Kiri and Lou is a stop-motion preschool series about Gentle Giant Lou and spunky dinosaur Kiri. They live in a prehistoric New Zealand forest and spend their days making new friends, playing games, and exploring their world. The show has a quirky sense of humor and a stellar voice cast, including Jemaine Clement as Lou. The characters are animated in claymation with paper cut-out backgrounds.
The show first aired on TVNZ in New Zealand. In the UK, you can find it on Cbeebies, and in the U.S., it airs on Nick Jr. You can also find the show on Paramount+.
It’s time to have fun with Kiri and Lou (and these tropes):
- Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: In “Afraid”, Lou mispronounces Sara as “Seer-ah”. (The threatening dinosaur says “It’s Saar-ah!”)
- Aerith and Bob: The show has characters with “typical” names like Lou and Kevin, but there’s also many fantastical names like Kiri, Pania, Sorry, Pants, and Dalvanius.
- Ambiguous Gender: Pants is referred to as "she" in promotional material, but they pee standing up.
- Art Shift: The forest was much more saturated in the first season.
- The art style in “Refreshing” is much pointier and the characters’ movements are stiff, while later episodes depict the characters as rounded and their movements are much smoother. Doubles as Early-Installment Weirdness.
- Ascended Fanboy: Small went from just being a Once per Episode Freeze-Frame Bonus in early episodes to becoming friends with Kiri and Lou in the episode "Small" and also becoming a significant part of the cast.
- Big Eater: Lou, a very large creature, loves to eat. Plots often revolve around Lou having to control his appetite. Pania can pack it away, too - though she notes she’s a “strict vegetarian”.
- Careful with That Axe: Kiri sings a gentle song to wake up Lou…until she gets to the LOUD BITS and shouts in his face.
- Chameleon Camouflage: Dalvanius, a green rabbit-like creature, has this ability. Kiri reminds him that he isn’t allowed to camouflage while they’re playing hide-and-seek.
- Cute Little Fangs: Sorry’s buckteeth and Small’s fangs add to their cuteness.
- Fang Thpeak: Sorry's fang-like buckteeth make her pronounce the letter S like "th".
- Fear Song: In “Afraid”, Lou’s calm inner voice tells him it’s okay to be afraid when he gets lost in an unfamiliar part of the forest at night. The voice encourages Lou to say “I’m afraid, and that’s okay” to help him be brave. Lou repeats this to himself and then starts singing it. Creatures wake up and tell him to quit singing because he’ll wake Sara, a giant dinosaur. Lou brushes them off and keeps singing, waking up Sara. Then all of the creatures sing Lou’s song as they run away from Sara. One creature admits it does help them feel better.
- Friendship Song: Kiri and Lou sing “When it Comes to the Crunch”, about how their differences make them the best of friends, in “Biggest Fight Ever”.
- Genki Girl: Kiri is full of excitement and is always ready to play.
- Gentle Giant: Lou is a kindhearted purple elephant/mammoth. Official synopses of the show often describe him as a “gentle creature”.
- Grandmotherly dinosaur Pania also counts.
- In “What’s It Like to Be a Tree?”, Kiri and Lou meet a friendly giant bird named Moa. He gives them a ride so they can see the mountains.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: The characters speak English, but sometimes slip into Māori language. They greet each other with “Kia ora,” meaning “have life” or “be healthy”, according to The Other Wiki.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Kiri experiences this often. In “Especially Special Day”, Kiri becomes jealous of Lou when Dalvanius and Sorry tell her they want to give Lou an especially special day. Kiri is quite literally consumed by jealousy, making her body twist inward. She runs away and Pania encourages her to think of what Lou would like as a present. This causes Kiri to shift her thoughts from herself to her friend, finally returning to normal.
- Greek Chorus: Three little birds follow Kiri around whenever she has a problem and sing about how she’s feeling, annoying her. They’re also not very encouraging. In “Stuck”, when Kiri is stuck to a tree, they sing about how she’ll be stuck there forever with them - while building a nest on her head!
- "I Am" Song: A bird sings about her great beauty and vanity in the song “Extraordinary Bird”.
- "I Am Great!" Song: In “Ready Set Go”, Kiri sings “I’m the Best”, about how she is the best at being a friend.
- Insistent Terminology: Whenever someone calls Kiri a lizard (she is a tuatara), she corrects them, saying that she is a dinosaur.
- Insomnia Episode: Kiri can’t fall asleep in “Who’s Sleepy Now?”, so Pania sings her a lullaby. The lyrics say whoever listens to the song must stay awake until the end. Kiri, of course, falls asleep before the song is through.
- Overly Long Name: Lou bumps into a tiny insect called Thats, which is short for “That’s okay don’t worry about it”.
- In “Shamalama”, Kiri and Lou meet a bird named Shamalamalama Awhicketty Bongbong Badabling Bling Bling Bling Woggletoes Kaprootski. She tells them, “My friends just call me Shama.”
- Pep-Talk Song: When Dalvanius feels self-conscious of his rabbit-like ears, Kiri and Lou encourage him through the song “Amazing Ears”.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Kiri is the red oni, being athletic, emotional, and irrational, while Lou is the blue oni, being deliberate, calm, and thoughtful.
- Running Gag: Whenever someone apologizes, Sorry appears, thinking someone’s called her name.
- The little birds asking Kiri if they can sing with her and Kiri shooing them away.
- Sleepyhead: Lou can take a nap just about anywhere.
- Strictly Formula: Although not every episode follows a formula, some do. Super Sticky Situation and Flowery Island have identical plots. So do A Lovely Nap and One Summer's Morning. And let's not forget The Something Something, Super Sniffer and Breakfast!
- Super-Hearing: Dalvanius can hear anything with his amazing ears. The episode “Listen” reveals he can hear extremely quiet noises and know exactly what they are, like Small sweeping her apartment.
- Super-Speed: Sorry's species is extremely fast.
- That Reminds Me of a Song: When Kiri tells the little birds to leave her alone in “Hide and Seek” and “Camouflage”, they fly away and launch into a musical number with no bearing on the plot. Specifically, one bird tells the others they should “sing the song our mumma/dadda taught us”.
- Verbal Tic: Lou adds the letter “s” to certain words; “I’s-a coming!” (I’m coming), “I knows” (I know), etc.
