Talk:Little Tadpoles Looking for Mama

Requested move 13 March 2026

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. Move to Little Tadpoles Looking for Mama. Some other options were presented, but this seems like the best translation with support from sources, and has general consensus. (non-admin closure) {{GearsDatapacks|talk|contribs}} 08:28, 11 April 2026 (UTC)

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Where is Mama → Where Is Mama? – I think this needs a question mark, and uppercase "Is" per MOS:CT. However, the English title may be unsourced. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 01:26, 13 March 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. Jeffrey34555 (talk) 04:38, 20 March 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. {{GearsDatapacks|talk|contribs}} 15:35, 27 March 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. TarnishedPath^talk 05:12, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

• Comment According to a brief unscientific Google search, the cartoon is usually referred to by a more literal translation: the first three pages give me "Little Tadpole Looking for Mummy" (x6), "Little Tadpoles Search for Mama" (x2), "Little Tadpoles looking for Mama" (x2), "Little Tadpole Looking for Mom", "Baby Tadpoles Look for Their Mother", "Tadpoles Looking for Their Mommy", and "Tadpoles Looking for their Mama", with only one site apart from Wikipedia (Letterboxd) using "Where Is Mama" (with no question mark). There doesn't appear to be an official English title. I would recommend using one of the attested literal translations, although at this stage I'm not sure which would be preferable. Tevildo (talk) 08:00, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

The article's opening sentence says the literal translation is 'Little Tadpoles Looking for Mama'. That seems good for me. I see that's not the one you found the most, but it seems like we ought to be able to figure out whether the literal translation is singular or plural about the number of tadpoles. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 17:43, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

My search will probably have been biased by my location, but I'd recommend we use "Mama" rather than "Mummy" or "Mom" as it's an "Atlantic-neutral" word. "Little Tadpoles Looking for Mama" looks good to me. Tevildo (talk) 18:07, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

One extra point - as I understand it from our article (and definitely not from personal knowledge), Mainland Chinese does not have grammatical number or articles, so a literal translation could use "A little tadpole" or "Little tadpoles" with equal accuracy. The cartoon itself depicts a group of tadpoles, so the plural might be more appropriate, but that can't be determined simply from the title without watching the cartoon. Tevildo (talk) 02:07, 16 March 2026 (UTC)

OK, so at the moment we're looking at Little Tadpoles Looking for Mama. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 03:05, 16 March 2026 (UTC)

Note to closing admin - I would recommend that we move the article without leaving a redirect. "Where is Mama" is not attested as the name of the cartoon apart from the Wikipedia article. Tevildo (talk) 22:19, 20 March 2026 (UTC)

There are about 18 links to the article that would need repairing if we don't leave a redirect. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 00:16, 21 March 2026 (UTC)

A handy list:

Articles that link to "Where Is Mama"

Article	Name used in source	Already redirected
Chinese animation	Tadpoles Searching for Mother	Yes
List of Chinese animated films	No source, but Little Tadpole Looks for Mamma given as alternative	No
Shanghai Animation Film Studio	Little Tadpole Looking for Mom (machine translation)	No
Te Wei	Xiao ke dou zhao ma ma	No, but we have Xiao Kedou zhao Mama
Hundred Flowers Award for Best Animation	Baby Tadpoles Look for Their Mother	No
Ink wash animation	Tadpoles Searching for Mother	Yes
Dai Tielang	Little Tadpoles Looking for Mummy	No
Yang Hongying	Little Tadpoles Looking for Mama	Yes
Deaths in September 2019	little tadpole looking for mother [sic] (machine translation)	No
2019 in animation	little tadpole looking for mother (same source as above)	No
1930 in animation	little tadpole looking for mother (same source as above)	No
14th Locarno Film Festival	XIAOKEDOU ZHAO MAMA	No, but see above
Jiao Yesong	Tadpoles Searching for Mother	Yes

Hope this helps with any cleanup required. Tevildo (talk) 08:23, 21 March 2026 (UTC)

Relisting comment: Current consensus appears to be "Little Tadpoles Looking for Mama", but more discussion is needed {{GearsDatapacks|talk|contribs}} 15:35, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

• Just to summarize - Plural rather than singular (as the film is about a group of tadpoles, and the plural is used by all sourced human translations), and "Mama" rather than "Mother", as the Chinese is a hypocorism ("Mother" would be 母亲, Mǔqīn, not 妈妈, Mama). The only real ambiguity is "Little" versus "Baby", and "Little" is used by most of the sources. Tevildo (talk) 21:59, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

Note: WikiProject Animation/Asian animation work group, WikiProject China, WikiProject Film/Chinese cinema task force, WikiProject Animation/Animated films work group, WikiProject Film, and WikiProject Animation have been notified of this discussion. TarnishedPath^talk 05:13, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

• Support a move to "Little Tadpoles Looking for Mama", per above discussion. This is also the best literal translation in my view. Toadspike [Talk] 08:17, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Following the move, I've created the redirects above, and removed all mainspace links to Where is Mama. It _could_ go to RfD now, but there are still lots of links from other namespaces. Tevildo (talk) 13:51, 11 April 2026 (UTC)