Tot TV Watch

The Land Before Time: Adventuring in the Mysterious Beyond is one of three DVDs already out (another one is coming out in May 2008) with episodes of the Land Before Time television cartoon series. This cartoon series features kid dinosaurs of different species that are all friends. The show is based on the series of Land Before Time movies, which still has sequels being released almost every year with number 14 coming out later this year. This DVD contains four episodes of the show and has a run time of about an hour and a half.

The first episode is called “The Great Egg Adventure.�? In this episode the group of friends team up with one of their enemies to get the sharp tooth eggs out of the Great Valley and keep their home a safe place. he second episode is called “Escape From the Mysterious Beyond.�? In this episode two of the dinosaur friends including the friendly sharp tooth, Chomper, get stuck on a ledge with a mean sharp tooth who wants to eat them. The third episode is called “The Lonely Journey.�? In this episode Chomper feels left out as his vegetarian friends prepare for the Thanksgiving like holiday and the adult plant eaters make general remarks against sharp tooths. The fourth episode is called “The Hermit of Black Rock.�? In this episode the flying friend of the group, Petri, and a glider get lost and befriend a blind flying dinosaur and work together to get back to the Great Valley.

This show is a great entertaining show about dinosaurs that work together and display how the bonds of friendship should be. The shows are still played often on Cartoon Network, so it really is not a must get for the shows, however, I do recommend this DVD because it has some good special features. The main special feature is a pattern game that challenges kids to pick the next egg that goes in the pattern. It really does a great job of being challenging on the harder version and I bet even some adults will need to take some time to figure a few of the patterns out. Also, if you put the DVD in a DVD-ROM you can get access to coloring pages and connect-the-dot pages to print out.

Recently the show Mighty B premiered on Nickelodeon. I caught the first episode and after that I was totally turned off from watching it. Actually after the first few minutes of the annoying nagging of the main character, Bessie, I wanted to turn it off, but I stuck it out and gave the show a chance by watching the whole episode. And it did not get any better, although, at least there was less nagging towards the end.

In the first episode she is trying to get the Animal Appreciation Badge. First she needs to convince her mom to let her get a dog, so she can compete in the Honeybee Dog Show.. In this part she is extremely obnoxious and rattles off reasons in a fast obnoxious voice. Actually she is just plain obnoxious throughout the show, especially with her spitty sounding way of talking. Also, there is an obnoxious part where she spends like a minute saying stay over and over to the dog. The only thing I like about the first episode is her little brother, who obviously looks up to her and helps her out in training the dog and her getting the badge in the end.

The second part of the first episode is about her trying to become tall enough to ride a roller coaster. Again she is just an obnoxious kid and the plots just do not have any value to them besides annoying entertainment.

Basically in the end I think this new show is another obnoxious Nickelodeon pointless plot cartoons like Spongebob, which is another cartoon I think is totally stupid and does not even have entertainment value. Bottom line is the idea of the show had good potential about a girl getting badges and going for her goals, but in the end the annoying character of Bessie and the lack of any depth to the plots makes this an entirely pointless show that is not even mindless entertainment, but rather mindless boredom. If kids are going to be watching television, I feel the shows should at least have some minimal value of showing proper behavior, which this show does not do.

If you have not heard of The Land Before Time dinosaurs, then where have you been? Really, with them coming out with a new movie almost every year in the series it is hard to not notice this series. Plus, the movies are on television at least once a week between being shown on Cartoon Network, the Disney Channel, and Toon Disney. It does seem that when a movie series gets to sequel XIV (14 for those bad with Roman numerals), which comes out this year, that the series would be entirely dead and boring. That may be the case of the movies, but I cannot say for sure because I do not think I ever got past three or four. The characters have come to a fresh light, though, with the television series based on the movies.

The Land Before Time television series plays on Cartoon Network. It debuted last year on March 5, 2007. There has not been any new episodes since January 2008. I do not know if there will be a second season of the show, but the show does at least play repeat episodes every weekday at 10am Eastern time on Cartoon Network. Even if kids have not seen the movies this is a great show, although, it may be slightly more easily enjoyed if they are already familiar with the characters. This is a good show for preschoolers, but I think some grade school kids may also enjoy this show because of the dinosaur characters and the show is not made to be too kiddish. The best thing about the show is that through the plots it teaches about the bonds of friendship, working together, and other various lessons depending on the episode.

There are several different dinosaurs that hang out with the pack of kid dinosaur friends. The main ones are Littlefoot the Apatosaurus, Cera the Triceratops, Petrie the Pteranodon, and Chomper the Tyrannosaurus, who unlike the other sharptooths (carnivore dinosaurs) is friendly to his herbivore friends and is only shown eating insects.

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Welcome to this week’s edition’s list of kid’s television shows that have new episodes airing this week. I try to make this as complete as possible, but I may sometimes miss something. Please comment and let me know if I forgot to include something that has a new episode airing this week. All times are listed as Eastern time as given by TV Guide, but may vary depending on your location, especially when the shows are on local stations like PBS.

Monday, April 28

10am on Nickelodeon - Wonder Pets!: This new episode is called “Save the Gecko/Save the Ladybug.”

2:30pm on the Disney Channel - The Replacements: This new episode is called “Volcano Island.”

5:30pm on PBS - WordGirl: This new episode is called “Princess Triana & the Ogre of Castlebum/Summertime.”

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With a special Little Einsteins week coming up next week on Playhouse Disney I thought it would be good to to an extra DVD review this week on one of the Little Einsteins DVDs. I do not know if this is the best Little Einsteins DVDs, but it is the first one I personally watched and I was impressed by the bonus feature it has.

Little Einsteins: The Legend of the Golden Pyramid contains three episodes of the Little Einsteins show. The first episode is the same as the name of the DVD. “The Legend of the Golden Pyramid” episode is about the Little Einsteins going on a mission in Ancient Egypt to find the golden pyramid and unlock it to release the music inside. The featured tune for this episode is by Johannes Brahms.

The second episode on this DVD is called “Dragon Kite.” In this episode the Little Einsteins end up in China helping to find Dragon Kites and return them to the kite festival at the Great Wall of China. The tune featured in this episode is by Edvard Greig.

The third episode is called “Annie and the Little Toy Plane.” This episode is set in San Francisco. In the episode the Little Einsteins help a toy plane rescue a helicopter that is stuck in a giant redwood tree. The tune for this episode is by Wolfgang Amadeau Mozart.

If you have not noticed from my other TV on DVD reviews, bonus features are something I think is important to be included on DVDs. Really if there is not a good bonus feature, then why would I want to buy a DVD of a show I could just record on Tivo or my DVR. This DVD does not disappoint in regards to its bonus feature. The bonus feature is a great interactive storybook game called Little Einsteins Storybook Mission: Where’s Froggy’s Family?

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I think many kids today are not familiar with the original Speed Racer, however some may have seen it, as I believe it used to repeat on Cartoon Network. Also, Nickelodeon did the short lived Speed Racer X series back in 2002. Parents on the other hand may remember the original series from when they were a kid. One thing is for certain this comeback of the series has good potential to be an entertaining show for kids, especially those aspiring race car drivers.

The newest revival of the Speed Racer series is called Speed Racer - The Next Generation and will normally be airing on Nicktoons. Tomorrow (April 27, 2008), though, the first episode of the series is being aired on Nickelodeon at 2pm Eastern time. This show plays off the original characters with this being the next generation. The main characters are Speed and Racer X, who are the sons of the original Speed Racer.

Next week on May 2nd at 7pm Eastern time the real premiere on Nicktoons will be with a 90-minute showing combining the first three episodes that are connected parts of “The Beginning” episode. The first 30-minutes of this is the episode they are showing on Nickelodeon tomorrow. This 90-minute “movie” is then going to be released on DVD on May 6, so I am thinking if you miss the premiere they are not likely to be replaying it for a while in order to get people to buy the DVD. This new series also comes right before the May 9th theater release of the live action Speed Racer movie, which includes an IMAX version.

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Next week stating Monday, April 28, 2008, is Little Einsteins Animal Adventures Week on Playhouse Disney. This week features episodes of the Little Einsteins at 8am Eastern/7am Central. The episodes all feature animals as a main part of the adventure. This all leads up to a new episode of Little Einsteins airing on Friday, May 2.

The episode for Monday, April 28, is “He Speaks Music!” In this episode they help a baby Chimp find his parents by listening to the sounds of the Ivory Coast’s Comoe National Park. The featured tune is by Bedrich Smetana.

The episode for Tuesday, April 29, is “Mr Penguin’s Ice Cream Adventure.” In this episode they help Mr. Penguin get his ice cream truck over the Andes Mountains. The featured tune is by Schubert. I did not realize there was a penguin Little Einsteins episode. I hopefully will catch this episode for my Television Shows with Penguins series on my Antarctic blog.

The episode for Wednesday, April 30, is “Jump for Joey.” This episode featured them going with a baby kangaroo to an animal talent show in Australia, which involves them meeting other Australian animals such as koalas. The featured tune is by Georges Bizet.

The episode for Thursday, May 1, is “The Mouse and the Moon.” This episode is about the Little Einsteins helping a mouse make a special delivery to the moon. The featured tune is by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The new episode premiering on Friday, May 2, is “Animal Snack Time.” This episode is about them bringing snacks to baby animals in Africa and Big Jet stealing them before they can do so.

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The new show called Mighty B premieres on Nickelodeon tomorrow April 26, 2008, at 10:30am Eastern Time. This new show is an animated show is about Bessie Higgenbottom, who is a member of the Honeybees. The Honeybees are a Girl Scout type group. Bessie is the leader of her troop and is known as the one who has earned the most Bee Badges ever. She has not gotten all of the Bee Badges, yet, thus she is still on a mission to get more badges. It appears this show is about her adventures in pursuing her goal to get all the Bee Badges. As she goes for the badges she imagines she is a superhero called Mighty B, hence the name of the show.

Other characters include Portia, who is a rich girl that does like the word no and has a high class worldly taste, Penny, who is portrayed as Portia and Bessies’s dumb friend, and Happy, who is Bessie’s dog. The only male main character appears to be Benjamin, who is Bessie’s scaredy cat little brother.

This sounds like a potentially interesting show for girls. I, however, am not seeing it as being able to appeal to boys. As for the age group I think this will appeal to I am thinking grade school kids, such as Brownie aged girls. Definitely see this as a show for girls into the whole Girl Scout thing, but I really wonder how wide the appeal for this show can be beyond that. It will be interesting to see at least the first episode and see exactly how the show plays out. Depending on how much screen time Benjamin gets there may be some appeal for boys preschool aged.

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Welcome to this week’s edition of Beyond Watching the Show, where I give some ideas of activities for kids that enjoy a particular show that go beyond just watching the show. If you have more ideas of activities for this show please comment and share your ideas. Also, please comment here if you have a request of a show to feature in an upcoming edition of Beyond Watching the Show.

This week’s show is The Backyardigans.

Backyardigans Coloring Pages: This part of the Nick Jr. website has several coloring pages of the Backyardigan characters including Cowboy and Cowgirl character placemats that they can color and you can laminate for use. Here they have color by number coloring pages of the Backyardigan characters. Other coloring page packs include the Super Secret Spy coloring pages.

Backyardigan Puppets: This printable set of paper puppets is a fun craft to start with. Plus, it leads into letting the kids put on their own Backyardigan plays. They can act out their favorite Backyardigan episodes or better yet use their imaginations to create new adventures. This could be a fun on going craft making new outfits for the puppets and new backgrounds for different adventures. There is also a set of printable Backyardigan puppets already decorated to be knights here.

Backyardigans Song Sheets: These printable song sheets have the lyrics of some of the Backyardigan songs. They can be a good way of teaching kids to read by showing them lyrics to their favorite Backyardigans songs on the colorful templates. For those that fans that can already read they can be used to sing along with the show.

The Imagination Factory: This website has a lot of ideas for using your imagination (one of the key things the Backyardigans promote). Best of all is that the ideas that involve recycling.

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Little Bear Rainy Day Tales is a great DVD for this time of year and good entertainment for kids on a rainy day. Little Bear is an enjoyable show for preschoolers as just a playful show with Little Bear and his other animal friends. This DVD is a little confusing in that it is not just rainy day themed, but also has summer themed and party and picnic themed episodes. It at first seems that it is yet another Nick Jr. DVD that does not stick to its theme, however, it is actually that it is three different themed videos combined on one DVD and these secondly and tertiary themed episodes are kind of the bonus episodes. Both these themes are also good for this time of year with summer approaching and it being a good time of year for picnics.

The Rainy Day episodes are “Rain Dance Play,” “Hiccups,” “Mitzi’s Mess,” and “Puddle Jumper.” In the first one they put on a play to make it rain. The second episode is about playing indoors on a rainy day and Little Bear getting the hiccups while trying to be quiet. The third episode is another rainy day indoors, but this time they have to clean up Mitzi’s mess. The final episode is about Little Bear jumping puddles and Duck looking for the perfect puddle to sit in.

The Summer themed episodes are “Caterpillars,” “Follow the Leader,” “Little Bear’s Mermaid,” and “Hop Frog Pond.” The Parties and Picnics themed episodes are “Duck, Babysitter,” “Party at Owl’s House,” “Picinic on Pudding Hill,” and “Little Bear’s Sweet Tooth.”

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Here is this week’s edition of new releases of DVDs that feature kids shows. Some are previously seen episodes from television while others are straight to DVD episodes or movies based on kids TV shows.

Bigfoot Presents Meteor & the Mighty Monster Truck - Vol. 3: This DVD contains six episodes of the Bigfoot Presents: Meteor and the Mighty Monster Trucks show.

Todd World - Vol. 3: This DVD contains six episodes of the animated show Todd World. Lessons learned in these episodes include learning about sharing and that it is okay to be scared sometimes.

Wonder Pets - Save the Beetles!: This DVD contains the main feature episode called “Save the Beetles,” which is a Beatles inspired episode involving the Wonder Pets saving a band of Beetles stuck in a yellow submarine. The DVD also has three additional episodes.

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The Backyardigans is a fun Nick Jr. show for preschoolers to enjoy watching and singing along with. One of the best aspects of the show is that it is simple having only five main characters and very rarely introducing any other characters. Of course, the number one thing that makes this show great is how it shows the characters using their imaginations to have adventures in their connecting backyards. This can inspire kids to be more imaginative and encourage them to have their own imaginative adventures away from the television, especially with some direction from parents/caretakers.

The five main characters are Pablo the penguin, Tyrone the moose, Uniqua the pink polka dot character, Austin the kangaroo, and Tasha the hippo. In the show they have different adventures in their backyards, which are connected. As the adventures begin the backyard scenery transforms into the scenery they imagine for the episodes adventure. The episodes do not always include all the characters on the adventures, which makes it seem even more realistic because it is like playing with neighborhood kids and not everyone always being available to play at the same time. The episodes always end with it being snacktime and the characters being invited to one person’s house for snacks.

The Backyardigans currently has three seasons of episodes and a total of 58 episodes. The variety of adventures include snow adventures (like Pablo pretending to be a Yeti in “The Yeti”), being pirates (such as in “Pirate Treasure”), and being spies (such as in “International Super Spy). Each episode has a least one catchy song in it that is sung as part of the adventure. The episodes all also have a catchphrase that is repeated throughout the episode, such as “Ahoy, Mateys” in the “Sinbad Sails Alone” episode.

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Welcome to this week’s edition’s list of kid’s television shows that have new episodes airing this week. I try to make this as complete as possible, but I may sometimes miss something. Please comment and let me know if I forgot to include something that has a new episode airing this week. All times are listed as Eastern time as given by TV Guide, but may vary depending on your location, especially when the shows are on local stations like PBS.

Monday, April 21

2pm on the Disney Channel - Emperor’s New School: This new episode is called “Auction Action/The Astonishing Kuzco-Man.”

4pm on PBS - Curious George: This new episode is called “Curious George, Sea Monkey/Old McGeorgie Had a Farm.”

5:30pm on PBS - WordGirl: This new episode is called “Granny’s Goodtime All-Cure Spritzer/Mecha-Mouse.”

7pm on Nickelodeon - Wonder Pets!: This new episode is called “Save the Beetles/Three Wonder Pets and a Baby!”

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Came across this cool PBS Kids decorated airplane statue as I was finding all 50 of the airplane statues scattered around the Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia, as part of research for an upcoming post on my D.C. Blog.

The plane is called “Be More PBS.” The artist is Pixels & Ink, Incorporated and the sponsor is as expected PBS Kids. The planes are all sponsored by local businesses and no, it is not just a local PBS station that is located in Crystal City. It is actually the PBS headquarters that are here in Crystal City. All this time I thought I was living next door to the local PBS station and just now I realize it is actually the PBS headquarters.

This jet plane is mostly colored green with orange on the wing tips and purple on the back. The base is colored like the sky with clouds. In the cockpit the PBS green kid is painted as flying the plane. The PBS Kids logo is on one wing. In the middle of the plane there are windows with some favorite PBS characters peeking out as if riding in the plane. This includes Arthur, Curious George, Hacker from Cyberchase, Whyatt from Super Why!, Ruff from Fetch! With Ruff Ruffmann, and the Hamster.

I also spotted another PBS character, Big Bird from Sesame Street, as the pilot of another one of the plane statues. He was on the top of the bi-plane called “Flotsam & Jetsam,” which had a lot of odds and ends mostly related to kids toys. The artist is Chuck Baxter and the sponsor is Freddie’s Beach Bar & Restaurant.

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On Tuesday, April 22, 2008, Playhouse Disney has a special Earth Day line up of shows called Playhouse Disney’s Going Green. Many of the episodes/shows are earth, animal, and/or environmentally friendly themed.

It starts with an episode of Stanley at 6am Eastern time/5am Central time. Stanley is an older Disney show that I think gets overlooked often these days because of its early timeslot. Those who have seen it I think can agree that no matter what episode they show it ends up fitting in for Earth Day because Stanley is always encountering and learning about at least one animal. The episode chosen is a particularly good one for Earth Day. It is called “The Curse of the Angry Coral/A Little Bird Told Me.” In the first part Stanley learns about Coral Reefs in the Caribbean. In the second part Stanley contributes to his community.

The 6:30am/5:30am timeslot is the episode of Jojo’s Circus called “Sleepover Surprises/How Does Your Garden Grow.” In the second part JoJo and Goliath plant squirting flowers.

The 7am/6am timeslot is the episode of The Wiggles called “Picking Flowers.”

The 7:30am/6:30am timeslot is the “Wayne’s Cycle Recycle/Wayne’s Wet Pet” of Higglytown Heroes. The first part about Wayne going to the recycling center is what makes this fit in very well with the Earth Day line up.

The 8am/7am timeslot is the “Whale Tale” episode of Little Einsteins. This ocean adventure episode includes them visiting the Great Barrier Reef.

The 8:30am/7:30am timeslot is the “Minnie’s Picnic” episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. In this episode the theme seems to be kind of stretched as the only Earth Day connection is that they have a picnic in a park.

The 9am/8am timeslot is a new episode of Handy Manny. This new episode is called “Sculptor Manny/Manny Goes Solar.” In the first part Manny and tools recreate a broken statue. In the second part Manny makes a sign powered by solar energy.

The 9:30am/8:30am timeslot is the “Lumpy’s Alvin Goes to Pieces/Rabbit’s Eggcellent Adventure” episode of My Friends Tigger & Pooh. The first part is about Lumpy’s toy being broken and the second part is about Rabbit caring for an egg.

The 10am/9am timeslot is the “Bunny-a-Go-Go” episode of Bunnytown. This episode includes Mountaineer Bunny climbing a mountain and Little Bad Bunny trying to ruin a carrot festival.

The 10:30am/9:30am timeslot is the “Look After Your Planet/Too Many Big Words!” episode of Charlie and Lola. The first part I assume relates in Charlie probably teaches Lola some way or ways to take care of our planet and be environmentally friendly. The TV Guide description has a different name of the episode for this time slot than Playhouse Disney’s website and according to TV Guide the episode is about reading and recycling, so maybe it is all the same thing and the first part is about them in a recycling competition and the second part is the part about Charlie encouraging Lola to read.

The 11am/10am timeslot is the “Around the World” episode of The Doodlebops.

The 11:30am/10:30am timeslot is “The Fran in the Moon” episode of Higglytown Heroes.” This episode is very Earth Day in that it is the exact theme of the episode. It includes typical Earth Day activities like planting trees and cleaning a park, but it also includes the unusual of Fran the Squirrel ending up accidentally going into space with the Earth Capsule being sent to the moon.

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