Animation
Disney Junior’s Ariel
Disney Junior’s Ariel is so kid-friendly, even the sea witch is now the friendly and soulful Tauntie Ursula.
It’s Bluey… but not quite.
Like Bluey, Chip Chilla features a family that learns lessons together while still having fun all together.
But while the creators of Bluey recently added a minor character with two moms, Chip Chilla is a product of Bentkey (which in turn is an offshoot of The Daily Wire). And Bentkey is determined to keep its shows agenda free.
Chip Chilla is not free of messages altogether, though. When Chip’s dad yells “It’s Chilla time,” you can be sure you’ll learn something in the next 8-9 minutes. Through their many small adventures, the Chilla family learns valuable lessons about bravery, responsibility, how to stand up for oneself, and how to tell the truth.
This homeschooled family of chinchillas often learns these lessons from semi-reenactments of famous stories, such as Moby Dick, The Odyssey and the tale of Wyatt Earp at the O.K. Corral.
Some careful viewers may notice that Chip and Charla share a room as brother and sister.
Everything always works out in the end for Chip and his chinchilla family, and that makes this show a refreshing, and mostly worry-free, watch. But in real life, that doesn’t always happen. Talking with your kids about persevering through adversity while using the good virtues and attitudes presented in the show may be a wise conversation to have alongside watching.
You won’t find any socially progressive messaging in this Bentkey show. And the episodes can be a springboard for conversation, parallelling the lessons learned in the show with how they are taught in the Bible.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at [email protected], or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Chinny (mom) just grew a beautiful flower, but despite Chip’s watchful eye and Charla’s careful watering, the flower was ruined.
Both kids immediately blame each other before they are told they need to separate “your truth” from “the truth” (not biblically, but factually in this case).
As far as Chip’s dad is concerned, there’s only one way to determine that. Putting a mop on his head and grabbing a small wooden hammer, the court of Judge Chum Chum is in session.
Once Chinny finds out the truth, Chip and Charla realize that just believing something to be true doesn’t make it true.
Both are deemed guilty (seemingly for lying) and are tasked to replant the flower.
Charla is convinced that she can only be really good at one thing. She even believes that she should quit gymnastics to focus more on her cello practice (the cello being her “one thing”).
Her dad, storming into the room in full Benjamin Franklin attire, has other plans for her afternoon.
Each member of the Chilla family plays a different version of Franklin (the scientist, the founding father, the author, the fashion icon, the inventor and the musician), before Charla realizes that she can also focus on a lot of things.
The episode features one of Chip Chilla’s rare moments of “violence,” this time a rambunctious pillow fight.
Chip is bored. The Chillas’ car had broken down on the way to Adventure Island and they’re stuck on the side of the road for a whole hour, waiting for the mechanic.
While the other chinchillas make the most of the time, pretending to explore and adventure in a far-away land, Chip becomes a lugubrious Robinson Chipcrusoe, stranded on the island, journaling about his plight.
Even the “warm, comforting glow of the screen” on his tablet could not sustain his boredom when the battery dies.
Eventually, Chip learns the other way to be Chipcrusoe: to find fun in the boredom, letting the remaining time fly by as he plays with an abandoned tire.
At the beginning of the episode, it is implied that the Chillas are going to Adventure Island because of “years of begging.” Once there, it seems like the kids will get whatever they want, even booing mom’s healthy snacks in favor of dad’s promises of deep-fried treats.
Caleb Gottry is the Plugged In intern for Summer 2024. Caleb studies journalism with a minor in music at Texas Christian University, where he will be a junior in the fall. He loves playing with words, listening to and making music, and spending any spare time with friends or family.
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