of Arthur, but even worse.
 * 10) He became a Gary Stu in seasons 4 and 5 (the Cookie Jar era). Despite being better behaved, he is given a blander characterization, and his voice still sounds annoying.
 * 11) *Modern Caillou (the Caillou with the yellow shirt) (while not as bad as Caillou with the beige/grey shirt) also isn't any better than classic Caillou for the following reasons:
 * 12) **In "Caillou's Cross Word", he and his friend Leo call Clementine "stupid" and hurt her feelings.
 * 13) ** In "Caillou and the Chores", he refuses to go outside to help his dad to work and instead just stays home just to play video games.
 * 14) **In "Caillou's Prison Break", he refuses to eat his vegetables and eventually got grounded for it and then, later on, tries to escape his room.
 * 15) ** Not helping matters is that Caillou would be reverted back to his seasons 1-3 (Cinar era) self in Caillou's New Adventures, where he's back to acting like a whiny spoiled brat, with a hint of his seasons 4 and 5 characterization thrown in, although he doesn't whine as much as he did in the original series. Worse, he's louder and more obnoxious compared to before.
 * 16) **The upcoming CGI reboot series shows that he has become a Gary Stu again, but this time it's worse than his seasons 4 and 5 (Cookie Jar era) self.
 * 17) His design in New Adventures is pretty unappealing to look at, at least in the episodes from 2016-2022. His CGI design from the 2023 reboot is no better.
 * 18) *Plus, in season 1 of the original series, he had a slightly more generic design, as he wore a beige/grey shirt.
 * 19) While not often, he can sometimes be treated like a Butt-Monkey since things never seem to go his way. Not that he doesn’t deserve it however due to how much a brat he is. For example, during his first day of daycare, he plays with blocks, only for Leo to come near him and take the blocks from him, whilst saying "Hey! Those are my blocks!"
 * 20) In the original series, unlike Angelica from Rugrats, he rarely, if ever, gets punished or scolded by his parents for his actions, making him the most notable example of a Karma Houdini.
 * 21) He is at his absolute worst in Caillou's New Adventures.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) When he is not misbehaving and throwing tantrums (especially in Seasons 3-5, and the CGI reboot), he is kind of cute sometimes, and there are some episodes where he is decently portrayed. The same can be said about his design as well, and his yellow shirt from season 2 onward makes his design look better compared to the beige/grey shirt he wore in season 1, though the same can't be said about his character design in the 2016-2022 episodes of New Adventures, or his design in the the CGI reboot. Speaking of his character design in New Adventures, his design as of "Doctor Caillou's Patient" is an improvement over the previous one due to it looking less rigid and looking more accurate to how he appeared in the original series.
 * 2) He sometimes does teach good life lessons about social values and behavior, along with exploring the world.
 * 3) Despite being flanderized into a Gary-Stu in seasons 4-5 (Cookie Jar era) and the CGI reboot, he is much better behaved in those seasons and doesn't throw tantrums as often as he did in the earlier seasons, although he would revert back to his seasons 1-3 (Cinar era) self in New Adventures.
 * 4) Even though it is still more louder and obnoxious than the original, his voice in the 2023 reboot is at least a slight improvement over the last two shows, especially since he is finally voiced by an actual child (and is okay).
 * 5) *Also, Jaclyn Linetsky did a decent job voicing him in season 2-3 (Unfortunately, she was killed in a car accident on September 8, 2003).
 * 6) He does get his comeuppance (albeit rarely), such as when Boris scolded him for throwing a tantrum in "Caillou Joins the Circus", where he says "Caillou, stop all this racket! You woke up Rosie! I want you to come downstairs right now!".
 * 7) *On top of that, in Caillou's New Adventures, despite reverting back to his characterization from seasons 1-3, he does end up getting his comeuppance. To name two examples:
 * 8) **He got grounded for not listening to his mom for not getting off of the video game he was playing.
 * 9) **Another time he got grounded was for banging on the table, for not eating his broccoli, and for trying to escape his room to play with his friends in the aforementioned "Caillou's Prison Break".
 * 10) *This even manages to make an influence on the Vyond grounded videos from YouTube (whom Caillou is a major victim of).
 * 11) His bad behavior can be excused somewhat, due to his young age.

Trivia

 * When the book series started in 1987, Caillou was a baby, but when it was time for him to age up, the illustrator found that giving Caillou hair would've made him unrecognizable, thus explaining the character's baldness. They basically made him bald so that young kids (the franchise's demographic) wouldn’t get confused over the character's appearance.
 * He, along with Dora, are both main victims of grounded videos made in GoAnimate/Vyond, Plotagon, and Wrapper. On a side note, Little Bill, Sid the Science Kid, Peppa Pig, Bob the Builder, and (in the case of Harri Marken Prits from Estonia) some of the Numberblocks are among supporting to recurring victims.
 * His misbehavior and unlikable behavior also caused him to spawn a parody series called "Caillou at 22" made by AOK and an appearance in a Family Guy episode named "Stewie's First Word".

Videos
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