Slowscreen SlowScreen
Toggle sidebar

Just launched: free lifetime premium for the first 1,000 members to activate their account.

Start free

Zero to Hero

Sufficient

Recommended age Unlock

Co-watching from age 5

Stimulating

Exact score locked

Watch on Disney+
Save
Zero to Hero

Share

Pass this find on to another parent

Link preview

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes: Zero to Hero | Sufficient, co-watching from age 5

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes: Zero to Hero | Sufficient, co-watching from age 5 - Slowscreen

Sufficient · Co-watching from age 5. In Kimoja City, Kiya, Motsy and Jay transform into heroes when Prima Donna's pet Unipug goes missing and she turns the mark...

slowscreen.com

https://slowscreen.com/en/series/kiya-the-kimoja-heroes/s1/e3-zero-to-hero

https://slowscreen.com/en/series/kiya-the-kimoja-heroes/s1/e3-zero-to-hero

Slowscreen

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes: Zero to Hero | Sufficient, co-watching from age 5 - Slowscreen

Sufficient · Co-watching from age 5. In Kimoja City, Kiya, Motsy and Jay transform into heroes when Prima Donna's pet Unipug goes missing and she turns the mark...

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes: Zero to Hero | Sufficient, co-watching from age 5
Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes: Zero to Hero | Sufficient, co-watching from age 5

slowscreen.com

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes: Zero to Hero | Sufficient, co-watching from age 5 - Slowscreen

Sufficient · Co-watching from age 5. In Kimoja City, Kiya, Motsy and Jay transform into heroes when Prima Donna's pet Unipug goes missing and she turns the mark...

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes: Zero to Hero | Sufficient, co-watching from age 5
slowscreen.com

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes: Zero to Hero | Sufficient, co-watching from age 5 - Slowscreen

slowscreen.com · Posted by you

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes: Zero to Hero | Sufficient, co-watching from age 5 - Slowscreen

0 Share
Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes: Zero to Hero | Sufficient, co-watching from age 5
To
Subject Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes: Zero to Hero | Sufficient, co-watching from age 5

Sufficient · Co-watching from age 5. In Kimoja City, Kiya, Motsy and Jay transform into heroes when Prima Donna's pet Unipug goes missing and she turns the mark...

https://slowscreen.com/en/series/kiya-the-kimoja-heroes/s1/e3-zero-to-hero

Share on WhatsApp Share on X Share on Facebook Share on Telegram Share on Reddit Share on Email

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
This program is stimulating. It actively demands attention and can feel intense. For the recommended age, this may be on the more intense side. The pacing is fast. Images follow each other quickly, leaving little time to pause and take in what is happening. The sound is clearly present and regularly draws attention. The visuals are calm and well-organized.
One question carries the whole episode: where is Prima Donna's missing pet Unipug, and can Jay trust himself to help find him. The story builds in clear order, from the first disappearance through Jay's string of mistakes to the discovery of the dropped slipper that explains how Unipug got out. Cause and effect is easy to follow, and children can see how one small object explains the whole mystery. The main caveat is the amount packed into each scene, with new characters, gadgets and powers arriving quickly enough that a younger child may lose a thread here or there.
The friendship between Kiya, Motsy and Jay is warm, and the group actively pulls Jay back when he wants to quit, with lines like 'We're a team. Don't leave, Jay. We need you.' Set against that, Prima Donna repeatedly puts Jay down, snapping 'What kind of hero are you?' and agreeing when he says the team is better off without him, and Kiya's early 'Superheroes don't make mistakes' lands hard before it is corrected. Feelings swing sharply, from cheerful play to Jay's flat despair and Prima Donna's shrieking threat to destroy the crystal, and several tense moments involve characters in real danger, including Auntie Boosie dangling from a rooftop. Comfort does arrive, and Jay's closing apology names what he should have done differently, but children sensitive to shouting and put-downs will feel the sharper edges along the way.
Jay works the problem out himself: he asks aloud where he would hide if he were Unipug, reasons that Prima Donna never searched her own tour bus, goes there, and grabs what he thinks is the dog. He is wrong, and that failure is shown rather than skipped, which gives children a visible cycle of trying, getting it wrong and trying again. Motsy adds a second piece of reasoning by spotting the second slipper wedged in the gate and explaining that this is how Unipug got out. The one limit is that several rescues are settled instantly by superpowers, so the thinking is strongest in the search and weakest in the action beats.
Dialogue is spoken in clear, complete sentences at a comfortable pace, and the emotional vocabulary is genuinely useful: 'I should have told you how I was feeling', 'Accidents happen', 'Heroes don't give up, they rise up.' Music words are woven through Jay's story in a way a child can pick up from context, with friends asking why he sounds 'a little off-key' and 'out of tune'. Alongside that runs a steady stream of shouted catchphrases and cheers, from 'Crystal power, super time!' to repeated rounds of 'Yay!' and 'Go Jay!', which carry excitement rather than meaning. The balance still tips toward language that says something, especially in the conversations about mistakes and feelings.
The emotional core transfers well, since asking for help, owning a mistake and telling friends how you feel are things a child can practise the same day. Around that core, though, most of what happens on screen is not repeatable: crystal transformations, sonic blasts from a guitar, flying rescues and ninja flips. The everyday scaffolding is recognisable, with a fruit stall, a hair salon under the dryer and a lost pet everyone joins in to look for, and the social patterns of teasing, encouragement and reconciliation mirror real friendships. Fantasy carries the action, and the real-world payoff sits almost entirely in the feelings rather than the doing.

More information

This score shows how inclusively the series portrays diverse people, families and cultures. Scale: Limited → Varied → Rich → Inclusive.
Kimoja City is a bright African-inspired town where nearly everyone on screen is Black, drawn with a real range of skin tones, hairstyles (afros, braids, bantu knots, twists) and body shapes, from small children to grey-bearded market seller Rajabu and Auntie Boosie at the hair salon. The three heroes are two girls and one boy, and they take turns leading: Motsy handles the tech and gadgets, Kiya leads with dance moves, and Jay is the one who wobbles, doubts himself and says out loud that he should have told his friends how he was feeling. Jobs, ages and everyday settings vary a lot, from a fruit cart to a beauty salon to a tour bus. The main limitation is the antagonist Prima Donna, a pampered diva fussing over her hair, her slippers and her palace, which is a familiar and fairly narrow way to draw a self-absorbed woman.
This score shows whether the series stays close to everyday reality or leans into fantasy. Scale: Fantasy → Mixed reality → Realistic.
Kimoja City looks like an everyday town with market stalls, a hair salon and friends meeting up, but almost every problem is solved with superpowers rather than with ordinary effort. Kia, Motsi and Jay change into heroes who fly, blast sound and race, so a child watching sees rescues that cannot be copied in real life. Prima Donna spends the episode causing chaos and even turns on the heroes, which puts a good-against-trouble frame over the story, though her reason is one children know well: her pet is missing and she is upset. The powers themselves stay consistent from start to finish, and the emotional heart of the episode, Jay making mistakes and feeling worthless before telling his friends how he feels, is very recognizable.
This score shows how enjoyable the series is for parents watching along. Scale: Tedious → Tolerable → Pleasant → Enjoyable.
There is more here for a grown-up in the room than the bright surface suggests. Jay's confidence collapse gives the episode a real spine, and Prima Donna works as a small comic portrait of a celebrity who cannot admit a mistake, complete with spa day and a lapdog that turns out to be a slipper. The craft is genuinely strong: expressive character animation, a confident Afro-inspired design language, and music woven into the action rather than pasted on. What wears on adult nerves is the volume and the visual heat, near constant effects, shouted hero lines and a hot pink and orange palette that rarely lets up.

Themes

Making mistakes

Central

Jay knocks over a fruit cart, grabs a slipper instead of the dog and concludes 'I'm no Kimoja hero, more like a Kimoja zero.'

Superheroes

Central

Kiya, Motsy and Jay transform with 'Crystal power, super time!' and take on hero identities as dance ninja, tech racer and flying rockstar.

Friendship

Central

When Jay tries to leave the team, Kiya tells him 'We're a team. Don't leave, Jay. We need you.'

Perseverance

Central

Jay returns after giving up, saying he is ready, and uses his sound power to stop Prima Donna.

Lost and found

Central

The whole episode is a search for Prima Donna's missing pet Unipug, who turns out to be playing with Chicka Licka.

Helping others

Recurring

The heroes rescue Auntie Boosie from a rooftop and offer to help Prima Donna search even after she refuses.

Big feelings

Recurring

Jay admits at the end 'I should have told you how I was feeling' after hiding his self-doubt all episode.

Pets

Recurring

Unipug is treated as Prima Donna's best friend, and she cries 'My life would be nothing if I don't find Unipug.'

Rescue

Recurring

Motsy and Jay catch Auntie Boosie as she slips from the salon rooftop.

Community

Recurring

Market sellers, salon customers and neighbours across Kimoja City are drawn into the search.

Self acceptance

Recurring

Jay moves from calling himself a zero to accepting that heroes make mistakes and still belong.

Activities

Emotions

Behaviour

Social lessons

Antagonist

Prima Donna disrupts the city throughout and threatens 'I want to destroy your precious crystal.'

Mild conflict

Prima Donna shouts at the heroes and refuses their help while wrecking a mango display.

Danger

Auntie Boosie slips from a rooftop and Prima Donna traps the heroes before aiming at their crystal.

Teasing

Prima Donna laughs at Jay, asking 'What kind of hero are you?' and agreeing he should leave.

Loud sounds

Sonic blasts, crashes and alarm drums punctuate the action with sharp audio hits.

Fast pacing

Chases, flights and rescues follow one another with almost no quiet stretches.

Mild violence

A fruit cart is blasted over and characters tumble during the salon rescue.

Property destruction

Prima Donna knocks over market stalls and Jay's sonic blast destroys Rajabu's mango display.

Negative self talk

Jay says 'I'm no Kimoja hero, more like a Kimoja zero' and 'You're better off without me.'

Stereotypes

Princess archetype

Prima Donna lives at the 'Prima Palace', wears a tiara and demands treat days of mud soaks and manicures for her pet.

Gendered appearance

Prima Donna's storyline centres on her hairdo, palace and pampering, and Auntie Boosie's rescue is framed around saving her 'beautiful hairdo'.

In Kimoja City, Kiya, Motsy and Jay transform into heroes when Prima Donna's pet Unipug goes missing and she turns the market upside down looking for him. Jay's rescues keep going wrong, he wrecks a fruit cart and mistakes a slipper for the dog, and after Prima Donna mocks him he calls himself a Kimoja zero and walks away. Motsy discovers a second slipper stuck in the gate, explaining how Unipug escaped, and Prima Donna turns on the heroes and aims at their crystal. Jay comes back at his friends' urging, stops her with his sound power, Unipug is found playing safely nearby, and Jay apologises for not telling anyone how he felt.

Season 1

18 episodes

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes
S01 E01

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

Kiya and the Kite Monster

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 5

Kiya is getting ready for the Kimoja kite festival in Kimoja City and decides to build her kite alone instead of with her father, the way she does every year. When Acrobat disguises a motorised glider as a flying monster to steal food from her father's new community truck, Kiya insists on tackling him without Motsie and Jay, and Acrobat tricks her and carries her father off. She calls her friends in, divides the rescue between them, and together they free her father and drive Acrobat away. The festival and her father's truck open with the community gathered, and Kiya's finished kite flies alongside the others.

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes
S01 E02

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

Cosmic Catastrophe

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 5

In Kimoja City, Kiya and her friends Motsie and Jay are helping Daddy Joe prepare for the night of a million stars when an object crashes into the park and makes everyone nearby dance uncontrollably. The three transform into the Kimoja Heroes and discover the object is a fake meteorite built by Hattie Collider, who is boosting its signal to reach the whole city. Kiya insists on her own plan twice, and both attempts fail before she accepts her friends' ideas and uses the wild dancing itself to lure Galacto Slug away so Jay can destroy the device. Hattie then explains she was building a birthday surprise for Galacto Slug, and the two are invited to join the stargazing party.

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes
S01 E03

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

Zero to Hero

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 5

In Kimoja City, Kiya, Motsy and Jay transform into heroes when Prima Donna's pet Unipug goes missing and she turns the market upside down looking for him. Jay's rescues keep going wrong, he wrecks a fruit cart and mistakes a slipper for the dog, and after Prima Donna mocks him he calls himself a Kimoja zero and walks away. Motsy discovers a second slipper stuck in the gate, explaining how Unipug escaped, and Prima Donna turns on the heroes and aims at their crystal. Jay comes back at his friends' urging, stops her with his sound power, Unipug is found playing safely nearby, and Jay apologises for not telling anyone how he felt.

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes
S01 E04

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

Take a Step Back

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 5

At a city skate park, Kiya gets drawn into a dance challenge with Zane and cannot let go of losing, until her father MC Harmony tells her to take a step back. When Acrobrat steals a shopkeeper's new sign and starts wrecking the city on a giant hoverboard, Kiya and her friends Motsy and Jay transform into the Kimoja Heroes. Kiya chases Acrobrat so single-mindedly that her friends and family end up stranded in a tipping cable car, and she has to stop mid-pursuit to help them. The sign is returned to Rajabu's shop, Kiya apologises, and the group finishes with a dance together.

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes
S01 E05

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

Kiya's Potluck

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 5

Kiya and her dad are preparing food for a potluck when she is sent to the market for spices and meets MC Harmony, who is sad because her sister cannot visit. A market seller tells Kiya the legend of the golden cassava, said to cheer anyone up, and she sets out to find one. The search runs into a Kimoja Heroes mission, stopping Hattie Collider's robot from draining the river, and Kiya's divided attention triggers the machine's alarm and puts her friends and Galactoslug in danger. The team frees the slug and shuts the machine down, and although the cassava is destroyed, MC Harmony arrives at the potluck and says the company of friends is what lifted her mood.

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes
S01 E06

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

Musical Mash-Up

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 5

In Kimoja City, the community prepares to celebrate the blossoming of a thousand-year-old baobab tree, with Jay chosen to play the old Kimoja guitar at the concert. Prima Donna wants the stage for herself and has her pug Unipug take the guitar and every other instrument in the city. Kia, Motsi and Jay transform into the Kimoja Heroes and chase her down, though Jay leaves the group to make his solo and later returns to apologise and help. When his string breaks again, the crowd grabs pots and drums to play together, the heroes free the captured instruments, and Jay finishes the tune with everyone joining in.

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes
S01 E07

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

Going Solo in a Snowglobe

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 5

Jay looks for a quiet corner of the studio to practise guitar, but his sister Motsie keeps interrupting to demo her new super booster, and the two argue before Jay walks off. When he does not come back, Kiya and Motsie search the neighbourhood and discover that the inventor Hattie Toledo has shrunk him into a snow globe with her shrinking ray. Kiya distracts Hattie while Motsie fetches her booster, which amplifies Jay's crystal signal enough for him to transform and break out. The episode ends with the siblings apologising to each other and hugging.

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes
S01 E08

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

Revolting Robots

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 5

A storm has scattered trash across the park in Kimoja City, and Kiya, Jay and Motsy agree to clean it up before heading to the new skate ramp. Motsy rushes a helper robot so she can practise her jumps, and Hattie Collider copies the idea with a batch of her own Tidybots that quickly go rogue and start tidying market stalls, vehicles and even people. The heroes transform and hold the robots back while Motsy calms down, works out that the bots only obey their leader, and rebuilds her own robot to reprogram them. The robots switch to dancing instead of tidying, and the group finishes the park clean-up together before skating.

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes
S01 E09

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

A Little Birdy Told Me

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 5

Kiya, Motsie and Jay build a bird feeder in their park, where Jay attracts a bird by playing his guitar. Prima Donna captures the bird and a cageful of others to force her pet Unipug to learn to fly, so the three friends transform into the Kimoja Heroes to get them back. Jay frees the birds but they scatter across the city, and he is torn between keeping his new friend Zazzy and letting him lead the flock home. The team gathers the birds with seed and Jay's music, and the episode ends at the park with the flock back where it belongs.

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes
S01 E10

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

The Night of 1000 Lights

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 5

Kia and her friends in Kimoja are preparing for the Night of a Thousand Lights, when fireflies emerge from grubs protected under a force field. After Zane claims he has seen the legendary dancing sprites, Kia sneaks back to the baobab tree alone, leaves the force field switched off, and Acrobrat digs up the grubs to light his own stunt show. Kia admits her mistake, and the three heroes chase Acrobrat through the city and recover the jar. The grubs are returned to the ground, the fireflies rise at dusk, and the community dances under the lights.

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes
S01 E11

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

Fight or Flight

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 5

Kiya, Motsie and Jay visit the Uni-tree ride in Kimoja City, where Motsie and Jay cannot stop arguing about whether speed or flight is better. When Acrobrat takes over the ride controls and sends the pods spinning out of control with people still on board, the three transform into the Kimoja Heroes to help. Their competing plans keep cancelling each other out, and Kiya is left stranded until Jay and Motsie use their powers together to slow the ride down. Acrobrat leaves, the friends apologise to Kiya, and the group repairs the ride so everyone can use it again.

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes
S01 E12

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

Clash of the Kora

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 5

Jay is about to play Kiya's treasured family kora at Gogo Flo's class in the park when Prima Donna asks for a turn and he refuses, convinced she means to damage or steal it. Insulted, Prima Donna releases a carrier of bush babies across Kimoja City so the heroes are pulled away, then takes the kora and performs with it herself. Kiya, Jay and Motsi transform, return the animals to Auntie Boosie and confront her on stage. When Kiya explains that Prima Donna's own grandmother taught her to play, Jay apologises and the two finish the episode playing the kora together.

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes
S01 E13

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

Kiya and the Boombastic

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 5

Motsie builds a leaf blower to clean Kimoja Park before the Unity Globe sculpture is unveiled, and lends it to Kiya with a promise that she will look after it. Kiya leaves it behind while helping a stranded bush baby, and the mischief-maker Acrobrat picks it up and uses it to fire giant bouncy balls at the city. Kiya hides the loss from her friends until the trouble grows too big, then admits what happened and is forgiven. The three heroes work together to recover the blower, secure the Unity Globe and return it to the park, where the celebration goes ahead.

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes
S01 E14

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

Acroboo!

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 5

Kiya, Jay and Motsie are helping prepare a flower moon party in the nature reserve when strange noises and a glowing ghost start frightening everyone in Kimoja City. Kiya is scared but hides it after being teased, until she admits it to her friends, who tell her they get scared too and stay with her. Following the missing lanterns into the dark, the heroes find footprints and work out that the ghost is really Acrobrat playing a prank. The lanterns are returned, Jay apologises for the teasing, and the episode ends with everyone joining the flower moon dance.

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes
S01 E15

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

Smelly Business

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 5

Motsy is trying to invent the perfect perfume as an anniversary present for her two moms, but nothing she mixes smells right. When a smelly fog blankets the city, she blames her rival Hattie for stealing her secret notebook, and during the argument Hattie's spy satellite is destroyed and starts falling towards Kimoja. Kiya, Motsy and Jay transform into the Kimoja Heroes, clear the fog with Motsy's accidental de-smellifier, and catch the satellite pieces before they land. Motsy finds her notebook where she left it, apologises to Hattie over ice cream, and the family celebrates the anniversary together.

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes
S01 E16

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

Kiya's Monster Movie Night

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 5

Kiya finds an old copy of the film 'Tyrannobug Eats the World' and declares the evening a movie night for just her and her dad, but her friends Jay and Motsie turn up expecting to join. When the power across Kimoja City cuts out, the three transform into the Kimoja Heroes and trace it to Hattie Collider, who has drained the grid for her own giant home cinema. Hattie's machine merges her sidekick Galactoslug with the film creature, and the resulting Tyrannoslug rampages through the night until Kiya works out he simply wants a hug and a bucket of Ama Kip Kip. The episode ends with everyone, including Hattie, watching the film together outdoors.

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes
S01 E17

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

King of Pranks

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 5

In Kimoja City, a new Joking Jack prank comic arrives at the market and Jay boasts that he is the king of pranks. Soon banana peels, fake snakes and sticky glue globs start causing trouble around town, and Kiya, Motsie and Jay transform into the Kimoja Heroes to find out who is behind it. The culprit is Acrobat, and when Jay tries to out-prank him the plan backfires and leaves a mess, so he admits he went too far. The heroes track Acrobat to the cable car where he has built a giant glue blob, bounce it back at him with a combined move, and leave him stuck in his own trick.

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes
S01 E18

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

Bugging Out

Stimulating
recommended age Unlock co-watching from 5

In the city of Kimoja, the young inventor Hattie Collider is annoyed that Motsie gets all the praise for her latest gadget, so she plants tiny mechanical bugs in the heroes' equipment and sends Galacto Slug out to pretend he has gone rogue with a bunch of stolen traps. As citizens including Auntie Boosie and Kaleida get caught in the traps, Motsie's tools keep failing, and she walks away from the team feeling replaced. Alone in her workshop she finds a bug inside her zip tool, works out who put it there, and returns with a debugging upgrade. She frees the others, exposes Hattie in front of everyone, and the team heads off for a smoothie at Daddy Joe's.

Just launched: free lifetime premium for the first 1,000 members to activate their account.

Create your account

Search by title, show, tag, or topic

We use functional cookies and Google Analytics to improve our site. Read our cookie policy