A Lot or a Little?
What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.
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Educational Value
a lot
Show teaches about food: food facts, how food grows, the cultural traditions of food, how to cook.
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Positive Messages
some
Emphasizes how fun and delicious healthy food can be. Main characters are kind and have a ton of curiosity about the world around them.
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Positive Role Models
a lot
Main characters are puppets, but featured humans are racially and culturally diverse and talk about places they're from. Michelle Obama is a regular cast member.
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Products & Purchases
some
Brands (TV shows, restaurants) mentioned by name. Not gratuitous but present.
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Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Waffles + Mochi teaches kids about food and cooking with the help of quirky puppets, Michelle Obama, and celebrity guests. It's the first kids show to come out of the Obamas' TV production company, and it builds on Michelle Obama's kids' health advocacy work. There are verbal references to brands (like other Netflix shows and restaurant names), but otherwise this show is appropriate for kids of all ages. The humor is geared more toward grade-school kids (and their grown-ups), but even little kids will enjoy this series -- and learn from it, too.
What's the Story?
WAFFLES + MOCHI follows the adventures of puppets Waffles (a half-Yeti/half-waffle creature, voiced by Michelle Zamora) and Mochi (an adorable small ball of mochi, voiced by Russ Walko). Waffles and Mochi come from the Land of Frozen Foods, where they eat only ice cubes, and are delighted to try real, fresh foods for the first time. They get a job at a grocery store full of other talking puppets, like Shelfie, the grocery store shelf, and Intercommy, the store loudspeaker. The store also has a produce garden on the roof, where Michelle Obama is the shopkeeper and plays a version of herself. In every episode, they learn about one ingredient, like tomatoes, rice, or pickles. They take a ride in the MagiCart (a shopping cart/go cart/rocket hybrid) and visit places around the world to discover more about how the ingredient grows or how it's cooked. They might visit celebrity chef Samin Nosrat (Salt Fat Acid Heat) in her Oakland tomato garden, or restaurateur Jose Andres in Washington, D.C., to learn how to make gazpacho in the Spanish tradition. The show is also punctuated by music videos based on the ingredient (like an animated tomato-y Sia singing about tomatoes being a fruit). By the end of the episode, Waffles and Mochi have had fun learning about the delicious world of food.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the food featured in the show. Would you like to taste any of the ingredients or cook any of the recipes? What groceries would you need to buy to re-create the dish?
Waffles and Mochi are really curious about food, since they're trying it for the first time. Are there any foods you'd like to learn more about, or try?
