When Caillou aired globally, it became a phenomenon in Turkey of all places, earning a place in many people's hearts and being fondly remembered there today. In turn, the Turks were inspired by the themes encouraged by that show to create their own children's series that both adults and kids could enjoy - and it was this one.
Can is a Turkish animated series that began running in 2015, and lasted for a total of 65 episodes. It was produced by SER Film Productions and aired on the channel Yumurcak TV. The series focuses on the titular Can (Turkish for "life"), an adorable bristle-haired wide-eyed five year old who lives with his enthusiastic older brother Murat, his curious little sister Meryam, his loving mother and doting father, and ever so wise-and-wholesome grandmother. He's also close to his friends from school, who often try to help him solve problems together. Each episode follows the daily adventures of Can interacting with his community and learning new things, or seeing new perspectives with his friends.
The series has an official Facebook
page.
Can has examples of:
- All-CGI Cartoon: The assets are CGI but the character animations are obviously motion-capped. The credits list Okyay Sahin as the motion cap supervisor and Sabahattin Aslan and Muhammad Turkyilmaz as the motion cap actors.
- Art Shift: When Can shows his story book to the audience, the art style shifts to a paper 2D style that portray the characters as puppets.
- Close-Knit Community: Can's neighborhood. Kids arrive at each other's houses unprompted, all the adults know each child and vice versa, whenever a party happens everyone is invited (no matter how distant they are) and the grumpy neighbors are seen interacting with others from time to time. Stranger danger is practically non-existent, with Can & Co. accepting gifts and such from adults with no issue.
- Edutainment Show: Meant to teach kids aesops, social skills, animal care and plant care. Can himself either learns or preaches a moral lesson by the end of every episode.
- Eye Catch: A hot air balloon with Can's name on it serves as a transition in every episode.
- Green Aesop: One episode focuses on Can becoming obsessed with owning his own plant after seeing his mother's affinity with them. He finds out that he is not prepared - watering your flower too much can kill it.
- Limited Animation: The CGI assets fall into this. The "bushes" are blatantly ugly green spheres, the buildings always use the same generic model and several parts of the background look like an unfinished video game. Also, Can's bed appears to be made of Lego bricks. Along the fact that mocap animation is used (as opposed to animation models) it's clear the show was made on a budget.
- Local Hangout: For Can and his friends, it's the playground. They often play basketball or football there, or plain hang out to discuss their lives.
- Medium Blending: Whenever Can is deep into his song, his character model contrasts over a different animation of a paper storybook.
- No Antagonist: Everyone in Can's neighborhood and community is kind and caring, even the ones who seem grumpy and harsh at first.
- Once an Episode: A musical segment; Can will sing a song about what happened in the episode in front of a mock stage.
- Protagonist Title: The show is named after Can.
- Very Special Episode: One episode has Can and his friend meet a blind boy. After learning that he cannot see, they try to encourage him to use his other senses to experience his surroundings.
