New Bilingual 'CoComelon' Spin-Off, 'Nina's Familia,' Has Premiered on YouTube
If you are a parent to a toddler — or have been in recent years — there's a very good chance you're no stranger to CoComelon, the YouTube Channel-turned-Netflix-series that uses bright colors and nursery rhymes to teach its littlest viewers about the world. And now, the show's universe is expanding to include Nina's Familia, a bilingual spin-off series focusing on JJ's friend, Nina, and her Mexican-American family. CafeMom recently spoke with the show's creative lead, Anthony Falcón, about the new series, which premiered on YouTube late last month.
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Kids will recognize Nina Reyes from 'CoComelon.'
But now, she has her own series all about her and her multigenerational family. To reflect her family's Mexican-American culture, the series includes both English and Spanish, with some episodes entirely in Spanish.
According to Falcón, a team of people at Moonbug Entertainment with a Latine background came together to make the show authentic to their own childhood experiences with the help of a cultural consultant.
The series is a collaborative effort.
"I worked with my father, who runs a Latine theater company in Northern California, my wife, whose family lives in Mexico City and Monterrey, and my 2-year-old daughter, who is learning three languages," says Falcón, who is a parent himself. "And then at the Moonbug offices, we brought together so many talented extraordinary Latine people from every department possible.
"The one common theme we recognized was that so many of our families grew up with their own favorite Spanish nursery rhymes and loved passing them on to the younger children to help share the language within the home," he adds.
He wanted to make a show that he wishes he had himself growing up.
"Nina's Familia is the kind of series I’ve always wanted to be a part of but is so rarely seen. It’s one where an intelligent, caring, adventurous Mexican-American girl can do anything AND be anything all while being surrounded and supported by a strong Latine family," he tells us.
Through the show, Falcón hopes that it will be "an opportunity for every little Latine kid to see themselves and their family represented on screen in the way we’ve been waiting for."
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This show fills a gap that has existed in children's programming for a long time.
Falcón says his favorite part of working with Moonbug Entertainment, the company that brings us CoComelon and Nina's Familia, has been working on this show now that he's able to "create something for Latine kids to see themselves and their family represented on screen every day and to share Nina’s family's culture with the world."
The series is streaming on YouTube.
New episodes of the show, which had its debut September 29, will premiere on the channel every Friday, but in the meantime, there are plenty of fun videos to check out as you get to know Nina and the rest of the Reyes family. JJ would be proud!
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