Name: Esme & Roy
Released: 2026-08-14T13:06:28+02:00

Esme and Roy are monster-sitters, a girl and a furry monster caring for young monsters in a bright, playful neighbourhood. The tone is calm and reassuring, aimed at toddlers, with gentle social and emotional learning.

Models calming breathing to handle big feelings.
Imaginative play turns everyday problems into fun.
Relatable routines like baths, naps and new foods.
Patient caregivers who guide children kindly.
Some make-believe play feels mildly tense for youngest viewers.
Children show frustration and brief upset before calming.
Mild squabbles over games occasionally appear.

See the exact scores

The review is yours to read. Create a free account to reveal the exact SlowScreen score and every pillar score.

Create free account

Score Breakdown

The visuals stay calm and clearly organised throughout, so there is little clutter on screen for a child to untangle. The pacing, though, is consistently fast, with images following each other quickly and leaving little room to pause and take in what just happened. Sound is always present and regularly pulls attention, and in busier instalments like 'Monster Trucks' and 'Two Can Play That Game' the overall effect tips toward the stimulating side. Calmer episodes such as 'Dark and Stormy Knight' and 'Noisy Naptime' stay easier to follow and process.

Every episode follows one clear storyline from beginning to end, whether it is helping a worried monster feel brave or settling a restless little one for a nap. Events unfold in a logical order and each action leads to a sensible next step, so a young child can follow what is happening and why. New ideas tend to arrive one at a time rather than piling up, which keeps the thread easy to hold. The busier play scenes occasionally stack several ideas close together, as in the restaurant song in 'Monster Trucks', but the central goal always stays in view.

Esme and Roy respond to every wobble with patience and warmth, naming feelings out loud with lines like 'I know you're upset' and working through them rather than brushing them aside. When a little monster melts down or cries, comfort and a calming exercise follow in the same scene, so tension never lingers. No character is mocked or shamed, and the caregivers behave consistently, giving a child a dependable message that big feelings get noticed and helped. Emotional shifts are gradual, moving from worry toward comfort, with the only mild edge being that upsets sometimes flare up suddenly before they are settled.

Esme and Roy model an active way of working through problems that a child can watch unfold: they name what is wrong, try an idea, notice when it does not work, and adjust until something does. Their thinking is spoken aloud, as when they decide 'Maybe if the food looks like art, he'll want to try it,' which makes the reasoning visible. They guide the young monsters to take part rather than fixing everything for them, so the child on screen stays an active participant, as Hugo does while sorting out his own train game. The steps stay simple for this age, and some problems are set off by outside events rather than the children's own goals, but the habit of sticking with a problem until it works comes through clearly.

The dialogue is built from short, clear sentences and concrete words a three-year-old knows, like bath, clean, hungry, brave, and storm, with themed vocabulary introduced naturally inside the play. The toddler characters speak in short fragments such as 'Bath time!' while Esme and Roy use full sentences, giving a natural mix that models good everyday speech. Most of the talk does real work, naming feelings, describing the play, and explaining what to do next, rather than filling time with empty exclamations. The occasional denser phrase, such as 'springy, sproingy string beans' or 'easy to digest,' sits a little above this age, but these are rare.

The everyday situations are easy to recognise: taking a bath, refusing lunch, winding down for a nap, squabbling over a game, and being comforted by a trusted helper. The calming and settling strategies the characters use, like belly breathing and a glitter jar, are tools a parent can borrow at home, and the social relationships mirror real caregiving. What holds this back is the heavy fantasy framing, since the cast is mostly monsters in a make-believe town, so the world sits one step removed from a child's real surroundings. The behaviours and feelings transfer well, but a child has to look past the make-believe to carry the actions into daily life.

More information

Esme, a girl with brown skin and dark curly hair, and Roy, a yellow monster, look after younger monsters together, sharing the planning and the caring between them rather than splitting it by gender. Around them is a community of monsters in many colours, shapes, sizes and ages, which quietly treats looking different as ordinary. This picture stays stable from one episode to the next. The clear limitation is that, apart from Esme, there are very few human characters, so most of the variety is carried by the monsters rather than by a broad mix of real people, cultures and family set-ups.

The series plays out in a friendly world of monsters, yet almost everything the characters do comes straight from a young child's day: taking a bath, racing toy cars, settling down for a nap, or working out a squabble over a game. There is no villain anywhere; the problems grow from ordinary moments and are solved with patience and imagination rather than by defeating an enemy. The light fantasy stays consistent, with the monsters simply living like people and any pretend play clearly framed as make-believe. For a young child this is a comfortable mix of the recognisable and the playful, the only real stretch being that the cast is made up of monsters rather than real children.

If you are on the couch alongside your child, this is easy company. The animation is polished, the palette is warm and soft, and the songs are cleanly produced, so it rarely grates on adult ears. There is enough story in each episode, plus the odd wink for grown-ups like 'Monster Lisa' and the 'Leaning Tower of Pizza,' to hold mild interest, though most of the humour stays aimed squarely at the preschool crowd. The main wear comes from a toddler's relentless 'Beep, beep' and the whining during meltdown moments. Think pleasant background rather than something you will keep watching after the kids wander off.

Season 1

6 episodes

S01 E01

Esme & Roy

Monster Trucks

Stimulating

recommended age co-watching from 3

Esme, a girl, and Roy, a yellow monster, are monster sitters spending the day looking after Tilly, a small pink monster who loves her cars. After a backyard race leaves Tilly muddy and smelly, the two need to get her into a bath, but she only wants to keep playing. When Tilly melts down, Roy helps her calm down with a glitter jar and slow breathing, and then the sitters turn the tub into a pretend car wash. Tilly happily drives through it, gets clean, and asks to go again.

S01 E02

Esme & Roy

Lunch Crunch

Balanced

recommended age co-watching from 3

Esme, a girl, and Roy, a large yellow monster, babysit a young monster named Simon while his grownups are away. When Simon's favourite fish and stinky cheese sandwich is eaten and the ingredients run out, the pair try a pretend restaurant, a spoon game and finally food sculptures to coax him into tasting something new. Along the way Simon has an upset moment that is calmed with a breathing exercise. By the end Simon happily tries carrots and other foods and proudly calls himself a food artist.

S01 E03

Esme & Roy

Dark and Stormy Knight

Balanced

recommended age co-watching from 3

Esme and Roy are monster-sitters who look after young monsters. In this episode they help a worried young monster through a dark and stormy 'knight' adventure, using make-believe castle and knight play to turn a scary pretend storm into a brave challenge. With patient encouragement, the monster moves from worry toward confidence and the group plays on together. The story takes place in a soft, colorful monster world and ends with the fear settled.

S01 E04

Esme & Roy

Two Can Play That Game

Stimulating

recommended age co-watching from 3

Esme, a young girl, and Roy, her large monster friend, are monstersitters looking after a group of monster children. When two of the children fall into a competitive disagreement over a game, Esme and Roy help them name the problem and try a new idea. The conflict turns into a shared pretend pirate adventure, with everyone dressing up and playing on the same crew. The episode ends with all the characters playing happily together.

S01 E05

Esme & Roy

Noisy Naptime

Balanced

recommended age co-watching from 3

Esme, a young girl, and her monster best friend Roy work as monstersitters. In this episode they look after a small monster that cannot settle for naptime, and they try a series of quiet activities, including a puppet show, to help it rest. After several attempts the little monster finally falls asleep, and the characters celebrate together. The story takes place mostly inside a home in their monster neighbourhood.

S01 E06

Esme & Roy

The Hugo Express

Balanced

recommended age co-watching from 3

Esme, a young girl, and her monster friend Roy look after Hugo, a small monster who loves trains. Together they turn the playroom into a pretend train called 'The Hugo Express', building tracks and taking turns as conductor. When the play hits a snag and Hugo's feelings run high, Esme and Roy help him work through it step by step. The train game gets back on track and the friends finish happily.