Caillou and Dora: The Teenage Years is a black comedy-drama web series created by Michael Mixer Mason, using Plotagon. The show focuses on Caillou and Dora, as teenage criminal misfits. They experience typical teenage struggles, coupled with dodging the police and committing crime. The show premiered on April 30, 2015 and ended on December 21, 2020 with seven seasons, three movies, and 100 episodes.
The show began akin to most Grounded series on GoAnimate, with Caillou and Dora doing something bad and their parents grounding them for it. The premise was switched up for the second season, with complex story arcs and emotional scenes. Most of the arcs in Seasons 2 and 3 were mainly comedic with a hint of seriousness, but with Season 4, the show began tackling issues such as abandonment, teen pregnancy, and harassment. Season 6 briefly returned to the first season's formula before switching back into more dramatic fare.
Due to the show's growing fanbase, three movies were produced. The Paradini Chronicles, released on February 14, 2016, was focused on a story arc involving Boots and his manipulation of Dora. The second movie, Life Is Sweet, was released on February 8, 2018. The film focused on Caillou and Dora infecting the town with a dangerous disease, and going on a quest to cure them. A third movie, entitled Property Damage, takes place a year after the Season 6 finale and involve Caillou and Dora living on their own and facing challenges as a couple. It was released on May 3, 2020.
This show provides examples of:
- Arson, Murder, and Jay Walking: A frequent comedic device in the series.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Boots thinks this is the root of Caillou and Dora's relationship.
- Art Evolution: Very subtle, but Plotagon’s animation has improved since the series started in 2015. Some of the movements have became more fluid, and the overall quality has stepped up. These changes start to take place in Season 5.
- Black Comedy:
- This is the main style of humor of the show. Characters being killed, dying, and abusing each other is often played for laughs. Even in serious events, a character will make a tasteless joke about the situation. Parents will often discuss how their children are better off without them while they're in the room.
- The series often switches between playing a tragic situation for drama, and playing it for dark laughs - occasionally in the same scene.
- Some Season 6 episodes have jokes concerning school shootings, although certain ones that were deemed "too far" have been removed.
- Black Comedy Rape
- Boris admits in The Paradini Chronicles that he was raped by a possum.
- Although Gwen drugging Caillou and then raping him is taken seriously, she makes plenty of jokes about it throughout the series.
- Cerebus Syndrome:
- Starting in Season 2, more dramatic elements creep into the series. These start to get heavier in Season 4, where stronger topics such as teen pregnancy, kidnapping, and emotional manipulation are discussed.
- Season 6 briefly returns to the more comedic formula of the first season before diving into darker themes.
- The 7th Season has episodes that are straightforward drama, with little to no comedic elements.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Gwen's general carelessness for others is played for laughs in the more comedic episodes, but taken seriously in the dramatic ones. This also occurs with Boris, to a lesser extent.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Dora gives one to Leo in "Found".
- Crapsack World: Titusville is a corrupt city full of cruel or careless adults, and crime is rampant.
- Crossover: A few have happened with Michael Mixer Mason's other series, Zara And Erika.
- Darker and Edgier: Starting in Season 4, with stronger theme and harsher language. The movies are also more vulgar than a typical episode of the show.
- Seasons 6 & 7 also have an increase in violence and takes more of the shows' issues seriously, rather than playing them for laughs.
- Fun with Acronyms: Kai-Lan's animal help program is called (S)aving (H)elpless (I)nscets (T)oday
- Lighter and Softer: Caillou and Dora: Middle School is more lighthearted and less vulgar than this series. In fact, some episodes of it are rated TV-G, in comparison to the TV-14 (sometimes TV-PG) rating of this series.
- Limited Animation: Well, it is made with Plotagon.
- N-Word Privileges: Caillou and Dora think they have these in Episode 5, but are sadly mistaken.
- Precision F-Strike: The only F-Bomb in Season 1 is Caillou saying "Fuck The Police".
- Seinfeldian Conversation: Used frequently in the later seasons of the show and the two movies.
- Show Within a Show: "Stranded", a kiddy sitcom with Boris, is introduced in Season 6.
- Spin-Off: Caillou and Dora: Middle School.
- Strictly Formula: The first season is mainly a grounded series, similar to those on GoAnimate. Seasons 3 and 6 have episodes that briefly return to this formula.
- Take That!:
- Some of the promotional material takes jabs at Zara and Erika.
- In "The Crime Committee", Cody is excited to possibly star in a movie until the producer mentions that it is a Disney movie. He changes Disney to Nickelodeon, and Cody is excited again.
- In "The Field Trip" Sarah says to Dora, "Don't disrespect the dead, you're not Logan Paul".
- In "The Fun Center" Molly suggests that the crew go to Starbucks, and Clementine says, "Fuck that place". This is a reference to the incident where two black men in Philadelphia were arrested at Starbucks and denied access to the bathroom.
- The Movie: Three - The Paradini Chronicles, Life Is Sweet,and Property Damage, which was the most successful.
- The Stoner: It is implied, at times, that Boots and Little Bill smoke marijuana together.
- Vulgar Humor: Used every now and then, but more often in the movies.
