Ella Bella Bingo Parent Guide

Based on a Norwegian preschool television show, Ella Bella Bingo tells the story of Ella (Summer Fontana) and Henry (Jack Fisher) who are best friends, until a new boy named Johnny (Benjamin Plessala) moves into town. When Henry disappears, Ella and Johnny have to team up to find him. Along the way they learn some valuable lessons about friendship, jealousy, and big emotions.

In order to fairly review this movie, I had to put on my Early Childhood Educator hat for the first time in a while. As an educational tool for preschoolers, I think Ella Bella Bingo hits the mark. The themes and lessons are squarely laid out in a way that young children will be able to understand and relate to. It teaches children about jealousy, empathy, friendship, and finding ways to positively face big emotions. My three-year-old and I had a great discussion about feelings as we watched it together. It felt less like a movie and more like a long episode of didactic children’s television. It is not trying to be an Oscar winning film, and it doesn’t need to be. It knows what it is and who it is aimed for and it hits its marks.

In terms of content there is very little to worry about. There are a handful of frightening moments, such as a scene inside an amusement park haunted house, but none of them go further than anything common in young children’s television or film. (I’ve seen scarier things on Disney Junior in the middle of the day.) The overall tone is very silly, so even the more frightening moments are offset by goofiness. Speaking of goofiness, there’s a dog that farts a lot. My preschooler found it hilarious; I thought the joke got overplayed.

The only potential downside to this movie relates to its dubbing into English. Since the film comes from Norway, it was animated to align with spoken Norwegian. I’m not sure if they didn’t rejig the animation to match English dialogue or if they tried but didn’t quite nail it. Either way, the character’s mouths don’t always line up with their speech. This isn’t overly distracting, but it’s a little bit off – not enough to bother preschoolers, but it could be mildly irksome for adults.

Overall, Ella Bella Bingo accomplishes what it sets out to do. It teaches children lessons and entertains them with silliness. Older children will most likely find it boring and childish, but I can see the preschool and young elementary crowds enjoying it. It’s not offensively annoying, so adults won’t find it too hard to sit through, which is a big plus.

Bonus review from my three-year-old: “I liked when the dog was tooting.” “The chickens were silly.”