Big Head Son, Little Head Daddy (大头儿子小头爸爸)

Big Head Son, Little Head Daddy (大头儿子小头爸爸) is another Chinese cartoon that we really like. As the name suggests, it's about a kid with a big head and a dad with a small head. Each episode is only 8 minutes long, and for the most part they are pretty tame. It's not the slapstick comedy of Boonie Bears, but it's more grown-up than qiao hu. The theme song is very catchy, the mandarin is spoken pretty clearly, and our kids enjoy watching it. Give it a try!

Here's a playlist on youtube that has tons of episodes.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbfHOsCZQ52G3W6LNHAqWXIJ6NVmD9hZj

And here's a sample episode:




Do you like it?

Monkey King: Havoc in Heaven

This is a cartoon movie that my wife used to watch when she was a little girl. It's a fun story about the Monkey King wreaking havoc with the heavens as all the Chinese Gods get jealous of his powers. They try and tame the monkey king only to have everything they do backfire. It's a fun film that is full of Chinese culture. The Chinese is pretty advanced, but I think people of all ages will like it. The animation is also top notch and there's good music.

Watch it at Amazon (click below). Free for prime members, otherwise rent or buy it.

熊出没 -- Boonie Bears Chinese cartoon

We just found another Chinese TV show that I really like. It's called Boonie Bears, in Chinese it's called 熊出没. It's sort of a slapstick comedy about 2 bears that try to stop a logger from chopping down trees. We watched three episodes today and I thought they were all pretty funny (this is the husband writing). It's way more entertaining for adults than something like qiaohu 巧虎. My kids (ages 3 and 4) still would prefer to watch qiaohu since they get a little scared with this show, but they certainly got some great laughs when the hunter (called 光头强) gets beat up. I think in time they will love it, they've just never watched very many slap stick comedy cartoons. [edit: my 4 year old now LOVES watching this show, even more than qiao hu!]

Every episode resolves the conflict, and they are only 13 minutes long, so even though there are a few scary parts it always ends happy. I think it's a very fun show, the animation is very good, and the Chinese is more advanced than qiaohu 巧虎. I think we'll build some good memories watching this together. It also improves my Chinese as a westerner, and the Chinese subtitles are good as well. It's a good show, check it out!

We give it an A.

Here's an episode with the playlist of all the shows. Has some English episodes in playlist.



Here's a different playlist, maybe a better one since it's only Chinese.

What do you think?

Chinese Cartoon -- 小虎还乡 (Little Tiger Returns Home)

Our kids watch 巧虎, and that's a great show for toddlers. Some kids might find it boring, however. I like adventure stories and I think there's too many TV shows out there that are "educational" and are really just quite boring. Kids need more stories and adventure.

We really like the Chinese Cartoon called 小虎还乡 -- Little Tiger Returns Home. There's about 50 episodes about a white baby tiger who tries to find his way home with the help of a boy, his dog and parrot, and a girl. It's filled with adventure and it's slow enough that kids don't get lost.

A lot of times, children's TV shows talk way too slow and kids never really appreciate how people really talk. This show has people speaking regularly, which I think is better for kids to listen to in the long run. I get so tired of people speaking in slow shouts whenever they are speaking to an audience of children.

There's lots of playlists available on youtube, here is one that has all the episodes:

And here's the first episode. Watch it and let me know if you like it!

FYI, little kids under 3 might be a bit scared... our 2 year old cried in the second episode when it ended with the little tiger getting caught by the bad guys. It was adorable. But we assured him that in the next episode he would get rescued and he calmed down.

It's a fun show and we give it an A-, production is a bit old and plot can be a bit slow.

Chinese Cartoon 巧虎 Smart Tiger on Youtube

About a year ago, we were looking for Chinese cartoons to show our kids. I was in China and I bought some VCDs of some cartoons, and I downloaded a bunch more unto a flashdrive. We let our kids watch them sometime, but we never really found a cartoon that I absolutely loved and thought was good for our kids to watch. Sometimes we let them watch 喜洋洋, a famous cartoon about wolves and lambs. But we think it's too violent, and they talk too fast for our kids to really understand. It's probably better for older kids around age 7 or 8. Our kids were too young.

Smart Tiger (巧虎) is a really good cartoon that we tried to let our kids watch but never did in the past. We tried web sites like youku and always ran into an error message that said we weren't allowed to watch the video because or regional restrictions. Maybe we didnt' realize it or maybe it's new, but it turns out you can watch them on youtube! There are several different channels that have tons of episodes of 巧虎. You can just subscribe to the channel and then it's always easy to find all the episodes on your own youtube page. We have a Roku, so we just open up the youtube app on our TV and then go to the subscription and then our kids can watch Chinese cartoons on the TV very easy.

Search for it on youtube and you will find lots of playlists. Here is one:

I think 巧虎 is a great cartoon for 2 - 4 year olds. It's educational, they talk at an appropriate speed, it's fun, colorful, not too complicated, but still has interesting stories every episode. I don't think your kids will get bored watching it.

Do you like 巧虎? Leave a comment!

And if this video or the 巧虎 channel ever stops working or gets taken down, please leave a comment and let me know! I will try to find a new 巧虎 channel to post here.