Arabic Cartoons, TV Shows and Films for Learners

Arabic Learning Resources > Arabic Cartoons, TV Shows and Films

Most Arabic cartoons are in fusha, not dialect, and almost no list tells you which is which. Imported cartoons are dubbed into Modern Standard Arabic; series made in Egypt, the Gulf or the Levant are in the local dialect. That single split decides whether an hour of watching feeds your reading Arabic or your speaking Arabic. Start with Iftah Ya Simsim, the slowest fusha on this page.

Why most Arabic cartoons are in fusha

Cartoons brought into the Arab world get dubbed into Modern Standard Arabic rather than into any one dialect, because MSA is the only variety a child anywhere from Morocco to Oman is expected to follow. Spacetoon, the pan-Arab children's channel a generation grew up on, has historically sourced its dubs from Venus Centre, a Syrian dubbing company that works in MSA. The same logic drove Iftah Ya Simsim: its producers chose MSA after research found roughly 90 percent of Arab children could understand it.

For a learner this is good news and bad news at once. The good news is that a dubbed cartoon is comprehensible fusha at a speed no news broadcast will ever give you, which is the hardest thing to find. The bad news is that nobody talks like that. If your goal is to hold a conversation in Cairo or Beirut, the dubs will not get you there and the second table below is where you should be.

Everything below is free to watch unless the table says otherwise. Each show is given under its English name, its Arabic title in script, and the variety of Arabic you will hear in it.

Cartoons and shows dubbed in Modern Standard Arabic

These give you fusha listening practice. Every one is slower and more repetitive than adult television, which is the whole reason they work.

Series actually made in a dialect

These are the ones to watch if you want to speak. Each was made in one country for that country's audience, so the Arabic is the Arabic people really use, and it is a different language from the table above.

Live-action television and films

Once cartoons stop stretching you, historical drama is the natural next step: it is shot in fusha, which almost no live-action Arabic is, so it bridges the gap between children's dubs and the news.

How we chose, and what we left out

One rule decided every row: we had to be able to say what variety of Arabic you will hear. A recommendation that does not tell you whether a show is fusha or Egyptian is not a recommendation, because those are the two things a learner is choosing between. Where the variety could not be established from the production itself, the show is not on this page, however popular it is.

Two deliberate exclusions. Cartoon Arabi was on this page for years and has been removed: the site no longer resolves, and a dead link is worse than a short list. Masameer, the Saudi satire on Netflix, is the best-known Arabic animation in the world right now and is not in either table. Its studio, Myrkott, is in Riyadh and the show is written for adults, but we could not establish from any source we trust which register it actually uses, and this page does not guess. It is also the wrong place for a beginner to start whatever the answer turns out to be.

We have also left out the large YouTube channels that repost dubbed episodes without saying what they are. They work, but you cannot tell in advance what you are getting, and picking blind is how people give up on watching.

How to actually use these

Watch something once with subtitles and once without. The second pass is where the learning happens, and it only works if the episode is short, which is another reason cartoons beat films at the start.

Match the dialect to your goal before you invest months in it. If you have not chosen one yet, which Arabic dialect to learn walks through the decision, and Levantine Arabic has recordings you can play to hear what one of them sounds like before committing. Once you have chosen, the resource pages carry the courses and books that go with the watching: Levantine, Syrian, Egyptian and Gulf.

Where to go next

This page is the short version of four longer ones. Each takes one kind of watching or listening and gives it the same treatment the tables above give cartoons: what dialect you will actually hear, at what level, and where to find it free.

• Arabic films with English subtitles, listed by dialect — full-length cinema, with the country and the spoken variety named for every title.
• Arabic TV series by dialect, platform and level — the musalsalat, where the hours of natural dialect actually are.
• Arabic YouTube channels and podcasts for daily listening — short, free, and the only category you can realistically do every day.
• Arabic songs worth learning from, with a line of each chorus — script, transliteration and meaning, so a song is study rather than background noise.

Frequently asked questions

Are Arabic cartoons in fusha or in dialect?

Most are in fusha. Cartoons imported into the Arab world are dubbed into Modern Standard Arabic rather than any one dialect, because MSA is the only variety every Arab child is expected to follow. Spacetoon, the pan-Arab children's channel, has historically taken its dubs from Venus Centre, a Syrian dubbing company that works in MSA. Series actually made in the Arab world are the opposite: Bakkar is Egyptian, Freej is Emirati, Ahlan Simsim is Levantine.

Which Arabic cartoon is best for a beginner?

Iftah Ya Simsim, the Arabic co-production of Sesame Street. It was written for preschoolers in Modern Standard Arabic, deliberately, after research found that around 90 percent of Arab children could follow MSA. That makes it slow, repetitive and pitched at people who do not yet know the language, which is exactly what an adult beginner needs and almost nothing else on this page offers.

What Arabic cartoons are on Netflix?

Netflix carries the Saudi Masameer catalogue, including Masameer County, Masameer: The Movie and Masameer Junior, under a distribution deal the studio Myrkott signed in 2020. Masameer is adult satire from Myrkott, a Riyadh studio, and it is listening practice for advanced learners rather than a starting point. Netflix also carries a broad Arabic-language films and series category.

Can I learn Arabic just by watching cartoons?

Not on its own, but it fixes the problem most textbook learners have. Reading and grammar drills leave you unable to follow speech at natural speed. Cartoons run slower than adult television, repeat vocabulary heavily and carry meaning in the picture, so you can follow along before your listening is good. Pair them with a course; treat them as the listening half, not the whole thing.

Where can I watch Arabic cartoons for free?

YouTube carries most of them at no cost, including full playlists of fusha-dubbed fairy tales, the Arabic Cartoon Network channel, and Jordan's Roya TV. Al Jazeera Learning is a free site built specifically for Arabic learners. Playaling is free to browse and lets you filter clips by dialect and difficulty, which is the fastest way to find something at your level.

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• Arabic Songs to Learn Arabic, by DialectTwelve Arabic songs sorted by the dialect they are sung in, each with one line of the chorus in Arabic script, transliteration and plain English.
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