They arrived without warning. Who are they ? Toy catalogs for the end of year holidays. They will pass from the bottom of your mailbox into the hands of your children, ready to make their selection. But what will they ask for this year? The winning trio on the French toy market, according to The toy reviewit’s V-tech Baby, Pokémon, Barbie and the… Paw Patrol (Paw Patrol in original version).
Yes, Ryder and his little four-legged friends may be leaving the small and big screen – the second film in the franchise has been in theaters for a week – to hang out in your house. The dream ? Rather the nightmare of certain parents, who responded to our call for testimonies, like Aurélie: “my 3 year old son watches PJ Masks And Paw Patrol, I don’t know which one annoys me the most.” And as happiness never comes alone, his daughter, like those of Incanti and Léa, is addicted to Miraculous: The Adventures of Ladybug and Cat Noir.
The obsession Paw Patrol
The more obsessed the child is, the greater the glory of the parents for supporting him. Several of our readers have “alerted” us to the madness Paw Patrol. The cartoon phenomenon has been broadcast for ten years in 170 countries, including France. Between September 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023, the animated series recorded an average audience share of 40% on TF1 among the target children aged 4 to 10, analyzes the Médiamétrie measurement institute.
And according to a study carried out in 2019 by Licensing Internationalproducts representing Chase, Stella, Marcus, Zuma, Rocky and Ruben are the most popular in the world with toddlers, ahead of Mickey Mouse and Snow Queen : 90% of boys aged between 4 and 10 know them, 83% of girls. “It’s almost an obsession” for my 4-year-old son, Charlène writes to us. And the canine superhero team isn’t just on TV and social media. “Books, stuffed animals, yogurts, cakes, shoes, clothes… There are them in every department when you go shopping. It’s amazing how over-the-top marketing to children is. To the great dismay of the parents,” describes Charlène. Same story for Karima whose 3 and a half year old son has an inordinate love for a “little bus Paw Patrol that he never poses.” “If I want to punish him, I confiscate his bus,” confides the mother.
SOS parents at their end
It is therefore not enough to turn off the TV for the ordeal to end. Freddy’s daughter’s favorite cartoon, The Sisters, has become a source of… nonsense. “They do the same stupid things at home with his brother!” », said the dad. And “the music that annoys us is in Blue and his friends », he adds. “Here it’s Fireman Sam!” So much so that he falls asleep with fire trucks in his hands, takes them anywhere and says pin-pon all day,” testifies Clémence. At Nat’s, it’s “Peppa Pig, Hello Kitty, Paw Patrol and Titounis”. “We hear them all day long with their figurines and toys,” she says.
In the category of “mind-numbing” cartoons, according to our readers, we find Spongebob. “Her voice is unbearable,” says Anne-Laure, who is also tired by The Rabbids. For Nicolas, the yellow sea sponge is “fundamentally stupid”, even if “the worst is Peppa Pig “, according to him. Carine also tries to distract her son from the little pig and his family “which he wants to watch systematically, over and over”. Maëva, she can’t take it anymore Hey, Oua-Oua. “The characters are stupid and my children now call the dogs Oua-Oua, even though they all know how to say dog perfectly,” she gets annoyed. “I’m also not talking about the thoughts of people who ask them if they say Moo-Moo for the cows.”
And what about the supreme cartoons aka Disney? For Marc, it’s a horror: “It’s already getting on my nerves that they sing for a good half but it continues when the children (at least my niece) repeat the choruses until bedtime.” Good luck, there are 67 days until Christmas.