Rosie has a lot that she wants to know...
Can you mail a cat to your Abuela's house in Mexico?
How do stores get food, can you pogo stick to the moon?
She's got a lot to learn, and when she does, they're Rosie's rules!
— Theme Song
Rosie's Rules is a 9 Story Media Group cartoon commissioned by PBS Kids. The series is created by Jennifer Hamburg and debuted on PBS stations on October 3, 2022.
The star of the show is Rosie Fuentes, a 5-year-old Mexican-American girl who lives with her blended family in suburban Texas. Rosie wants to know everything about everything, and embarks on a never-ending quest to understand the world's mystifying concepts. The answers to her questions become her "rules". The series is designed to teach social studies in a preschooler-friendly fashion, featuring civics and economics, geography, history, and different cultures.
Read the press release here
. Also see the show's official website on pbskids.org, featuring the theme song and character bios. WGCU has a video playlist with sneak peeks here.
Rosie's Rules provides examples of:
- A Dog Named "Cat": Crystal names her bunny 'Dragon.'
- A Dog Named "Perro": Rosie's sidekick is a cat named Gatita, which means "kitten" in Spanish.
- Affectionate Nickname: Rosie's mom calls her "Rosie Posie."
- All Girls Like Ponies: Rosie loves unicorns, and wanted to buy a unicorn squeaky toy for Crystal's bunny.
- Animal Jingoism: Gatita is scared of Benito, a dog. However, they become friends later on.
- Artistic License: In "Cat Mail," Maya the mail carrier agrees to send Gatita in the mail. However, mailing live animals is prohibited in real life, with the exception of poultry and small, cold-blooded animals. Gatita is neither of those things.
- Baby Talk: Iggy calls his big sister Rosie "Wosie".
- Beach Episode: In "Rosie's Seashell Museum," Rosie and her family go to the beach, and Rosie wants to make a trade for a purple seashell that Crystal has.
- Birthday Episode: It's Abuela's birthday in "Abuela's Birthday," which involves Rosie attempting to mail a party to her in Mexico City.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: This only happens when Rosie tells the viewers her 'rules' and informs them of the current situation she's in and how she genuinely feels about it. And unlike previous PBS Kids shows, Rosie isn't aware of the viewers and also doesn't ask for help.
- Brick Joke: In "Cat Mail," Abuela describes Gatita as soft like a cotton ball. Towards the end of the episode, Rosie gets the idea to mail a picture of Gatita made out of cotton balls to Abuela.
- By the Lights of Their Eyes: Used in the Electricity Song in "Lights Out Rosie" to show how there used to be no electricity.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Crystal always calls her father 'Marco,' but this isn't out of rudeness, it's because he's her step-father.
- Camping Episode: In "Rosie Goes Camping," Rosie and Iggy go on their first camping trip.
- Character Catchphrase:
- Rosie - "Well, that's new information!", "I need to flop," "Mama macaroni!", "Wait a secamadoodle."
- When Marco says "Que pasa, calabaza?" note , Rosie says "Nada, empanada." note
- When Beatriz says "Adios, granito de arroz" note Rosie says "Ciao, bacalao"note
- Chekhov's Gun: The backpack in "Rosie the Dog Sitter." Rosie pet-sits Benito for the day and is given a backpack. Later, Rosie realizes that the backpack has things that Benito needs.
- Companion Cube: Iggy has a stuffed axolotl named Lote, and sometimes blames his actions on the toy.Rosie: Iggy! Did you eat one of our ingredients?!Iggy: Lote did it.
- Cool Aunt: Tía Margarita is exuberant about pretty much everything. She also owns a Mexican fusion restaurant.
- Cool Big Sis: Rosie's older step-sister, Crystal, uses her creative spirit to help Rosie solve problems.
- Crunchtastic: Rosie frequently uses 'supertastical' and 'wowmazing.'
- Decided by One Vote: In "Family Sports Day," the family votes for what sport to play. Rosie and Liz vote for basketball, and Marco and Crystal vote for soccer. Finally, Iggy votes for soccer, causing it to win.
- Delayed Reaction: In "Cat Mail," Rosie sends Gatita in the mail, and says goodbye to her as the mail truck leaves. Rosie's papá does the same until he realizes what he just said.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Rosie shouts the show's title twice during the opening.
- Double Take: In "Rosie's Twin Day," Rosie tells Marco that she's going to find a twin. To that, Marco says "Muy bien," only to then go "Wait, what?"
- Edutainment Show: The series features a social studies curriculum conveyed by character-driven narratives.
- Episode Title Card: Every episode has a title card accompanied by a small piece of animation, along with Rosie saying its name.
- Expository Theme Tune: The theme song talks about how Rosie wants to figure out everything.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Quinn and Jun sometimes do this.Quinn: We might be twins, but we're two different kids!Jun: Even if we do sometimes finish...Quinn: ...each other's sentences!
- "Getting Ready for Bed" Plot: "Iggy's Bedtime" is about Rosie helping to put Iggy to bed with his special routine.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Rosie frequently uses Spanish words, due to her Mexican heritage.
- Hair Reboot: In "Chef Rosie," Rosie accidentally spills water on Iggy's head. He dries it, causing it to get poofy, and as soon as he puts his chef hat back on, it returns to its normal style.
- Half-Identical Twins: The recurring characters Quinn and Jun Liu are identical twins, except Quinn is a boy and Jun is a girl.
- Human Mail: Well, Cat Mail, but one episode appropriately titled "Cat Mail" involves Rosie trying to mail Gattita to Mexico.
- In-Series Nickname: Rosie is a nickname for "Rosalía." Only Margarita and Beatriz (Abuela) use her full name.
- Iris Out: "Cat Mail" ends with a heart iris.
- Kids Love Dinosaurs: Iggy likes playing dinosaurs, and has a dinosaur scooter helmet.
- Kiddie Kid: Crystal boasts about how she's 12 and very grown up, only to squeal seconds later when she sees balloon animals. Justified, as a preschool show requires that pretty much everyone act childish.
- Known by the Postal Address: In "Abuela's Birthday," Rosie learns that her address is 26 Holden Street, San Antonio, TX. Meanwhile, Abuela's address is Bolivos 104, Mexico City.
- Ladies and Germs:
- From "Chef Rosie": "Ladies and gentlemen, and all the other kinds of people in this family."
- From "The Cake-Off": "Ladies and gentle-bakers."
- Leitmotif: There's a certain "tick-tock" theme that plays before Rosie flops.
- Musical World Hypotheses: It falls under the All In Their Heads Hypothesis because Rosie's songs are always sung against a colorful backdrop and feature fantastical elements.
- Occidental Otaku: Crystal might be an anime fan if this◊ Freeze-Frame Bonus in "Rosie's Seashell Museum" is anything to go by. In her notebook, she drew what appears to be a purple-haired Sailor Moon.
- Once per Episode:
- Rosie sings the "I've Gotta Know" song to begin each story.Rosie: I have a great big question / And I just can't let it go / Yo quiero saberlo / I really gotta knooooow!
- When Rosie feels overwhelmed, she flops to calm herself down.
- In every episode, Rosie video chats with her Abuela.
- Rosie sings the "I've Gotta Know" song to begin each story.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Crystal, Rosie, and Margarita take turns wearing a poofy dress in "Sister Surprise."
- Power Outage Plot: In "Lights Out Rosie," the power goes out in the Fuentes house. Rosie and her cousin Javi learn about what people used to do before electricity.
- Precious Puppy: Everyone considers Benito, Tia Margarita's dog, to be adorable. Well, except Gatita.
- Record Needle Scratch: Happens in "Family Sports Day," when Rosie realizes that soccer won the majority vote and not basketball, which she voted for.
- Running Gag: In "The Cake-Off," a running gag is Iggy using the ballot box as a car.
- Single-Minded Twins: Subverted in "Rosie's Twin Day." Quinn and Jun do everything in sync at first, but then show Rosie how they are different from each other, and tell her about how they don't always do everything together. For example, Quinn likes looking at bugs, but Jun likes climbing trees.
- Slice of Life: Focuses on the everyday life of a Mexican-American girl and the questions she has about the world around her.
- Stock Footage: The animation of Rosie starting the "I've Gotta Know" song is virtually the same every episode, with her clothes and the background changing to fit the situation.
- Stop Copying Me: In "Rosie's Twin Day," Rosie wants to be Crystal's twin, so she tries to copy everything she does.
- Strictly Formula: Every episode has the same structure. There's something happening, and Rosie sings the "I've Gotta Know" song. Later, after making a few mistakes, Rosie video chats with her Abuela for help. When tensions are high, Rosie flops to calm herself down. The problem is solved, and Rosie sings a song about the episode's topic.
- Surprise Party: In "Sister Surprise," Rosie learns that a 'sister surprise' party is being planned, and thinks it is for Crystal since she's a sister. It was actually for Liz, the sister of Uncle Steve. Rosie learns about how you can be more than one thing in a family, like how Liz is a mom, a sister, and a wife.
- Third-Person Person: Iggy speaks in the third person, since he is so young.
- Title Theme Tune: The title of the show is repeated in the theme song at least thrice.
- Tomboy: Jun likes tennis and has short hair, to the point where viewers might assume she's a boy.
- Tomboyish Baseball Cap: Jun wears a backwards baseball cap.
- True Blue Femininity: The artsy Crystal wears a blue denim jacket. Liz also wears blue.
- Two Shorts: Uses the AAB structure, where A is an 11-minute story and B is a randomized short segment; it can be anything from Iggy playing with his trains to Liz telling stories.
- Unusual Euphemism: Rosie often says "Mama macaroni!"
- You Are the Translated Foreign Word: Abuela describes Gatita as "una bola de algodon," which Rosie translates as "a cotton ball" for the audience.
- Youthful Freckles: Several young characters have freckles such as Rosie, Iggy, and the Liu twins.
Rosie's Rule: TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life.
