Michela Luci
Overview
When a giant Grippity-Grab snags Grizelda's friendship bracelet and turns her into a mermaid, True heads under the sea with magic wishes to save the day.
Cast
7 people
Reviews
4 min readThe Underwater Classroom: How True: Friendship Day Teaches Without a Lesson Plan
I’ll admit it: when I first queued up True: Friendship Day, I braced for the kind of preschool entertainment that feels like a sugar rush—bright, loud, and over before you’ve even finished your coffee. But twenty-three minutes later, I was surprised to find myself lingering on its oddly serene underwater world, where the stakes are low but the emotional logic runs deep. This isn’t just a story about rescuing a friend turned mermaid; it’s a quiet argument for how children’s media can honor its audience’s intelligence without sacrificing wonder.
The special opens with True, the show’s perpetually optimistic protagonist, preparing for Friendship Day in the Rainbow Kingdom. The setup is pure preschool wish-fulfillment: a land where magic wishes exist, where problems are solved with a sprinkle of glitter and a well-timed incantation. But the moment True dives beneath the waves to rescue Grizelda—transformed into a mermaid by the mischievous Grippity-Grab—the story takes a turn toward something more interesting.
The underwater sequences are where Friendship Day reveals its hand: this isn’t just a rescue mission, but a lesson in empathy disguised as an adventure.
What’s striking about the special’s approach is how it refuses to talk down to its audience. The conflict isn’t resolved through brute force or even True’s signature magic wishes—it’s Grizelda’s own agency that saves the day. When she realizes the Grippity-Grab isn’t a villain but a lonely creature acting out, she offers it the one thing it’s missing: a friendship bracelet.
The moment is so simple it borders on cliché, but the execution is what sells it. There’s no heavy-handed narration, no adult character stepping in to explain the moral. Instead, the story trusts its young viewers to connect the dots themselves.
Audience Opinions
Limited evidence
"A gentle undersea friendship rescue for little True fans rather than a big event movie."
True heads under the sea with magic wishes to save Grizelda after a giant Grippity-Grab snags her friendship bracelet and turns her into a mermaid. Released September 1, 2020 and streaming online with a Netflix Jr trailer, it plays as a cozy friendship story for preschool viewers. latestnetflix.com's take is that Audience buzz is quiet, with only a handful of user ratings landing around the middle, so it feels like a familiar series special that families put on for young kids.
What viewers praise
- Undersea mermaid rescue story True uses magic wishes under the sea to save Grizelda after her friendship bracelet is snagged
- Family-friendly streaming pick Available to stream online with an official Netflix Jr trailer aimed at young viewers
Common complaints
- Quiet middle-of-the-road reception User score sits around the middle from only a few active users, suggesting limited buzz beyond core fans
Recommended for
Preschool fans of True and the Rainbow Kingdom Families looking for a short friendship and mermaid tale
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsPharrell's preschool show clocked a mermaid special as a movie
True: Friendship Day is a 22-minute Netflix drop that listings still file like a feature. TMDB lists it as animation, September 1, 2020, 23 minutes, directors Mark Thornton and Todd Kauffman. Netflix Jr. sold a trailer. Guru Studio sent a press note. latestnetflix.com's read is that the plot is a giant Grippity-Grab stealing Grizelda's friendship bracelet and turning her into a mermaid.True goes underwater with magic wishes. That is the whole machine. 
, ,
Animation Magazine printed Guru's August 26, 2020 note. The special would hit Netflix on September 1. The series had launched in 2017. By that week the show's YouTube channel was past 350 million views and the GIPHY page was past 2 billion shares. The same item flagged a 2020 Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Preschool Animated Program. Consumer products were already on Amazon. Storybooks, activity books, costumes, plush. Guru's other credits in the same paragraph were PAW Patrol, Abby Hatcher, Justin Time, and The Breadwinner. The look comes from FriendsWithYou. Pharrell Williams is executive producer.
The Toy Insider posted a day earlier, August 25, with the trailer and the same mermaid beat. Jackie Cucco framed it as True and Bartleby the cat going under the sea. World Screen's TVKIDS desk ran the same 22-minute synopsis the same day and repeated the YouTube view count. Three trades, one talking point. Friendship Day as a calendar stunt. A bracelet as the MacGuffin. A preschool producer credit for a pop star who did not need another one. ,
The voices they already had
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W0FF98Ykpw
TMDB's billed list is the series regulars. Michela Luci as True. Anna Claire Bartlam. Julie Lemieux. Jamie Watson. Nicolas Aqui. Derek McGrath. Eric Peterson. Netflix's title page adds Cory Doran and lists creators Jeff Borkin, Samuel Borkson, and Arturo Sandoval III. Borkson and Sandoval are FriendsWithYou. The special did not hunt a new celebrity voice. It used the shop. The Netflix page rates it TV-Y and tags it Canadian, kids, teamwork, pets. TMDB's rating is All. The trailer on the title page runs about a minute. ,
The gossip is not a leak. It is the filing. A 22-minute underwater rescue got a movie ID, a trailer on YouTube, and a September 1 stamp next to films that actually run an hour. That is how Netflix Jr. keeps a series in the app between seasons. Friendship Day was the hook. The bracelet was the prop. The Emmy nomination sat on the series, not on a secret adult subplot. Linear TV pickups around the world were part of the same August note, which is how a 2017 streaming show keeps looking new. ,
If there is a rumor worth marking as rumor, it is the idea that a famous producer sat in on the underwater pass. Nobody in the cited notices says he did. They say executive producer, 2017 launch, 2020 special. Keep him in the credit block. Do not invent a studio visit. Thornton and Kauffman, already the series directors, did not become a story. The nomination did. Outstanding Directing for a Preschool Animated Program is a long category name for a 22-minute bracelet chase. It still tells you the company wanted a trophy next to the merch. Guru timed the press for the last week of August, which is when toy desks need a clip. The Toy Insider write-up sits next to playsets because that is the desk. Pharrell's name does the adult work. FriendsWithYou's shapes do the preschool work. The trades already told you the only numbers that moved. Views, shares, a date, a mermaid. , ,
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.