Morphle

Morphle comes off as a show for preschoolers made by someone who has never met a preschooler. Some of the stories are benign but the plots are so minimal that they will leave parents scratching their heads. Mixed in between those scenes are stories that will at best set poor behavior examples, and at worst scare sensitive kids. The kid characters are all kind, but disconcertingly many of the adults are problematic. There are the "Muddy Bandits" who go way beyond the Swiper-esque preschool villain and use a wrecking ball to destroy people's houses. There's Mr. Vanderbooz, a grumpy old man who routinely puts down Mila by saying things like "building a tree house is difficult, there's no way you can do that" in a mean tone. Mila's own parents, in a kids versus adults water balloon contest, say, "We're going to win, they're just little kids." And then there's the recurring Orphle character, who is Morphle's troublemaker alter ego. He only does naughty things without consequences, and it's up to Morphle to fix his mistakes.

There are also some scenes that may be legitimately scary to young kids. One example is Mila's dad being stranded at the top of a very wobbly tall tower. He looks afraid and says, "Get me down from here. Don't leave me alone." The story ends there, with absolutely no resolution of a scary scenario. Also, each episode is around an hour long, which is not best suited for preschoolers' attention spans.

There are so many excellent shows for preschoolers out there, with fabulous characters and stories that are guided by child development experts. Parents should skip Morphle and check out something thaey can feel great about their child watching.