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Television series From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ni Hao, Kai-Lan is an American animated children's television series produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio. It began as a series of three interstitial shorts on Nick Jr. called Downward Doghouse.[2] The first full episode was initially set to premiere in fall 2007[3][4] on Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. block in the United States, but it was pushed back to February 7, 2008, coinciding with Chinese New Year.[3]
| Ni Hao, Kai-Lan | |
|---|---|
| |
| Genre | Fantasy Comedy |
| Created by | Karen Chau |
| Developed by | Mary Harrington Karen Chau Judy Rothman Sascha Paladino |
| Written by | Sascha Paladino (Head Writer) Bradley Zweig (Staff Writer) |
| Directed by | David Marshall |
| Voices of | Jade-Lianna Peters Clem Cheung Ben Wang Jack Samson Khamani Griffin Angie Wu Beverly Duan Terence Hardy Hsiang Lo |
| Theme music composer | Matt Mahaffey |
| Opening theme | Theme song composed by Matt Mahaffey, lyrics by Sascha Paladino |
| Composer | Doug Califano |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original languages | English Mandarin |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 42 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Mary Harrington |
| Producer | Sascha Paladino |
| Running time | 24 minutes |
| Production companies | Harringtoons Productions Nickelodeon Animation Studio (credited as Nick Jr. Productions for season 1)[lower-alpha 1] |
| Original release | |
| Network | Nickelodeon Nick Jr. Channel |
| Release | February 7, 2008 – August 21, 2011 |
Ni Hao, Kai-Lan is based on the childhood memories of the show's creator, Karen Chau, who grew up in a bicultural (Chinese-American) household.[5] "Ni hao" (你好 nǐ hǎo) means "Hello" in Mandarin, and Kai-Lan (凯兰 Kǎilán) is the Chinese name Chau was given at birth, which was later anglicized to Karen.
The first two seasons had 20 episodes each. The third season consisted of a two-part series finale. Sascha Paladino was the head writer and developer for the show.
The entire series was released on Paramount+ (at the time CBS All Access) on January 19, 2021.
The series follows the adventures of Kai-Lan and her group of talking anthropomorphic animal companions. The group consists of Kai-Lan, a 6-year-old Chinese-American girl; Rintoo, a yellow 6-year-old Bengal tiger; Tolee, a gray 5-year-old koala; Lulu, a light pink 5-year-old rhinoceros; and Hoho, a white 3-year-old monkey. Each episode is based around a series of events that occur during Kai-Lan's day, along with obstacles that she and her friends are forced to overcome (with "assistance" from the viewing audience) relating to riddles, playing games, and working together. Common rituals may involve Kai-Lan resolving conflicts with her friends when they feel negative emotions. To help them, Kai-Lan has the audience help her figure out why they are having difficult situations. Usually, once Kai-Lan's friends discover that their actions are wrong, they apologize and promise to work together better. The audience is usually presented with two musical sing-alongs where Kai-Lan sings about what must be done to overcome her and her friends' challenges. The episode always ends with Kai-Lan successfully helping her friends and everyone getting along. At the end of all episodes, Kai-Lan thanks the viewer for helping her and adds, "You make my heart feel super happy!", saying it again in Chinese in Season 2 onward before saying goodbye. In the Season 1 finale, it is stated that they all live in California.
Other aspects generally featured in episodes are breaking the fourth wall, 11 minutes of interactivity,[6] a target word that is repeated multiple times,[7] a few words of Mandarin Chinese vocabulary, and before saying goodbye (at the end of each episode), Kai-Lan says, "You make my heart feel super happy." Later installments added Kai-lan saying this phrase in Mandarin after she said it in English: 你讓我好開心 (Ni rang wo hao kai xin). Ni Hao, Kai-Lan introduces its viewers to the Mandarin Chinese language, along with elements of Chinese culture and values, and intergenerational families (e.g., Kai-Lan and her relationship with Ye-Ye).
The series has been broadcast and sold to TV networks in many other countries worldwide.
In France, a French dubbed version premiered in 2008 on TF1, as part of their TFOU block, it later aired on MBC 1 in Mauritius and also on the French Pay-TV channel Nickelodeon Junior. In Hungary, A Hungarian dub Premiered on Nickelodeon as part of their Nick Jr. block on January 26, 2009, it later aired on TV2 as part of their Nickelodeon block, In Middle East and North Africa, a Arabic dub premiered on November 3, 2012 on MBC 3, as part of Nickelodeon block, and reruns were aired until 24th December 2016, it later aired on Nick Jr. these redub on select episodes. In the United Kingdom, a British English dub was released on September 7, 2009, Using the same scripts as the original American version featuring minor changes added, and even the characters singing in the theme song were replaced by a group of Women singing it (Except for Kai-Lan), and it was shown on Nick Jr. UK, Nick Jr. Too, and for a brief time in January 2010 on Nickelodeon, and Reruns were aired until 5th January 2015. it later came back for a brief time from July 18, 2021 to June 30, 2022 as an exclusive to the Sky Go On Demand service, and the Now streaming service (Including the Sky Kids app). A Korean language dubbed version premiered on Nickelodeon in South Korea, as part of their Nick Jr. block. In Albania, an illegal Albanian Language dubbed version was aired on Bang Bang from 2014 to 2016, & intermittently on Cufo in 2022 and 2023, leaving the theme song undubbed with the dialogue being dubbed only, except for the other songs. In Ireland, an Irish Language dub was released sometime in 2011, and it aired on TG4's Cúla4 Programming block, As part of their Cúla4 na nÓg Preschool block.
The series has also been dubbed in a lot of other countries.
| Season | Episodes | DVD release dates | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | ||||
| 1 | 2008–09 | 20 | Volume 1: Super Special Days: August 12, 2008[8] Episodes: "Dragonboat Festival" • "Beach Day" • "Twirly Whirly Flyers" • "Everybody's Hat Parade" Volume 2: Celebrate with Kai-Lan: January 6, 2009[9] Episodes: "Happy Chinese New Year!" • "Safari Pals" • "Kai-Lan's Campout" • "Tolee’s Rhyme Time" Volume 3: Kai-Lan's Great Trip to China: July 14, 2009[10] Episodes: "Kai-Lan's Trip to China" • "Rain or Shine" • "The Ant Playground" Volume 4: Kai-Lan's Carnival: October 6, 2009[11] Episodes: "Kai-Lan's Carnival" • "Lulu Day" • "Roller Rintoo" • "Wait, Hoho, Wait" | |
| 2 | 2009–10 | 20 | Volume 5: Princess Kai-Lan: October 5, 2010[12] Episodes: "Princess Kai-Lan" • "Lulu's Cloud" • "The Moon Festival" | |
| Year | Award | Category | Recipients and nominees | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Artios Award | Outstanding Achievement in Casting – Animation TV Programming | Sarah Noonan and Meredith Layne | Nominated |
| 2009 | Annie Award | Best Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production | Notes[13] | Nominated |
| 2010 | Daytime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Special Class Animated Program | Sascha Paladino, Mary Harrington, Jeff DeGrandis and Andrew Huebner | Nominated |
The success of Ni Hao, Kai-Lan spawned its own video game series, supported by various gaming consoles and platforms:
The show's success also spawned merchandise. Kai-Lan also made appearances in Nickelodeon Fit, Nickelodeon Dance, Nickelodeon Dance 2, Dora and Kai-Lan's Pet Shelter, and Team Umizoomi & Dora's Fantastic Flight.
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