Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Kiff’ Season 2 On Disney+, Where The Squirrel And Bunny Buddies Have More Adventures In Table Town

The second season of Kiff premiered on Disney’s linear channels back in March, but are appearing on Disney+ for the first time this week. The show’s first season proved that the House of Mouse can give kids and parents a show not named Bluey that can satisfy both kids and adults, something Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon has been doing for decades.

KIFF SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: In huge, movie ad-type letters slamming on the screen, we see “KIFF SEASON 2. KIFF HAS TO SNEEZE. BROUGHT TO YOU BY HAG TANNING OIL.”

The Gist: Kiff Chatterly (Kimiko Glenn), an overachieving squirrel, and her bunny buddy Barry Buns (Michael Croner) are walking to school, when Kiff has to sneeze. But her sneeze is interrupted by Barry observing Glarbin (Steve Little) being locked out of the school and using his library card to jimmy the lock. Kiff tries to get back to the sneeze but it’s gone.

After that, things are off. She can’t answer a question from Miss Deer Teacher (Deedee Mango Hall) about the book she assigned to the class (which she wrote). She can’t spin a pen on her finger, and her high fives all miss. That sneeze needs to come out, but nothing she and Barry do work. He feels so bad that he distracted her. Helen (Lucy Havens) comes up with a solution: Barry shrinks down and goes into Kiff’s brain to find the sneeze, but he only has five minutes to do it before he’s trapped there.

In the second adventure, the buddies find out that their favorite actor, Chubbles Wubbington (Croner), is filming a movie in Table Town. They go to the studio and stand outside the trailer, hoping for a selfie. But instead they’re unwittingly roped in to being his rehearsal partners, where he pretends to be his mean character in Rude Mailbox. Every time they walk away thinking their hero is a jerk, he invites them back, only to be a jerk again. Then they go and visit his mother (Eric Bauza) and they find out he loves his fans. How can that be?

Photo: Disney

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Kiff, created by Lucy Heavens and Nic Smal, has similar vibes to Adventure Time and Centaurworld.

Our Take:

One of the things we liked about Kiff during its first season is that it’s got a surreal element, with lots of music, colors and funny physical humor that will make kids laugh. But it’s a real buddy story, with Kiff and Barry complementing each other’s temperaments, and there’s definitely references that will go over kids’ heads but hit their parents squarely in their funny bones.

In the first story in Episode 1, for instance, we see Kiff and Barry try everything to get her to sneeze, from gurus to being around dusty chess-playing old guys to sniffing a plate full of mustard. In the second story, the whole “never meet your heroes” axiom (the story is titled “Never Meet Your Mailboxes,” after all), with Chubbles’ performance anxiety mixed into the narrative.

The jokes are definitely character-based; Kiff is hyper and wants to win at everything, while Barry is calmer and more observant. The fact that he feels so guilty that his observational skills kept his buddy from sneezing is consistent with the kind of guy (and friend) he is.

What we also like about the show is that the world of Table Town is fully realized, with recurring characters everywhere. All of them have their own quirks, and they factor into the stories, some as throwaway jokes and others as full plot points. The fact that the world around Kiff and Barry is so fully realized only helps the stories Havens and Smal want to tell.

Photo: Disney

What Age Group Is This For?: The show is rated TV-Y7, but we think kids as young as 6 will like it.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.