Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Lovely Little Farm’ On Apple TV+, An Adorable Series About Two Sisters’ Lives On A Farm Where Some Of The Animals Talk

It’s no secret that kids’ programming these days is often loud and annoying. For every Bluey or El Deafo that’s thoroughly enjoyable even if you don’t have kids, there’s a dozen noisy PAW Patrol clones. So we actually get excited when a laid-back kids’ show comes along. A new Apple series has that laid-back vibe, plus lots of animals, both real and animated. Will your kids like it?

LOVELY LITTLE FARM: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A girl covers her eyes and counts. She’s playing hide and seek, but she’s actually looking for a goat instead of a person.

The Gist: Jill (Levi Howden) has all of her favorite friends living in her room, namely goats and chickens. But her father Jonas (Micah Balfour) reminds her that all the animals have to be put back outside, because Jill’s little sister Jacky (Kassidi Roberts) is moving in. They’re making room for the new baby that Jill’s mom Jenna (Cicely Giddings) is pretty close to delivering.

She reluctantly brings her friends outside and tries to find them all new homes. Two seem to be particularly against being relocated: Al Alpaca (Joel Fry voice, Jeremiah Krage body, Phill Woodfine puppeteer) and Pickle Pony (Dominique Moore voice, Nick Kellington body, Susan Beattie puppeteer). Oh, did we mention that the two of them happen to talk?

As she tries to get everyone comfortable in their new homes, she puts Al and Pickle in the barn, but the current occupant, a talking duckling named Quackety Duck Duck (Shirley Henderson) doesn’t like it one bit, and the stall Jill chose seems a bit, um, cozy. But then her grandfather Jamma (Barry McCarthy) comes around with a very pregnant sheep named Baabara. The mom-to-be goes in where Al and Pickle were, Al and Pickle get a bigger stall with a view of Jacky and Jill’s room, and everyone’s happy on the first day of Jill’s “lovely little farm.”

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Lovely Little Farm is reminiscent of old “kids with animals” shows like Lassie, but with talking animals like on the various Muppet projects, including Sesame Street.

Our Take: Created by Maddy Darrall and Billy Macqueen, Lovely Little Farm was made in the UK, with British actors, but it’s really supposed to represent a farm just about anywhere. It’s got a dreamy quality about it, with dust and feathers and fur flying around all the scenes like it’s a gentle snow. Conflict is minimal; the biggest issues are what to name Jill and Jacky’s baby brother and the status of a massive golden egg that Jill finds in the barn.

By all measures, it’s an adorable show, with two very personable girls at its center. The scenery is fantastic, with most outdoor scenes seemingly shot during the “magic hour” right after sunrise or right before sunset, giving everything an additional dream-like sheen. Jamma provides wise counsel to his grandkids, the parents love their kids’ love of animals and of course, all of the animals — real and talking — are cute as all get out. It’s one of those shows that parents will watch because it’s gentle and laid back and not in your face. In other words, it’s the anti-PAW Patrol.

Do the animatronic pony and llama — the two of them and the CGI duck are courtesy of Industrial Light and Magic — look real? Close, but not really. There seemed to be a desire among the producers to purposely make them a bit of a puppet-like manner, and we’d imagine it’s to give the show’s young viewers the ability to differentiate the animals that talk from the real ones. Given how cute Al and Pickles are, we’ll give them a pass, especially given the expert voice performances that went with the animatronic puppeteering and what we assume is full-body costume work.

What Age Group Is This For?: Our 7-year-old daughter hoovered up the first four episodes, finding the animals completely captivating. Given the show is TV-Y, it seems like it would be good for all ages.

Parting Shot: Jill leaves Al and Pickles to go to sleep at night, and to care for the golden egg she just found. The egg lies between them.

Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to the animals, the real ones and the ILM-created ones. They’re so cute they’re going to make every kid watching beg their parents to move to a farm.

Most Pilot-y Line: Jill mistakenly calls Quackety Duck Duck “Duckety Quack Quack.” And the duckling very officiously corrects her. “It’s Quackety Duck Duck.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Lovely Little Farm is one of those kids’ shows that you can feel good about your kid watching, mainly because it looks great, it’s got a relaxing pace, and it’s full of adorable animals.

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, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.