My children are in a French Immersion school, which means eighty-some-percent of the day they are taught in French. My own French is not exactly stellar. I mean I have the basic “I learned this in grade school because I am Canadian” level of French, which my kids, who are in 1st and 4th grade, are already surpassing.

Yesterday I was doing the dishes with my seven year old, Gigi, and she was excitedly telling me about watching Paw Patrol at school en francais. We were drying dishes, and she was dancing and jumping up and down with excitement as she told me about La Pat’ Patrouille. She also told me they watched Sid the Science Kid for science class today, and yes, of course, it was in French.

I told her that I was pretty sure we could watch Paw Patrol and other shows in French, right here at home, on Netflix. I had to quickly grab the plate she was drying out of her hand before she dropped it. Her eyes grew to the size of saucers as she gaped at me in disbelief.

Since dinner wasn’t ready yet, and we were both due for a break from dishwashing duties, I offered to see if I could find some French cartoons on Netflix right then. We settled on Sid the Science Kid. It took me a bit of fiddling to remember how to change the language on a show. Sid wasn’t available in French. Oh but wait… there was also a Sid the Science Kid Movie listed, and that one had French as an option.

Gigi, of course, insisted I watch with her. We snuggled down with my iPad mini to watch twenty minutes of the movie. My thought process was along the lines of — “Oh my goodness, they talk so fast. Do people talk that fast in English? Did he just say something about outer space? Wow, I don’t have a clue what is going on.” I couldn’t follow along quickly enough. I caught maybe one word in ten. My daughter, however, was giggling while watching it, so I have to assume she understood at least some of what was happening.

Big sister, Grace, walked in and asked what we were watching. She told me she didn’t want to join in because she couldn’t understand every word. This made me feel a little better about my own bewilderment, but it also made me pause and think… Wait a sec kiddo, you’re in 4th grade at a French Immersion school, you get decent grades, and you don’t want to watch the cartoon because you don’t understand everything they are saying? Nope, nope, nope. Not cool.

I took Grace aside and had a conversation with her about understanding things “in context”, about learning new vocabulary, and about how enjoying shows en francais was one of the ways she would get better with her understanding of French. I mean obviously, the school thinks there is some value to having kids watch French language cartoons since they show French television frequently.

And that’s why last night I made a vow that no matter how much it may confuse or bore the heck out of me, part of our streaming from now on will be in French. I even made a list of shows, ones that my kids enjoy, and that Netflix has the French language option available for.

The first thing I noticed is that Paw Patrol is only available in English. However, Magic School Bus is available in French and so is Voltron: Legendary Defenders and that new Julie Andrews show Julie’s Greenroom. In fact, I quickly noticed that all of the Netflix Exclusive shows (like Voltron, Troll Hunters, Julie’s Greenroom, A Series of Unfortunate Events, etc) are available in multiple languages. Which I guess makes sense because Netflix is probably aiming to develop content to be shared throughout their global market.

To check if a show is available in French you need to pick out an episode/movie and let it start playing. Then look for the language option icon. It looks like this:

You click on that icon and a list of available languages will pop up. It will show options for both audio and subtitles. Note, you may need to wait a few seconds to let the episode load. The language icon will be greyed out until things are loaded and ready to go.

The picture above is what it looks like on my iPad. The one just above that, where it shows Dragons Race to the Edge, is what it looks like on a desktop PC. If you’re on a different platform (say XBox or Apple TV) the layout may be a bit different, but the idea is the same, look for that icon and click on it to see your language options.

After clicking through cartoon after cartoon to see if they offered French language as an option, this is the list I came up with:

(EDIT: This list has been updated as of March 2019)

Children’s TV Shows available in French on Netflix:

3Below: Tales of Arcadia, Part 1

72 Cutest Animals, Season 1

A Series of Unfortunate Events, Seasons 1, 2 & 3

All Hail King Julien, Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

All Hail King Julien: Exiled, Season 1

Alvinnn!!! And the Chipmunks, Seasons 1 & 2

Animal Mechanicals, Seasons 1 & 2

Ask the StoryBots, Season 2 (but not Season 1)

Be Be Bears, Season 1

Beat Bugs (the Beatles covers are sung in English, the spoken parts are in French), Seasons 1, 2 & 3

Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom, Season 1

Bo on the Go, Season 1

Bottersnikes & Gumbles, Seasons 1 & 2

Buddy Thunderstruck, Season 1

Care Bears & Cousins, Seasons 1 & 2 (specifically says” Canadian French”)

Carmen Sandiego, Season 1

Danger Mouse, Seasons 1 & 2

Danger Mouse: Classic Collection, Season 1 (but not Seasons 2 through 10)

Dawn of the Croods, Seasons 1, 2, 3 & 4

Digimon Fusion, Seasons 1 & 2

Dinosaur King, Seasons 1 & 2

Dinotrux Supercharged, Seasons 1, 2 & 3

Dinotrux, Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

Dragons: Race to the Edge, Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6

Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan and Jane, Seasons 1 & 2

Floogals, Season 1

Free Rein, Seasons 1 & 2

Frozen Planet (BBC Earth), Season 1

Glitter Force, Seasons 1 & 2

Goosebumps, Season 1

H20 Mermaid Adventures, Seasons 1 & 2

Hilda, Season 1

If I Were an Animal Season 1

Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Seasons 1 & 2

Johnny Test, Seasons 1 & 2

Julie’s Greenroom, Season 1

Julius Jr., Seasons 1 & 2

Kazoops, Seasons 1, 2 & 3

Kong: King of the Apes, Seasons 1 & 2

Kulipari: Dream Walker, Season 1

Kulipari: An Army of Frogs, Season 1

Legend Quest, Season 1

Leo & Tig, Season 1

Life (BBC Earth), Season 1

Little Princess, Seasons 1, 2 & 3

Little Witch Academia, Seasons 1 & 2

Llama Llama, Season 1

Luna Petunia, Seasons 1, 2 & 3

Luna Petunia: Return to Amazia, Seasons 1 & 2

Magi: Adventure of Sinbad, Season 1

Masha and the Bear, Seasons 1 & 2 (but not Season 3)

Masha’s Tales, Season 1

Mia and Me, Seasons 2 & 3

Minecraft: Story Mode, Season 1

Mini Wolf (originally in French), Season 1

Miraculous:Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir (originally in French), Season 1

Motown Magic, Season 1

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8

Octonauts, Seasons 1, 2, 3 & 4

P.King Duckling, Season 1

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, Seasons 1 & 2

Paw Patrol, Seasons 1 & 4 but not 2 or 5

Peppa Pig, Seasons 2, 3 & 4

Planet Earth II (BBC Earth), Season 1

Pocoyo Halloween: Spooky Movies, 1 episode

Pocoyo, Seasons 1, 2 & 4 but not 3

Pokemon the Series: Sun & Moon, Season 1

Pokemon: Indigo League, Season 1

Pokemon: XY, Seasons 1 & 2

Pokemon: XYZ, Season 1

Popples, Seasons 1, 2 & 3

Power Rangers (several different movies and series, all seem to be available in French)

Project Mc2, Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6

Puffin Rock, Seasons 1 & 2

Robocar Poli Seasons 1, 2, 3 & 4

Robozuna, Season 1

Seven and Me, Season 1 (originally in French)

She-Ra and the Princess of Power, Season 1

Simon, Season 1

Skylanders Academy, Seasons 1, 2 & 3

Sonic Boom, Season 1

Spirit Riding Free, Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7

Spy Kids: Mission Critical, Seasons 1 & 2

Star Wars; The Clone Wars, Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 but not 6

Super Monsters, Seasons 1& 2

Super Why, Season 1

Super Wings, Season 1 (but not Season 2)

Sylvanian Families (Calico Critters), Season 1

Teen Titans Go!, Seasons 1, 2, 3 & 4

The Adventures of Puss in Boots, Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6

The Blue Planet: A Natural History of the Ocean (BBC Earth), Season 1

The Boss Baby: Back in Business, Seasons 1 & 2

The Deep, Seasons 1 & 2

The Dragon Prince, Seasons 1 & 2

The Furchester Hotel (BBC spinoff of Sesame Street), Seasons 1 & 2

The Magic School Bus Rides Again, Seasons 1 & 2

The Magic School Bus, Season 1 (but not Seasons 2, 3 or 4)

The Minimighty Kids (originally in French), Seasons 1 & 2

The Mister Peabody and Sherman Show, Seasons 1, 2, 3 & 4

The Ollie & Moon Show, Season 1

The Real Ghostbusters, Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

The Worst Witch, Seasons 1 & 2

Tip the Mouse, Season 1

Transformers Prime, Season 1

Transformers: Rescue Bots, Season 1

Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Season 1

Treehouse Detectives, Seasons 1 & 2

Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia, Parts 1, 2 & 3

Turbo Fast, Seasons 1, 2 & 3

Voltron: Legendary Defender, Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8

Wakfu (originally in French), Seasons 1, 2 & 3

Wakfu: The Quest for the Six Eliatrope (originally in French), Season 1

Wissper, Season 1

Word Party, Seasons 1, 2 & 3

Yakari (originally in French), Season 1

Yo-Kai Watch, Season 1

Yu-Gi-Oh!, Seasons 1 & 2 but not 3, 4 or 5

Family Movies and Feature Length Children’s Shows in French:

3 Ninjas: Kick Back

A StoryBots Christmas

Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein

Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman

Antz (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Astérix: The Mansion of the Gods (originally in French)

Beat Bugs: All Together Now

Bee Movie (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Benji (2018, Netflix original, not the 1974 version)

Calico Critters: A Town of Dreams

Calico Critters: The Treasure of Calico Village

Casper

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Coco (look for the one that says French Canadian version)

Disney Nature: Born in China (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Disney Nature: Growing Up Wild (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Dolphin Tale

Dragons: Dawn of the Dragon Racers

Dreamworks Holiday Classics

Dreamworks Spooky Stories

Dreamworks Spooky Stories Volume 2

Dreamworks: Home for the Holidays

Duck, Duck, Goose

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Frozen Planet: On Thin Ice

Ghost Patrol

Gnomeo and Juliet (specifically says “Canadian French”

Growing Up Wild (DisneyNature) (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Hoodwinked (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Hotel Transylvania

How to Train Your Dragon (the movie) (specifically says “Canadian French”)

How to Train Your Dragon: Legends

Incredibles 2 (French Canadian Version)

Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu Panda 3

Kung Fu Panda: Holiday

Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Scroll (specifically says “Canadian French”)

La Belle et la Bète (Beauty & the Beast-French Canadian version)

Labyrinth

LEGO Jurassic World: The Indominus Escape (specifically says “Canadian French”)

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes: Avengers Reassembled!

Les Bagnoles 3 (Cars 3 – French Canadian edition)

Little Witch Academia

Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade

Madagascar

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Marvel Iron Man & Captain America: Heroes United (animated)

Marvel Super Hero Adventures: Frost Fight (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Marvel’s Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Mary and the Witch’s Flower (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Megamind (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Monster House

Monster Island

Monsters vs Aliens (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: Best Gift Ever

Next Gen

Open Season 3

Over the Hedge

Pac’s Scary Halloween

Paddington

Pocoyo Halloween: Spooky Movies

Pocoyo: Space Halloween

Pokémon the Movie: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction

Pokémon the Movie: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages

Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You

Pokémon the Movie: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel

Pup Star: Better 2Gether

Pup Star: World Tour

Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale

Ratchet and Clank (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Rock Dog

Sahara

Santa Pac’s Merry Berry Day

Shark Tale

Sherlock Gnomes (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Shrek

Shrek Forever After (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Shrek the Halls

Shrek the Third (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Shrek’s Swamp Stories

Sing

Spy Kids (specifically says Canadian French)

Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Super Monsters and the Wish Star

Super Monsters Save Halloween

Surf’s Up

Tad the Lost Explorer and the Secret of King Midas (says “English Version” but it is available in French)

Tellur Aliens

The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl

The Boxtrolls (specifically says “Canadian French”)

The Clone Wars (the animated movie, not the series) (specifically says “Canadian French”)

The Dark Crystal

The Guardian Brothers

The Little Prince

The Muppets Take Manhattan

The Road to El Dorado

The Secret Life of Pets

The Smurfs

The Swan Princess

Tinkerbell and the Legend of the Never Beast (specifically says “Canadian French”)

Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit

So it turns out Paw Patrol IS available in French, but only Season 2, not Season 1 or 3. And the only reason I discovered this is because I had a very persistent first grader at my elbow, singing the Paw Patrol theme song en francais and insisting it MUST be on there. This discovery led to me going back and checking each season individually for some of her other favourite shows and we found that later seasons of My Little Pony ARE available in French. So if there’s a particular show your little one is in love with, it’s worth checking each season individually.

Here’s another trick. Finding Dory doesn’t have French audio as an option, but if you search under Trouver Doris the film is there in French (specifically says “Canadian French”). Same goes for Zootopia, Le Bon Dinosaur and Raiponce (aka Rapunzel).

(EDIT: The films listed in the above paragraph are no longer currently available on Netflix, but the same concept of searching for the French title version still continues to apply for some Disney films, eg. La Belle et La Bete or Les Bagnoles 3.)

I am sure there are many more French language kids’ shows streaming on Netflix, this is just a partial list, based mainly on which shows my kids, who are ages 7 and 9, enjoy watching. I am also aware that not all translations are created equal (and for the most part I wouldn’t recognise a bad French translation if it bopped me over the head). Still, encouraging my girls to consume media in French at home certainly can’t hurt, and I am hoping it will help with their vocabulary and pronunciation.

Of course, Netflix is constantly adding new shows, and removing old ones, so if you are reading this post a few weeks, or months, after I published it, the list may no longer be accurate. However, the same principles will still apply. There are tons of kids’ shows available to stream in French on Netflix, and you can find them by clicking through and checking the language options (and remember to check different seasons of the same show).

What about you folks? Which Netflix cartoons are tops in your house? Do you ever stream in French? Which is your favourite French language show for kids?