Clockwise, starting with the green one: Iso, Cini, Vihi, Puna, and Kelta
Buddi is a surreal preschool show on Netflix, in the vein of Teletubbies and Boohbah, except with no dialog. Five friends explore various landscapes while communicating exclusively in baby talk. That’s it. Still, even the most plotless of media can adhere to tropes.
Oh! *Giggle* Ooo:
- All There in the Manual: The characters names are never said in the series proper, only in the Netflix descriptions.
- Ambiguous Gender: It’s impossible to tell if each character is a boy or a girl, especially because they don’t even really speak.
- Born from Plants: Cini, apparently. They roll around in and pop out of a seed sometimes.
- Intelligible Unintelligible: Everyone! All the characters speak in babble, and yet they have no trouble interacting. Presumably, this is because it’s a show for kids who are just learning to talk, as well as to make the show accessible to kids all over the world. In-universe, the friends may very well be actual babies.
- Minimalism: There’s no dialog, and the plots usually boil down to “Let’s play with this new toy!” or “one of the friends is sad!”
- Minimalist Cast: It’s just the five friends and no one else.
- No Plot? No Problem!: It has absolutely no proper plot whatsoever.
- Sugar Bowl: There’s barely any conflict at all, this being a show that is literally for babies.
- There Are No Adults: Assuming the characters are children, this trope is in play.
- The Symbiote: Kelta sometimes sits on top of (or inside of?) Puna. Very convenient, as Kelta has an arm but no legs, and Puna the opposite. However, they can detach from each other too.
- Talking with Signs: Cini can make word balloons with symbols come out of their head.
- Waddling Head: Cini, and also Kelta when not attached to Puna. In their cases, it’s more like bouncing head.
