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Little Einstein's Go to Africa
Upon receiving Little Einstein’s Go to Africa,
I was a little perplexed about how to approach it. Obviously the show is
clearly aimed at young children. There is nothing really here for
anybody above the age of five. So do I review it from the perspective of
a responsible adult and parent (which I’m not), from the perspective of
a child (which is a little closer), or from the perspective of an
accomplished and objective DVD reviewer (which hopefully Andrew thinks I
am)? After all a pre schoolers opinion of the show isn’t going to be
affected by an internet critics DVD review. So instead I just watched
the thing so I could give people an idea of what to expect.
Little Einstein’s is an
animated Disney production that centres around four kids, Leo, June,
Quincy and Annie and their aircraft Rocket. Each episode they have a
mission where they find a problem to solve, with a little help from the
home viewer. It is an edutainment program of sorts, yet instead of
focussing on basic learning skills like speaking, comprehension and such
it instead concentrates on music and art. So the gang will face a
problem and using classical music and art appreciation they will
eventually solve it. The show also requires viewer interaction, as the
four kids will often address the screen telling them to do something,
such as tapping a beat, wiggling their fingers or singing along. It is
certainly a different approach to other edutainment fare, I don’t
believe I’ve ever seen a children’s TV show touting great classical and
Baroque era composers before, or one that teaches children rhythm using
musical terms like “allegro” or “presto”. Whether this sinks through in
children is debatable but it’s refreshing to see a kids show teaching
kids about high culture from the past.
There really isn’t that much more to say about the
show, it looks nice, using a mixture of classic and computer animation.
The voice acting makes all the story points very clear and does a nice
job of illustrating the challenges to the viewers. The DVD contains two
other animated shorts in its bonus features that aren’t related to the
show. It really isn’t a DVD set that demands scene specific commentaries
so it is nice that Disney included two extra shorts to make it more
worthwhile.
When all is said and done, Little Einstein’s Go to
Africa is a show that serves up a decent enough animated show that
also teaches young children about classical music and art. When you see
kids these days growing up listening to whatever manufactured pop crap
is chucked on the radio, it is nice to see that some shows are still
touting the values of beautiful music. If you’re over five and don’t
have a child, well then you probably clicked the wrong link. But if you
have a kid of your own or are an extremely savvy pre schooler, then you
could do worse than Little Einstein’s. |
