Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Pete The Cat’ On Amazon Prime, Where A Cool Cat Does Cool Things With His Cool Family And Friends

Ever read the Pete The Cat books? If you have young’uns, you definitely have. The bestselling series teaches kids that its cool to be themselves, and to not get to high or low. Now the book series created by James and Kimberly Dean comes to TV, with an Amazon series that has a fantastic musical pedigree. Will the animated version be as cool as the books?

PETE THE CAT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A dog named Neville (Don Was), “a guitar teacher around these parts,” strums his guitar and walks by the house where Pete The Cat and his family live.

The Gist: Pete (Jacob Tremblay) is a blue cat who is cool because he’s just himself most of the time. He rarely talks, mostly communicating through nods, gestures, and his very expressive eyes. He lives with his mother (Diana Krall) dad (Elvis Costello) and super-cool brother Bob (Django Marsh).

In the first segment, it’s picture day at school and Pete is trying to figure out what to wear. He gets suggestions from Bob and his friends Grumpy Toad (Atticus Shaffer), Callie Cat (Alyson Stoner), Sally Squirrel (Juliet Donenfeld) and Emma the Pug (Indie Nameth), all of which make Pete less cool. In the second segment, Pete’s mother encourages him to overcome his fear of surfing.

Most of the segments contain at least one song, and in future episodes, Pete and his friends are in a band. In one of the best ones we saw, Pete feels pressure to write a new song for his band, and is driven to distraction. Bob helps him take this big task and accomplish it by reaching smaller goals. Many of the segments have clear messages about being yourself, accepting others, overcoming fears, and other topics that are key for kids in preschool to early elementary school.

Our Take: We’re huge fans of the Pete The Cat books by James Dean, Kimberly Dean and Eric Litwin. The vibe of those books is chill and the message is consistent: being yourself is the coolest thing you can be. And the series, created by Jeff “Swampy” Marsh (Phineas and Ferb), carries over that vibe in spades.

It helps that people like Krall, Costello and Was are heavily involved. The Pete books have always had a musical bent to them, with Pete strumming his guitar and just hanging out with his friends, never getting too high or low. Costello writes many of the songs on the show, including the theme song (he also sings it). Since Costello and Krall are married IRL as well as in cartoon-land, it’s likely she contributed a lot to the soundtrack, as well. And their influence will bring a lot more musicians out to do voices and contribute music; KT Tunstall does a voice later in the season, for instance.

Pete The Cat certainly doesn’t talk down to its viewers. In fact, it talks up; Grumpy pretends to not care when he does; Callie is super-organized; Emma is from Montreal and loves everything avant garde. Later, a new neighbor moves in, a platypus named Gustavo Orintorrinco (Felix Avitia), who is from Patagonia by way of Mexico and New Jersey. It’s the perfect show for parents who want their kids to appreciate good music and art, and its calm pace is a great antidote to most of what kids see these days.

Another thing: From what we’ve seen, Tremblay’s voice is used sparingly. Pete may say a line at the end of a segment, or he may not say anything at all. Pete doesn’t need to talk; that’s how cool he is. And it works well when put in motion.

What Age Group Is This For?: This show will definitely appeal to the 3-8 crowd.

Sleeper Star: This is the third show we’ve heard Shaffer’s voice (the other two being Harvey Street Kids and The Lion Guard; he’s also in Steven Universe). It’s great to see that The Middle‘s Brick has a thriving voice over career, but his voice is so distinctive that we know who it is right away. Of course, we’re not the intended audience.

Our Call: STREAM IT. It’s cool, the music is great, and everyone involved knows that its audience is whip smart.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Watch Pete The Cat on Amazon Prime Video