If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

The New York Times has a lengthy article about The Wonder Pets. One element of the article discusses why Ming-Ming has twoubles with her R’s.

Ms. Johnson said the show had received some questions from parents who wonder why Ming-Ming talks the way she does, turning R’s into W’s. She said that when Danica Lee, the 7-year-old New Jersey girl who gives voice to the character, auditioned for the role nearly three years ago, the producers noticed the speech pattern, one that is common in young children and is usually outgrown. Danica, in fact, had done so by the time recording of the new shows began, Ms. Johnson said. But, she added, “we thought it so charming that we asked her to keep it.”

Share This

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the premier of Blue’s Clues. Nickelodeon is doing several things to celebrate:

• Primetime Movie: On September 10th at 7:00pm a Blue’s Clues movie titled Meet Blue’s Baby Brother will air. In the movie Blue’s brother Sprinkles. The movie will feature a melding of Joe & Blue with the puppets from Blue’s Room.
• New Season: Nick Jr. is also commencing production on a 10 episode season of Blue’s Room.

Share This

The Wonder Pets is the latest preschool television offering from Nick Jr. The Wonder Pets are a guinea pig (Linny), a duckling (Ming-Ming) and a turtle (Tuck), who go on various adventures. The adventures begin when the trio receive a call that a baby animal is in trouble. They then assemble their Flyboat which will take the pets wherever they are needed. What is unique about the show is that it is done entirely opera style, with all the dialogue sung.

The show was created and is produced by Josh Selig. Selig isn’t new to preschool TV. He was the creator of Go, Baby! and Oobi, a writer on Sesame Street, and the head writer for Little Bill. I had the opportunity to watch the first episode with my kids.
(more…)

Share This

A couple months ago we came across Magic School Bus while looking for something different. After watching the first episode, it quickly became one of my 5 year old son’s favorites. He is a big fan of science and nature, and the stories and settings are very engaging and accessible.

For those unfamiliar with the premise, Ms. Frizzle takes her elementary school class on adventures in a magical school bus. The bus can shrink, grow, and pretty much accomplish anything (ala Rocket on Little Einsteins). The curriculum was largely science based with adventures looking at friction, germs, and the oxygenation of blood. The show aired for four 13 episode seasons from 1994 through 1998 on PBS.

Ms Frizzle was voiced by Lily Tomlin, and Malcom Jamal Warner had a recurring role as the show’s animated producer. Other guest voices included Ed Asner, Rita Moreno, Dan Marino, and Alex Trebek. The catchy, upbeat theme song is peformed by Little Richard.

While the show is aimed at the older preschool/kindergarten set, it does provide a nice change of pace if you’ve had your fill of Nick, Noggin, and Playhouse Disney. The show airs on Discovery Kids weekdays at 7:00am, 1:00pm, and 1:30pm.

For more information:
Scholastic Web Page
Discovery Kids Magic School Bus Page
Wikipedia Entry

Magic School Bus, television

Share This

Below is a compilation of reviews of It’s a Big Big World:

Mainstream Media: The positives

St Petersburg Times: Welcome to a brave new world. The reviewer was a fan of the show, and a big fan of Shadowmation.

It’s not Sesame Street. It’s not a cartoon. It’s hard to say what it is.

Except that it’s really cool.

While the storytelling is soothing and clear, the visuals - created in a process dubbed Shadowmation - are the star. Unlike anything else on the air, Big, Big World delivers a beautiful, brightly colored package - a cross between puppetry and animation - that befuddles the eye and gives life to characters that beg to be made into giant, fluffy toys.

(more…)

Share This

On Monday, January 2nd PBS Kids will debut a new show titled It’s a Big Big World. The show takes place in The World Tree where a number of animals native to the rainforest make their homes. The show uses a mix of puppetry, animatronics, and computer animation called Shadowmation. The educational goals include science and geography. My initial impression after seeing the show is Bear in the Big Blue House meets Go Diego Go with a little Bill Nye. The flow of the show, and the characters call to mind “Bear.” But the setting, and emphasis on problem solving resemble Diego with a curriculum that would make The Science Guy proud.

The test audience (my almost 5 year old son, and 2 1/2 year old daughter) and I watched the first episode, “Not Found Here.” The show began with Snook waking up and talking to the viewers. My son was instantly engaged, laughing and answering the questions that Snook posed.

Smooch and Winslow, a pair of marmosets come looking to Snook for help. The primates are looking for a friend they had recently met named Wartz. Unfortunately Smooch and Winslow didn’t remember very much about Wartz, or where they could find him. Snook, being the helpful sloth that he is, agrees to help track down Wartz. Because they have very little information to work with, Snook suggests that they find all the places Wartz isn’t so that eventually they find the one place he is – essentially the scientific method.

Along the way the trio check with the other inhabitants of The World Tree. Here we meet the rest of the characters. First they visit Burdette, who I believe is a macaw and is a little bit bossy. Next they stop and see a slightly neurotic, ant-obsessed anteater named Bob. Other friends along the way include a monkey named Oko who seems to be Mr Miyagi with a little bit of Shaggy thrown in, a fish named Ick, and a wise old turtle named Madge.
(more…)

Share This

If you’ve ever wondered what exactly Uniqua from The Backyardigans is, Blogging Baby has the answer. Uniqua is unique and doesn’t represent an actual animal.

But she’s … nothing. According to creator Janice Burgess, Uniqua is just her. “Uniqua is her name, and also her species – with her purple skin, pink spots, and dainty antennae, she doesn’t look like any other creature on the planet.”

Share This

In October Little Einsteins premiered on the Disney Channel, and instantly became a favorite in our household. The show manages to combine fine arts with other educational elements such as science, geography, and problem-solving. The show manages to actively engage kids and encourage participation.

The show’s mission is stated as:

Little Einsteins encourages your child to investigate their own curiosity, helping develop a lifelong passion for discovery and learning. Appreciation of music and art are made fun and exciting as the team discovers the real world and interacts in a whole new way with music, art, nature and more.

Premise
The premise of the show is that viewers help four children go on various missions to solve problems or accomplish tasks. Each of the children has a special aptitude for something related to music. Leo conducts, June is a dancer, Annie sings, and Quincy plays instruments. Classical music plays a major role in each show. A particular piece is specifically introduced at the beginning of each episode, and then serves as the score. After the mission is completed, the music takes a curtain call. Similarly, the shows also feature a piece of art or something of the ilk (one episode used a hieroglyphic tablet while another used Najavo baskets). The children interact inside the art at some point in the episode.

There is a fifth member of the team that makes all the missions possible. “Rocket” takes the kids where ever the mission takes them. Rocket follows in the pattern of Dora’s backpack or Diego’s Rescue pack in that it can accomplish or morph into whatever is necessary.

In addition to the fine arts educational component, the show features lessons in geography and problem solving. Missions have taken the kids to the Great Wall of China, the Grand Canyon, the Sphinx, and Buckingham Palace. What makes these journey’s more vibrant is that the locations are real - in that backgrounds are photographic or live action as opposed to animated.

The Grown-Ups
As for the adults involved in making the show, the breadth of experience is impressive. The executive producer is Eric Weiner who was one of the creators of Dora the Explorer and the writing and creative team has experience with Blue’s Clues & Clifford among other shows.

The show is produced by Curious Pictures.

The Results
In my household the show accomplishes everything it has set out to do. While the show is supposed to be geared towards 3 to 6 year olds, my two year old loves it just as much as my 4 year old. In terms of interactivity both of them are very engaged. They pat for more power, they raise their arms for blast off, and the crescendo & diminuendo on cue.

I don’t know how much the art is sinking in, but they are definitely absorbing the music. In fact, from the Halloween episode the Little Einsteins kids trick or treated by singing along to Edvard Grieg. On Halloween night my kids sang the same song - at every household.

As a parent of course I’m thankful for a relaxing half hour while the kids are totally engaged. But more than that I like the show. It isn’t annoying, and it doesn’t have any troublesome characteristics or characters.

Little Einsteins airs at 8:00am & 12:30pm on the Disney Channel. If you can’t get enough of the show, there is also a DVD: Disney’s Little Einsteins - Our Big Huge Adventure (aff link)

Episode Guide: Little Einsteins
Show Web Page: Little Einsteins

Tags: little einsteins | disney | television

Share This

This fall PBS began airing new episodes of Jay Jay the Jet Plane called Jay Jay’s Mysteries. The shows are actually half-episodes that in my market air paired with an old episode to make the half-hour block. I’d guess that they air as standalone episodes on PBS Sprout though.

The new mystery episodes seem to be combining as many elements of Dora the Explorer as possible. They’ve added an Hispanic airplane named Lina, so that kids can learn Spanish. The episodes are in a problem solving format in the ilk of Blue’s Clues, Dora the Explorer, and Journey to Ernie. In addition to Lina, there is another member of the “cast” named Montana.

The mysteries are based on around a certain topic, which typically has a scientific type base. Some of the new episodes include The Mystery of Water, The Mystery of Weather, and The Mystery of Size and Shape.

The Mystery of Size and Shape is the episode that I sat and watched attentively. Brenda Blue basically lectured about shapes to Jay Jay and Lina. They then went out and found examples of squares, triangles, circles, etc. in the world around them. They then went back for more lecture about sizes. The problem they ultimately had to solve was finding a hat that was in a cave. As it turns out Lina was the only plane small enough to retrieve the hat. In the end Lina ended up feeling good about her size (earlier in the episode she was sad she was so small).

While the shows have connected with my 4 year old son, my two year old daughter doesn’t even want to be in the room when it is on. My son has been a fan of Jay Jay for awhile though, so for him it was nice to just have new episodes.

As for my take, I’ve never been a real big fan of Jay Jay. It’s harmless enough, and some of the songs are charming and catchy, but in terms of educational value it always seemed on the light side. The effort was always there, yet the message didn’t seem to connect with my kids. While the educational component seems to have been beefed up with the new mystery series, it seems like it has already been done by so many other shows already. Also, most of the education is done essentially classroom style by Brenda Blue.

If your kids liked Jay Jay before, they’ll most likely still enjoy it. But if they weren’t a fan, I don’t think this will convert them.

There will be 10 new episodes released this fall (2005) and 10 more in 2006.

Show Link: Jay Jay The Jet Plane
Press Release: New Jay Jay Episodes

Share This

After about of month of hype, Noggin launched Jack’s Big Music Show on September 12th. The show became the highest rated premiere in the station’s history.

The show’s goals are:

N O G G I N: For Parents: Shows: Jack’s Big Music Show: “The mission of Jack�s Big Music Show is to expose and foster an appreciation of music. Music and musical instruments help children expand their universe and develop memory, language, literacy and reasoning skills as well as the cognitive, social and motor skills that are needed to excel in school. In Jack�s clubhouse, music is pure joy�no expectations and no right or wrong way, just music for music�s sake. Or in Jack�s words, �super swell!�”

As for the show itself, it is focused around 3 puppets: Jack, his friend Mary, and

his dog Mel. The show takes place in Jack’s clubhouse where he and his friends play a wide variety of music. The educational theme in the episodes I’ve seen seem to focus on social skills - and of course music and dancing. In addition to the action in the clubhouse, there are also music videos from various performers including Laurie Berkner.

The performers for the main puppet characters all have substantial Sesame Street/Muppet experience. John Kennedy who does Mel has done Animal in several Muppet productions. David Rudman is the source of Baby Bear on Sesame Street and voices Cookie Monster on Play With Me Sesame.

The show gets a thumbs up in our house. While it doesn’t rate the must-see status that Go Diego Go or Little Einstein’s receive, it is well received. The songs are catchy and not annoying - so far. Plus the inclusion of Laurie Berkner gives it credibility. While the show does preach music and movement and dancing, my kids tend not to participate in the dancing for the most part.

Other bloggers tend to support the show as well. Modern Day Dad is a fan, as is Mean Teacher.

The initial block of shows contains 13 episodes. It can be seen at 12:30pm and 4:30pm on Noggin.

**You can find the music from Season 1 of Jack’s Big Music Show in the TV for Tots Store - powered by Amazon**

Share This