YMMV / Le Petit Nicolas

• Funny Moments:
  • The kids inadvertently get their junior recess guardian to run around pretending to be an aeroplane just as the headmaster and Mr Bouillon walk by.
  • In the movie, the scene where Nicolas' parents have dinner with his dad's boss.
  • Both the book and the movie versions of Nicolas cleaning the house by himself.
  • A conversation between Nicolas and his Father's Sitcom Arch-Nemesis Bledurt as the later is trying to start a fire after being caught in the rain:
  Blédurt: No good, the matches are wet.
  Nicolas: You should make a fire to dry them out.
  Blédurt: ... You truly are your father's son.
  • Another story has Nicolas' father forced to repaint the kitchen. Blédurt refuses to loan his ladder at first, until he learns what it's for, at which point he enthusiastically agrees and sits down to watch his ladder, which has never been so funny to watch. After more Passive-Aggressive Kombat that goes way over Nicolas' head, both men's wives come back, Blédurt's wife deciding he'll paint their kitchen the same color next weekend. Nicolas' father immediately volunteers to help in the same way.
• Germans Love Le Petit Nicolas: Outside of its native France, the series is also beloved in Germany under the title of "Der kleine Nick", in which Nicolas is named Nick.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • All the kids cheering for Clotaire in the movie after he has answered correctly.
  • When Nicolas is invited to Geoffroy's (the rich kid), his dad stares wide-eyed at the Big Fancy House before quickly driving off. When Nicolas sees all Geoffroy's toys, he agrees that they're cool, but that his father has a soapbox racer in the attic that he built himself, and it's a lot cooler. The story ends with Geffroy's father calling Nicolas' to ask if he could buy the racer, Nicolas' dad says no but agrees to help him build one, glowing with joy and proletarian pride.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The series is called "Lil' Nicolas", then came a certain French president noted for his small size named Nicolas Sarkozy...
• Unintentional Period Piece: The series is so very clearly set in The '50s in France (the later books may be set in the early Sixties as the currency is the new franc, introduced in 1959) and adaptations don't give it a Setting Update. Among other thing:
  • Same-sex school with uniforms, overly strict disciplinarian action.
  • Old-fashioned names, all French with no Arabs mentioned.
  • A color TV is treated as a fascinating piece of media.
  • Boys fascinated by cowboy and military airplane movies.
  • Celebrities of the time mentioned, such as soccer players Raymond Kopa and Just Fontaine.
  • When the boys play football, they use the formation with 2 full-backs, 3 half-backs and 5 forwards, which was out of favour by the mid-sixties.
  • The boys are described as going to watch 1950s-1970s TV show "Sports Dimanche".
• Values Dissonance: When the school inspector visits Nicolas' class, he tries to get them to loosen up by telling a certain joke about two deaf men fishing. Today such a joke comes across as at best a bit insensitive, and probably not the kind of joke an authority figure should be telling kids!
  • Nicolas is given spankings sometimes when he misbehaves too much. Physical punishment on children was common in the 1950s and 1960s but is considered a big no-no in most Western societies nowadays.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The second film has a scene where an attractive female tourist invites Nicholas' father to go skinny dipping with her at a private spot of the beach, then proceeds to remove her clothes and the camera shows her naked from the back. While Nicholas' father is naked too, his intimate parts are hidden behind a piece of garment. Given that it has a G rating, this explicit content wasn't supposed to be featured on such film aimed at kids. Even an IMDB user reviewing the film complained about this.

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