#casagrande

When a traditional animated show features the whole family, they limit it to just parents, siblings, and the occasional pet. Additional relatives like aunts, uncles, or grandparents tend to only appear on special occasions or holiday episodes. The Casagrandes had them as part of the main ensemble, allowing for a wider range of stories.

Despite the large number of characters, every single family member and most of their friends got their moment to shine. Like The Loud House, as the show went on, it relied far less on its supposed main protagonist of Ronnie Anne. Several episodes from Season 3 had her either in the background, play a supporting role, or not show up. It helped expand upon the Changs, Ronnie Anne's friends, and her relatives with stories that did not necessarily need her involvement.

The show highlighted Latin American traditions such as Nochebuena, El Raton, and Dia de Los Muertos. For anyone who grew up with these traditions, it was great to see them presented in a very respectful manner without feeling contrived or tacked on.

It also had the rare feat of NOT ending its run on Nicktoons. The last time any Nicktoon accomplished that? Sanjay and Craig, also after three seasons and 60 episodes, in 2016.

With that noted, there were a couple of missed opportunities. The most obvious was the lack of crossovers with The Loud House.

Each season had at least one appearance by both Lori and Lincoln, with them either calling Bobby/Ronnie Anne, visiting Great Lakes, or both. The first season finale, "Cursed!", did feature the Loud family, but only Lisa would later make a second appearance. Clyde also showed up, albeit with Lincoln, in the show's final half-hour episode "Phantom Freakout".

In return, The Loud House cut back on appearances from the spin-off's characters after Season 4. Season 5 was the first to not feature Ronnie Anne at all, while Bobby only appeared whenever Lori showed up (including the live-action A Loud House Christmas). Even in The Loud House Movie, the show's only representation were the two in the Mercado. It would have been great to see more crossovers, but the spinoff likely wanted to avoid relying so much on its predecessor.

The show also avoided bringing up the elephant in the room of Bobby and Ronnie Anne's parents Arturo and Maria being either separated or divorced. The former was brought up in the first episode, while the only affirmation of the latter came from a text blurb about Arturo in the graphic novels.

Considering the seriousness of such a topic, one that has only been explored vaguely on other animated series, it was for the best the show didn't bring it up. The closest was in the episode "Date with Destiny", where the two try to get their parents back together but in the end accept their current situation.

If there is anything else the show could have done, it would have been great to see the whole family travel outside of Great Lakes and more episodes with the Changs.

Unlike most cancellations, this is not exactly the end for the Casagrandes. Some of the family members have begun to appear over on the current sixth season of The Loud House, with possibly more appearances next season.

It remains to be seen how this will continue to work, either by the characters conveniently meeting up, more reunions, or Ronnie Anne moving back to Royal Woods. The latter option seems very unlikely.

If Ronnie Anne were to move back to Royal Woods, what would happen to her extended family and the rest of Great Lakes? Even if the whole family moved, there would be no reason to go back to Great Lakes and subsequently lose a whole set of characters.

The Casagrandes differed from other animated series not only by its protagonist, but also by the multigenerational family aspect and exploration of Latin American traditions. For Nick, it was a rare Latino-centric Nicktoon, the only other notable ones being Dora The Explorer and El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera.

While it may have run for only three seasons, the spin-off did manage to outlast around 30 other Nicktoons, including It's Pony, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Glitch Techs.

The Casagrandes streams on both Pluto TV and Paramount+. The first season is available on DVD, while the complete series is available to own on Digital.