- Starring
- Josiah Hidalgo, Lucy Capri, Deacon Branscum, Laura Osnes, Rob Schneider
- Creators
- Ethan Nicolle and Eric Branscum
- Rating
- TV-Y
- Genre
- Animation, Children, Education
- Where to watch
- Bentkey
Overall Score
Rating Overview
Rating Summary
If you’re like half of the parents in the country, you dread the idea of your children turning on a “children’s” program on Netflix or, even worse, Disney. Unsure of the lessons that will be overtly or covertly taught to them, many of which directly oppose good mental health, mental acuity, and laws of nature’s God. You’re not alone if you have felt you’ve been on the losing side of a battle for your children’s souls. Enter The Daily Wire’s children’s program app, Bentkey, and one of its flagship cartoons, Chip Chilla.
Chip Chilla
Chip Chilla is a delightful cartoon series about a homeschool family of chinchillas and the adventures they have while teaching and learning valuable lessons. Harkening back to a time when children’s stories were as much about teaching practical and wholesome life lessons as they were entertainment, Chip Chilla is entertaining enough to have my two-year-old son (who only ever wants to watch Paw Patrol and classic Justice Friends cartoons) asking for more.
Whereas many of today’s offerings for small children fall into one of two categories: bright colors and loud noises with no substance or redeeming qualities or bright colors and loud noises with a heaping side of Woke indoctrination, Chip Chilla separates and elevates itself in virtually every respect.
It’s on par with any of the current mainstream two-dimensional animated children’s programs in both production quality and design. Its color palette is rich without being overbearing, and its animation is smooth and pleasing to the eye instead of seizure-inducing. It’s very reminiscent of the popular children’s cartoon Bluey, except you don’t have to worry that the next episode is the one in which Disney will squeeze its “not-so-secret gay agenda” down your child’s throat.
In the 24+ hours since Bentkey’s public release, a few aspersions have been cast at Chip Chilla. Specifically, that it is too reminiscent of Bluey. However, for those critics, we have but two words: Berenstain Bears. For as long as there have been ideas, there have been those who hold similar ones. What matters is what’s done with them.
What most sets Chip Chilla apart from other conservative-leaning cartoons of its type are the writing and voice talents. Often, conservative, especially religious, cartoons will suffer significantly from the shallow talent pool available to them. That said, Bentkey’s flagship toon features none other than recently uncloseted conservative-leaning (i.e., not insane) comedian Rob Schneider, as the titular character’s father, Chum Chum, as well as a host of talented, if unknown voice actor, and Chip Chilla’s vocals are as solid as its animation. Each performer breathes life into their respective character, and the animators are blessedly up to the challenge of giving that breath commensurate physicality.
Further differentiating itself from other mainstream offerings, and probably its most important distinction, are the lessons it teaches. Where Dora The Explorer treats your children like they will never have the capacity to wipe themselves clean, and countless cartoon series exist for no other purpose than to teach the alphabet, Chip Chilla acknowledges that boys learn differently than girls and that the application of science can be energetic and fun, or that you’re not always going to be the best at everything but you can be the best at something, and that hard work (rather than an unwarranted belief in oneself) is the key to achievement.
If we have one criticism of the show, it is that 8 minutes per episode isn’t enough. While there’s no arguing that it makes for a tightly woven program with no fat on it, it would be nice to see it paired with a sister program (e.g., Garfield and Friends).
ROLE MODELS IN CHIP CHILLA
Chip’s mom and dad are loving, thoughtful, and deeply engaged in their children’s lives. They also model traditional gender roles for their children, offering a level of stability that is sorely lacking in many modern homes.
WOKE ELEMENTS
Chip Chilla is the nega-woke.
James Carrick
James Carrick is a passionate film enthusiast with a degree in theater and philosophy. James approaches dramatic criticism from a philosophic foundation grounded in aesthetics and ethics, offering insight and analysis that reveals layers of cinematic narrative with a touch of irreverence and a dash of snark.
11 comments
kay
October 20, 2023 at 8:56 am
The thing with bluey is that it has a good track record and Disney will likely lose it if they sell abc. Disney has rights to air internationally only, it’s not *theirs*. Of course I don’t trust Australia for much but 3 seasons have been solid.
I’ve been wanting to see chip chilla, so many other parents will ask me if I know other shows like bluey exist and I don’t have an answer. My only wish though is that the mom didn’t look like that. She looks more like a grandma than a mom with young kids.
Steven
October 21, 2023 at 11:07 am
Underwhelming, Bluey knockoff for sure. Wish TV could make their own original ideas instead of cheap knockoffs over and over.
Fentanyl Farmer
October 22, 2023 at 10:18 pm
Dude what kind of retard site is this lmao
Chip Chilla aint gonna last for a whole season
James Carrick
October 22, 2023 at 10:29 pm
They’ve already made and released a whole season.
Clem kadiddlehopper
October 25, 2023 at 5:09 pm
DANG DIRN WOKEDEDED CARTONS MAKIN ARE KIDS THANK BEIN NICE AM GOOD BUT ARE LORD AN SAVER TRUMP SAY IT AINT HAIL TRIMP!
James Carrick
October 25, 2023 at 6:26 pm
We think it’s important to leave these moronic troll messages up so that you can know the caliber of person you’re up against.
Fentanyl Enjoyer
November 6, 2023 at 12:36 pm
Thank you king 🤴 You dropped this 👑
Kaleb
October 28, 2023 at 12:01 pm
I don’t think Daily Wire will even be able to come close to what Angel Studios has done for non woke entertainment. Plus, Angel Studios is free!
Melvin shermen
October 31, 2023 at 3:50 am
This one most boring show i ever seen.
Sweet Deals
March 25, 2024 at 10:37 pm
I may be an adult viewer, but I have to admit that I adore Bluey. Although the target audience is preschool children, Bluey has a great deal of cleverness and charm packed neatly into very short episodes. The thing I find special about it is that in many children’s shows, even the good ones, parents are often depicted as aliens who inhabit a world entirely separate from children. What Bluey does really well is show adults and children inhabiting the same world. Children and adults live and play together, often deal with similar conflicts, and can work together and learn from each other to work out their issues. Bluey depicts this in a humorous and heartwarming way with a sense of understanding and experience of what life with small children is like. Bluey also doesn’t shy away from adult-level ideas but still maintains its childhood innocence. Sometimes when I’m feeling sad, I like to run key episodes of Bluey on my computer in the background, especially the ones with plots that are relevant to my current moods.
Chip Chilla wants very badly to be Bluey, but that level of excellence is a high bar to meet. While I appreciate what the show is trying to do, it doesn’t have the same level of cleverness or charm. Many of the episodes tend to stretch a little too hard to make the moral fit the scenario and story elements often feel exaggerated and contrived. I think that the characters in Bluey are annoying in an amusing and relatable way, but the characters in Chip Chilla are just simply annoying. The siblings bicker too much and the father must have wanted to be a theater actor in a previous life; he tends to over-stage his lessons and overplay his parts to make himself look good. (One of the reasons why I admire Bandit Heeler as a father figure is because he intentionally takes frequent pratfalls with grace for the sake of his daughters’ happiness. The way he plays along and allows his daughters to ‘win’ at his expense makes him appear quite heroic despite his imperfections).
In my mind, a good children’s show is like a good children’s game of pretend; it doesn’t simply teach lessons about history or conservative messaging. It should teach us lessons about life and how we live it.
Malvo
April 20, 2024 at 3:30 pm
Watched a coupl episodes with my kid, he seemed to enjoy it. Show was also pretty good in my opinion.