“Charlie and Lola” is a new show to the Disney lineup, based on a series of children’s books by Lauren Child. With very simple animation, the show has the appearance of children’s drawings glued to a fabric backdrop. This alone makes it different from other shows currently being aired. Sometimes, as in an episode where they are making sandwiches, actual food is used, creating an interesting visual effect between the real slice of bread and the cartoon backdrop.
Lola is Charlie’s little sister, and she’s determined, imaginative, and a whole lot of trouble sometimes. With the “help” of her imaginary friend, she concocts all sorts of stories and finds herself believing them, like the day a new neighbor moved in, and she decided a wolf had come to live next door. Or the time she spent the entire day in an alligator costume, determined not to take it off, no matter what. Charlie’s day is spent steering her straight and either keeping her from trouble or helping her out of it. She wants to try everything and constantly wants to know why she can’t. Sometimes he has a hard time explaining the “why” to her, but that doesn’t keep him from trying.
We never see parents or grown-ups in the show. We know they exist; the children talk about them and obey them, but everything is done on the child’s level, so we see only children depicted.
These two children and their friends have strong British accents, and are sometimes hard to understand. It’s a good exercise in helping children to identify with people from other countries, but I think they could have made the accents just a touch less strong. It’s frustrating for a child not to be able to understand what’s being said around them. Often I can’t understand what the characters are saying either, so I’m no use as an interpreter.
All in all, the show portrays a healthy relationship between a brother and sister, and illustrates the value of using your imagination. As far as how annoying it is, I personally don’t care for it, but it doesn’t make me pull my hair out, either.
Tristi’s Score: 7 for Education, 7 for Entertainment, and the Parent Annoyance Factor is 3.
