Babar is an animated show based on the classic children’s book series by Laurent de Brunhoff. The show is about Babar, who is king of the elephants, and his family. The episodes are usually about Babar teaching those around him, especially his kids, lessons of life based on his own life experience. In turn the show also teaches the viewers the same lessons of life, which includes topics like jealousy and false accusations.

The other new to the qubo line up show is The Zula Patrol. This outerspace set show teams up with 3, 2, 1 Penguins to make an hour long space age block, which is what makes the Space Age Summer thing make sense. The Zula Patrol is originally a PBS show and as you can expect from that it is quite educational. The main educational category for the show is science with the obvious emphasis being astronomy. The show is a space adventure show with the Zula Patrol going on missions to save their planet called Planet Zula and the universe in general.

Sesame Street: Elmo’s World - Summer Vacation: This is a great summertime release for preschoolers. In this DVD Elmo and is pet fish, Dorothy, explore the topics of the beach, skin, and cameras. It also includes all new songs. Run time is about 50 minutes for the main feature on this DVD. I am not sure if or what special features are on this DVD or if the new songs are part of the main feature or special features.

Tak and the Power of Juju: Trouble with Magic: Tak and the Power of Juju makes its DVD debut with this DVD release today. This animated Nickelodeon show is based on the video game of the same name. It is an interesting show, especially for those that have played the game. The plots may not be the best, but the CGI animation is awesome. This DVD contains 8 half-episodes (each regular episode that shows on Nickelodeon is made up of 2 plots, which I am referring to as half-episodes). Again I do not know about what special features this DVD has, but considering this is Nickelodeon I would not expect anything good, as from my experience they have not mastered making good special features, yet. At least they cannot be off theme with the title they chose for this release because basically Tak is always facing problems with magic.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is a fun Playhouse Disney show with improved animation featuring classic Disney characters including Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald, and Daisy. This is an interactive show that encourages preschool viewers to help accomplish the tasks necessary to complete the episodes goal. Along the way different preschool aged concepts are taught including shapes and numbers. It is one of those more subtle educational shows and more entertaining for kids because of the surrounding plot, which often also includes funny moments, especially when Goofy is involved.

In the episode Mickey starts by inviting the viewers to his clubhouse, which you help him summon with the magic words “Meeska Mooska Mickey Mouse.” Shortly thereafter the episodes activity and/or problem is introduced and Mickey Mouse gets four Mousekatools, which are held by an robot backpack called Toodles. These Mousekatools include 3 known items and a mystery Mousekatool that will prove to be just what is needed in one circumstance later in the episode. Whenever a Mousekatool is needed Mickey encourages viewers to use logic and help choose which tool will help in the given situation.

Overall this is a fun preschool show because of the entertaining plots. Plus, it has the benefit of being at least slightly educational. Oh, and it is such an eye appealing animated show, especially in comparison to the old Mickey Mouse cartoons, which have an old charm that unfortunately most kids these days do not appreciate.

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Tomorrow, June 21, 2008, the new animated short called Can You Teach My Alligator Manners? premieres as part of the Playhouse Disney line up. This new show is about a kid named Mikey and his pet alligator named Al. In this short viewers are encouraged to help Mikey in teaching his alligator how to properly behave, i.e. teach him manners. This first episode is about teaching Al how to play nicely at the playground, which includes the concepts of taking turns and asking nicely to use toys.

Also, starting tomorrow is Playhouse Disney’s Super Duper Summer Saturdays. This is what they are calling the summer Saturday line ups, which will be including new episodes of the Playhouse Disney shows Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, Bunnytown, and Charlie and Lola. Tomorrow’s line up includes new outdoor themed episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Bunnytown, and Little Einsteins.

Continue reading for more detailed line up for tomorrow morning on Playhouse Disney.

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I have heard the newest Disney Channel Original Movie, Camp Rock, referred to as the next High School Musical and it really does sound like a similar kind of movie. Camp Rock premieres on the Disney Channel at 8pm Eastern time/7pm Central time.

The movie is about aspiring singer at a music themed summer camp. The cast includes the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato. The movie is mostly about Mitchie Torres (played by Demi Lovato) wanting to make it as a singer. This includes going to a prestigious rock camp, where she has to be cook in order to attend. Her singing is overheard by a teen pop star, who is teaching at the camp. The one that discovers her is Shane Gray played by Joe Jonas. He is at the camp with the other two members of his band (played by Nick and Kevin Jonas) called Connect Three.

It is a Disney movie, so I think it will be at least worth catching once, however, I must say it is getting a little boring with all this music themed movies. It sounds a lot like High School Musical with a new cast and they are even already in pre-production for a sequal. Not to mention another Cheetah Girls Disney Channel Movie is coming in August and High School Musical 3 will hit theaters in October. At least it looks like 2009 it looks like there will be mostly non-music themed Disney Channel Original Movies for the less musically inclined like myself.

This week’s show is 3, 2, 1 Penguins!

3, 2, 1 Penguins! Printables: Big Idea’s fun website contains a few great printables. This includes coloring pages of Fidgel, Zidgel, Midgel, Kevin, the rocket, and Michelle and Jason. They also have printable connect-the-dot pages of the penguins (Fidgel, Midgel, Zidgel, and Kevin). They even have a sheet that you can print out that contains finger puppets of the main characters (the penguins and the two human kids) to cut out and use. I can just imagine how fun it could be for the kids to use them to act out their favorite 3, 2, 1 Penguins! scenes or episodes or even make up their own plots using the characters.

3, 2, 1 Penguins! Online Games: The Big Idea website also has some games based on the show. The arcade section contains about 5 different games including Jelly Jammers in which you help Michelle make sandwiches which in turn is to help Grandmum out.

General Penguin Coloring Pages and Crafts: This is one of my old blogs with lists to links of different coloring and crafts that are penguin themed. Includes links to general penguin coloring pages and crafts. With some creativity the kids could easily turn some of the regular penguin coloring pages and crafts into 3, 2, 1 Penguins! characters just be adding the spacesuits.

The Berenstain Bears - Fun Lessons to Learn contains 6 episodes of the show based on the famous book series that has entertained generations of kids and helped many learn to read. The show is fun if for kid that like the books, however, they are not quite as good as reading the books.

The first episode is called “Trouble at School,” which is about Brother learning about effectively managing time and making up his schoolwork after missing important math lessons while sick.

The second episode is called “Go To School.” In this episode Sister confronts her fear of starting the third grade.

The third episode is called “The Homework Haste.” This episode involves a similar issue of falling behind in schoolwork as is shown in the first episode on this DVD, however, this time Brother falls behind because he does not manage his time properly and get around to doing his school work.

The fourth episode is called “Lend a Helping Hand.” Brother and Sister learn to help others and discover that it can be an enjoyable thing to help others.

The fifth episode is called “Too Much Pressure.” I think this is an episode many families these days can relate to with getting their schedules overwhelmingly booked. The Bear family tries to minimize their activities in order to reduce their stress and be able to truly enjoy the things they do keep doing.

The sixth episode is called “The Trouble with Pets.” In this episode Brother and Sister learn about caring for a pet when they get a puppy.

The Naked Brothers Band: Polar Bears: This DVD contains the TV almost movie length episode “Polar Bears” in the Naked Brothers Band series of TV shows. Overall I think this is a pretty poor TV show, but this is one of the better episodes because it portrays Alex taking a stand to fight global warming, although not sure it is that great of a way to teach kids about protecting the earth we live on, however, it does get fans of this show’s to at least minimally think about the issue of global warming.

Sonic Underground, Vol. 2: Now this is an exciting DVD release this week, at least in my opinion. For one, Sonic is a fun animated show for kids that are into the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. Also, this DVD release contains 4 discs and over 400 minutes of play, so it offers a good amount of entertainment time, which could come in handy during the summer, especially on a rainy summer day. Nice thing about this series is that many kids have not seen the episodes before since it no longer airs on television.

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody: Lip Synchin’ in the Rain: This is another DVD release of a show I think is good. It contains four episodes of The Suite Life of Zach & Cody, including the “Lip Synchin’ in the Rain” episode about their school putting on its own High School Musical production. It also sounds like it will have some great special features including trivia and a gag reel of never before seen outtakes.

Dora the Explorer is one of the best preschool shows on television right now, although, I personally do favor the spin-off Go, Diego, Go! slightly more than this show. The thing Dora the Explorer does great is that it is an engaging show that gets kids to interact with it and often even get up and move while also teaching preschool concepts, such as counting and basic Spanish phrases.

The main characters of the show are a Latino girl named Dora and her monkey friend named Boots. Other major characters are the anthropomorphic Map and Backpack. In each episode Dora and Boots go on some sort of adventure that usually involves three Map directions to get to a specific place to accomplish the episodes mission. Along the way Dora encourages viewers to help them problem solve to get to have a successful adventure. At the end of the episode Dora always asks and appears to listen to viewers answer about what their favorite thing about the episode’s adventure was.

Overall this is an enjoyable show for preschoolers, although, it may be slightly more liked by girls with the main character being a girl, but with the adventure aspect it kind of becomes a show both genders can equally enjoy. It is not quite as educational as Go, Diego, Go!, however, in regards to the Spanish phrases taught it does more frequently introduce Spanish words and phrases. It also tends to teach a larger variety of concepts instead of being mostly limited to animal knowledge like Go, Diego, Go! is.

Monday, June 16

9:30am on Cartoon Network - Skunk Fu!: This new episode is called “The Art of the Nose Blow/The Art of the Crush.”

Tuesday, June 17

9:30am on Cartoon Network - Skunk Fu!: This new episode is called “The Art of Small Victories/The Art of Influence.”

8pm on Noggin - Instant Star: This new episode is called “We Belong.”

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