Caillou - Caillou's Train Trip & Other Adventures

Rating:
Summary: I am sick to death of Caillou!
Review: Yes! I can't stand Caillou! (Pronounced KAH-you) But I give this DVD 4 stars because my 19 month old daughter LOVES it. And when I say LOVES it, I don't just mean she'll sit and watch it when I put it on, I mean she BEGS me to put it on. We can be sitting and watching the news or the Simpsons and she'll wander in and say "Caillou tv?" Our daycare provider lets the kids watch it on PBS and she had to teach my daughter that when the credits come on, that means the show is OVER!! "Caillou ALL Done!"
That being said, this is a good DVD for the toddler-to-preschool set. Like all the Caillou material that I have seen (we also own Caillou's Treasure Hunt), the messages are basic and not condescending, the relationships and stories between characters are realistic and not preachy, and Caillou does real-life stuff like take a train trip (he's excited at first but gets scared when the HUGE train pulls in, then has fun exploring with Daddy), and decide what toys he might sell at a yard sale ("But then I won't have any to play with!"). And between the animated Caillou segments are puppet characters and "music videos" of real kids doing the kinds of things that Caillou does in the cartoons.
It's also a fairly long DVD. I haven't let my daughter watch the whole thing straight through, but it seems to be over an hour long. And she stays engrossed for 20 minutes at a stretch: long enough to get a load of laundry done or prepare dinner!
But PLEASE don't make ME watch it anymore!!! The theme song is just so catchy....