KikoRiki's hidden philosophy

KikoRiki is a Russian cartoon series first made in 2004. Although it is aimed at children of 3 to 8 years old, it is known for its depth and hidden philosophy.

“God is dead” – is one of the famous citations of Nietzsche. Telling about God’s death philosopher meant religious moral is old and people need to find their own, new moral. It also means there is no life meaning given to humanity from above.
In the episode “The Meaning of Life” Wally saw no sense in anything and his life became pointless. Carlin went with Wally to the Kuzinatra - a thing that gives meaning. On their way, ram got tired and lost consciousness. Then he woke up at home and found simple sense in everyday tasks and said it is enough for him. Even if there is no global and created sense in life, it does not mean life is meaningless.

The philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir is based on two images of a woman – woman in the traditional sense and woman who aims to reach complete freedom of expression and existence.
“Library” is the episode of KikoRiki, where Rosa was studying a wind generator circuit while Wally tried to give her some flowers. She completely ignored gifts based on traditional woman desires such as sweets, dresses, hats and fashion journals, and continued to make something she was personally interested in. He got angry and called her hyper amplified mansipama. While figuring out what does it means Rosa discovered the Code of Patriarchy.

The Real, The Imaginary, and the Symbolic is the main concept in ideas of Jacques Lacan. The Real is how subject previses events in their own reality. The Imaginary is the actions of another person, from which the subject is trying to psychologically defend himself. The Symbolic is another person on its own.
The episode “The Triumph of Reason” tells about Dokko, who was rejected by his love when he was younger because of the small horns (at his vision). It really upset the moose, so he decided the brain is more important than beauty. But even when he got the Nobel Prize, he wanted to make his horns bigger before the ceremony.

Jacques Derrida invented deconstruction – understanding thought placing something into a different context.
“A Story for Rosa” tells how Rosa was terrified by the masked minstrel after Krash and Chiko told her a scary story about him stealing women’s hearts and making them lose their minds. At the night she met him herself and he wasn’t as scary as he was in the story. She understood how women could fall in love with him, and was not scared anymore, seeing him in a new way.

Michel Foucault thought human nature is predetermined by the era one lives in.
Even if it is hard to say which era characters are living inside the cartoon, KikoRiki is definitely a product of its time. The animation itself became accessible only recently. Cartoons started to replace fairytales (which were pretty violent several centuries ago). Now everybody could create their own characters and create a story. And even if now cartoons are considered as kid’s entertainment, authors are placing some deep thoughts in KikoRiki. The idea of cartoons might change in time and the influence of the era would be even more obvious in the future.