Simon

The animation isn't your typical bold outline bright colours and I LOVE that. It's so pleasing to look at. The voices are so cute and believable as children, parents, grandparents etc. The story's aren't crazy educational, BUT they do always teach a small lesson about family, friends, sharing, love etc. My 3 year old loves this show. I think the way they show the parents and siblings is also really important. Simon's parents and brother show him so much love and support and that shows the audience how they should be treated and how they should treat others. Everyone really respects each other in the show.

My daughter has been watching this show for about 2 years and loves it, its her go-to. It gives her exposure to international characters and highlights relationships between children and their parents as well as one another. The episodes are served up in small, digestible pieces so that its easy to say, "one more show and then we have to ..." it reminds me very much of the series, "Tro Tro", (also international) only I enjoy this one a bit more.

We so love the show and hope Netflix do more seasons as we have watched the same season 1 over 60 times but still wonderful. My 13yr old son and 4 yr old daughter watch and get a lot out of it as my son reads the books of simon when we are not watching wish there was more shows like this, 5 mins or so long and just the right size for the childrens attention spans very cool

Simon caught my attention at a quick glance on Netflix and based on the appeal design of the character, I figured I give it a watch. The first episode left me rather cold as the English dub had really bad acting and off putting lip syncing. I was originally going to drop it, but then I decided to see if it faired better in the original French dub. To my surprise, it turned out to be a much superior experience than in English. From the really soild animation to the really talented voice cast, sub triumphs over dub in this international cartoon.

Based on the children's book series by Stephanie Blake, Simon follows the life of the titular bunny and his family in the rural side of France. Simon plays games with friends, goes on adventures with his brother, plays pretend, and learns some valuable life lessons. The show does a good job creating a welcoming atmosphere by showing Simon as a playful and clever kid we want to hang out with. The show also teaches kids great lessons such as learning to play fair, not be afraid of change in your routine, compromising, and helping one another. The show does a good job showing the world Simon lives in where everyone is an anthropomorphic rabbit and they're all generally nice people. This show has some good moments of humor such as clever slapstick, comedic jumpscares, and fun visual gags. My one critique with the writing, though, is it has some pacing issues. Each episode runs for about 5 minutes and as such the conflicts is over and done with rather quickly. It also doesn't leave room for surprises as the outcome of every episode is exactly what you think it's gonna be. Despite the literal short commings, this show makes up for it be teaching valuable lessons to kids and having some genuine moments of humor.

The characters could've easily got on my nerves, but mercifully they're a really likable bunch. Starting with our titular bunny, Simon is a playful and energetic kod who likes playing games and hanging out with friends. He can be bossy at tines, but he honestly means well and learns his lesson very quickly. His little brother, Gaspard, is an energetic toddler that looks up to Simon and enjoys playing with him as much as he does sucking his security blanky. Their parents, Andre and Eva, are very kind, patient, helpful, and caring people who always steer Simon in the right direction. Other characters that make a notable impression include Ferdinand, Simon's neighbor with a vast toy collection, Lou, a girl Simon met on the first day of school and whom Simon helps conquer her anxieties, Margot, Simon and Gaspard's fun babysitter, and Simon's grandparents who are the wise and lively elders in his life.

Bringing these characters to life is the more than solid voice cast on display as they all sound so natural in their roles. Salmone Keren Zeitoun sounded very good as Simon, giving him an authentic childlike wonder to his voice. Tony Sanial brilliantly made Gaspard sound so innocent and adorable. Magalie Bonfils sounded very sweet and motherly as Eva with Matthias Casatrelli sounding so friendly and patient as Andre. Casatrellia also did a good job making Simon's Grandpa sound like a distinctly old man with Angele Humeau doing a really good job voicing his Grandma. All the actors were wonderfully directed by Anne Mathot who made them all sound so natural and believable in their respective roles.

Visually, the show looks like a children's story book come to life and that's not a knock against the show. Actually, GO-N Productions did a wonderful job translating the illustrations of the original books into animation. The characters have simple but easily recognizable designs with the characters having big, expressive eyes, differing body types and unique clothes and accessories. The adults are also made tall and lengthy to signify that they look like giants from Simon's perspective. The character animation is very smooth with the characters having distinct walk cycles and their ears moving in an eb and flow manner with their heads. The biggest highlight of the visuals are the backgrounds, which are simple, yes, but also very charming and colorful. The Sun has a face on it, the house looks like a parallelogram as opposed to a square, the trees are magenta instead of the usual brown, and the school, park, and beach all look so lived in and spacious. This show really went the extra mile in making itself feel like a children's book when adapting a children's book.

Huh, that was surprisingly pretty good despite starting off on a sour note with the English dub. Simon is a more than solid children's show with likable characters, talented voice work, well crafted animation, and plenty of valuable lessons to teach kids. Sure it suffers from pacing issues, but it more than makes up for it with a really good execution. If you're learning French or you wanna teach your kids some French, I definitely recommend giving this a watch to learn some French phrases and sentence structures. I never thought I'd be in a position where I'd say the sub is better than the dub, yet here we are.

Our two girls (3 and 4 year old) love Simon. The stories are simple, short and are grounded in everyday happenings. Alot of people seem to comment about the lack of educational content. I always felt that the 'education' part of the show was in how the kids and parents interacted with each other. There is something that feels kind of real about how Simon and Gaspod relate to each other. Simon (the elder brother) doesn't always have patience with Gaspod (the younger brother) when he is demanding or can't do something. Gaspod can get a bit frustrated when Simon is able to do something he can't. Whatever happens they learn how to have fun together. I think it portrays the older/younger sibling relationship quite nicely. It's all done in a very nice gentle way without being too on the nose about it. The two short story format is quite handy when it comes to going to bed (none of that 'how much is left on this dam show'). Plus I do like that it's not trying to sneekily try and entrap parents into buying merchandise ala Paw Patrol, Hot wheels, Blippy etc. Education wise it's not Sesame St or Dora but for the bit of telly our kids get it's a nice easy one to watch. I even think that Gaspods voice is actually quite cute 😊.