Cartoon Series for Children Receives Important Award

Roller Peps, a children’s series produced by the streaming platform Feliz7Play, won the bronze award in the Best Children’s Program category at the 49th International Christian Visual Media (ICVM) Awards. Results were released in early March 2022. ICVM is an annual event that recognizes the best among audiovisual contents with a Christian theme.

In the series, cartoon characters go through everyday situations that bring home lessons of civility, respect, and love for God and others. They also share biblical and social values. Available in Portuguese, Spanish, English, and Brazilian Sign Language (Libras), the series seeks to be inclusive. Characters walk on wheels, a way the producers found to represent children with special needs.

For Carlos Magalhães, digital strategy manager at the South American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and one of the creators of Feliz7Play, this achievement highlights the Adventist Church’s contribution to the development of children. “The award represents a recognition of content quality in the Christian education of children,” he said.

Since it was released, Roller Peps has become an educational tool. Besides providing support to parents of young children, Christian schools have also used the series to teach values. It has even become a theme at children’s parties.

The series “focuses on a portrayal of moral and educational principles for an age group that learns mainly through stories and can’t incorporate abstract notions,” Magalhães explained. “Through the characters, children learn to single out behaviors that they are encouraged to copy, choosing what is beneficial and rejecting what is detrimental.”

Impact and Practical Relevance

Music educator Lucila Andrade said that Roller Peps is fun and provides practical examples of Christian values in a way children can relate to. “It’s all about portraying—in their language—beliefs and verses that sometimes seem to be out of children’s understanding,” she said.

Contents of Feliz7Play, Andrade emphasized, add up to the kind of Christian education she and her husband strive to offer to their children, Luíza and Arthur. “At our home we use the series to support the stories of the [Sabbath School] lessons, as a devotional, and to help them learn more about the Bible,” Andrade said.

Translator Cecilia Eller Nascimento agrees. For her, the streaming platform gives her the assurance that her children are watching shows that are safe and worthy. “I can have the peace of mind that as my children watch something fun, they are learning and growing,” Nascimento said. “It is something that makes me very happy.”

Nascimento believes that the award-winning series helps children reflect on friendship, faithfulness to the Bible, and the importance of the seventh-day Sabbath. “In a very relaxed way, my children can have access to a set of biblical values,” she said. “For my family, it is very important.”

The original version of this story was posted on the South American Division Portuguese-language news site.