It kills the dog in the first breath and then asks you to smile about it. That is the deal BuBu ChaCha makes, and it never renegotiates: ChaCha comes back as a little toy car, Bubu gets his friend back in a shape that will never be the same, and the show just keeps rolling forward at a walking pace. Twenty six episodes of almost nothing happening, learning the world one small thing at a time, and the whole time there is a hole in the middle of it that the show is too gentle to point at. The 1999 CG looks like a toy box come to life, which is exactly right for a friend who now has wheels instead of paws. Low spectacle, zero panic, and somehow it lands harder than shows that try ten times as loud. You come for a preschool oddity and leave thinking about a pet you had.

Randy is a three-year-old boy, and his pet dog ChaCha is his best friend. When ChaCha dies in an accident, he becomes a star who watches over Randy, but he chooses to come back to the boy as a toy car. The two keep his return a secret between themselves and set off on small adventures, finding that every little thing can be a big discovery. The result is a gentle comedy and slice-of-life series about a friendship that outlasts death.