- "I'm just a kid who's 4! Each day I grow some more. I like exploring, I'm Caillou. "
- —
Caillou is a 4-year-old boy who serves as the main protagonist of the TV series and books, all of the same name. He is presented as a curious, adventurous young child who enjoys exploring the world around him and is intended to be a representation of a real preschooler. Created by child psychologist and publisher Christine L'Heureux and illustrator Hélène Desputeaux, Caillou debuted as an infant in a series of books running from 1989 onwards, and is also the mascot of the Chouette publishing company, which was founded by L'Heureux.
Caillou's unique trait is the fact that he is completely bald; this decision was made after his creators began to age the character in the hopes of keeping Caillou recognizable and promoting diversity.
Personality[]
Caillou is shown to be a caring, adventurous, helpful, imaginative 4-year old child. Overall he constantly asks questions about the world around him and is always ready for another adventure.
In the first season, Caillou tends to lose his temper when things don't go his way. His tantrums have been the source of criticism. However, Caillou is not completely a bad child, he's simply way too spoiled and misguided, but he will always do what he can to make up for the damage and mistakes he makes when he's aware of them in some episodes. By the later seasons, Caillou is shown to be more well-behaved and insightful (likely due to complaints from parents about his behavior when the show first aired).
Caillou loves his parents very much, and enjoys spending time with them when possible.
Caillou's best friend is Leo, who he met on his first day of daycare. Initially, Leo was disrespectful to Caillou, but the two later formed an inseparable bond.
Another one of Caillou's closest friends is Clementine, who often invites Caillou to join her in various activities.
Caillou's next-door neighbor, Sarah, is one of his closest friends, even though she is older than he is. Sarah also serves as a mentor to Caillou. Sarah has even stated that Caillou is the closest person to a little brother for her. Caillou is also friends with his other neighbor, Mr. Hinkle, who seems to be like a grandfather figure to Caillou and Rosie, doing things like babysitting or baking a cake with them.
Although Caillou occasionally has a difficult time getting along with his younger sister, Rosie, the two have a good relationship and enjoy playing together. When left alone with Rosie, Caillou does his best to keep an eye on her, but has a hard time controlling her if she misbehaves.
Biography[]
Caillou is inquisitive and curious. He enjoys cars and dinosaurs. In the song called "Caillou Can Count from 1 to 10" and in a book called My First Piano Book which both feature him playing the piano, Caillou also likes to play the piano as one of his interests, but in Caillou's Got Rhythm, he tried to play the piano before he played his drum that Grandma made for him to play in her band.
Caillou was 2 ½ years old when his little sister, Rosie, was born in Big Brother Caillou, and a 3 year old for the first 17 episodes of Season 1, but after the episode "Caillou's Birthday" he turns 4 years old and remains this way for the rest of the series. His age is also 4 in the books, according to My First Piano Book. In later seasons, Caillou ages up, has a more mature voice, and is represented as the age of a kindergartener, however is still 4 years old. However, it is possible that Caillou turned 5 in the series, but still hasn't left preschool.
Caillou lives in a 2-story blue house on 17 Pine St. according to Where I live with his Daddy, his Mommy and his littlest sister, Rosie. His grandparents live nearby in a 2 story red house. Later installments show him attending preschool.
In the earliest episodes, Caillou is normally seen wearing a red sweater with green pants held up by yellow suspenders. In "Big Brother Caillou" he wears a yellow shirt and red overalls. Beginning with "Caillou All Alone", he wears a grayish beige shirt with a red collar, blue long shorts, yellow high socks, and blue and red shoes without laces. In Season 2 and the remainder of the series he wears a yellow shirt with the red collar. In Season 3 onward, he has yellow buttons on his red collar of his shirt, but the rest of his clothing remains unchanged. In both Caillou Can Count from 1 to 10 and the cover and first page of My First Piano Book, he wears a red bowtie and blue tuxedo instead of his signature yellow shirt. It is possible that he also wears diapers in the former two outfits mentioned as evidenced by a thick round shape under his pants in some shots. Sometimes he has a baseball cap.Gallery
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| Caillou's playschool class | |||||||
| Clementine | Emma | Jason | Jeffery | Leo | Xavier | Layla | |||||||
Trivia[]
- People have made parody videos of Caillou on YouTube, typically using GoAnimate. The videos usually involve Caillou getting grounded for a large amount of time, despite him never getting grounded until the web series.
- Caillou is the only main character to appear in every episode.
- It is suspected that Caillou's baldness is caused by leukemia due to his tendency to become sick throughout the series. Hereditary traits have been debunked as a cause on the account of no one in Caillou's family sharing his baldness.
- The type of collar Caillou is seen wearing is called a Mandarin collar, but the shirt is yellow and the collar is red.