WaWa

When I first realized that the puppeteers beneath the Muppet like beings in WaWa were the same performers as on the Dutch version of Sesamestreet, I thought Bert Plagman, Cathrine van Woerden and Renée Menschaar had finally done it: to invent their own set of characters to market without having to pay the Children's Television Workshop residuals. My second thought was: couldn't they have come up with something more interesting and substantial, and why are these Muppets so darn ugly? Then I did some research on the Internets and found out Bert, Cathrine and Renée were merely hired hands brought in by a Belgian production team. That explains the look of the WaWa's. Belgian puppet shows have always been filled with the characters that were hard on the eye (Liegebeest, Carlos & Co, etc).

As the show has no credits and the WaWa's speak some sort of toddler talk not unlike the Teletubbies, it was the aforementioned internet that had to fill in the gaps. It turns out the three characters DoDo (Plagman), MaKi (Menschaar) & NaNa (Van Woerden) are supposed to be the great, great, great grandchildren of Wood Nimfs that hide in the forest. This is why at the start of each episode, the trio climbs out of their tree and head for a nearby human dwelling. The colorful Nimfs then proceed to interact with a variety of Belgian infants (apparently, the house they like to visit is some sort of unmanned daycare center). The WaWas resembles a Honker from Sesamestreet, only instead of a honk for a nose, they have three enormous hooters side by side. They like to make a lot of noise, but are clean enough to clean up any mess they make before venturing back into their tree.

Each 5 minute episode has the same recurring elements: purple DoDo, blue MaKi & red NaNa enter the house in the forest play hide and seek with toddlers that have about the same amount of vocabulary as them. One of the trio spins a wheel with animal pictures to show a short film of the animal in question that turns into a cartoon. Another one of them makes a mess of some sort in the kitchen or the playroom but cleans it up using the WaWa's magical 'rewind button' powers. All three of the triple noses bang a bunch of pots and pans to make their own brand of music. The Animal Carousel clip is repeated, but shown in reverse, just like the Teletubies have a tendency to show clips on their tummy twice. Two of them pose in human clothes and kitchen utensils while the third (usually DoDo) takes a picture with an unusual looking camera. The dressing up bit being something the puppeteers also like to do to their characters on Sesamstraat. Finally, they return to their home in the tree.

Apparently quite a lot of research into the behavior patterns of under three year olds preceded the production of this show. The Belgians seem to have specialized in making wordless programs aimed at this particular age group ever since Tik Tak hit the airwaves in the early eighties. Of late, newer toddler friendly shows like Studio 100's Bumba and Hopla, (which are much more merchandise friendly) have taken over the airwaves and toy-shops. However, in the case of WaWa, like Tik Tak before it, the merchandise has mainly been kept down to some DVD's featuring several 5 minuters in a row. Should be enough to keep your toddler quiet for 25 minutes (though they're all basically the same anyway). That is of course as long as your child isn't afraid of enormous noses.

7 out of 10