JediKermit's Full Review: Disney's Little Einsteins - Legend of the Golden P...
When I was growing up, the only music in our house was classical music. Raised that way, when I really wanted to listen to other stuff, but before the age of personal stereos and MP3 players, I came to both love and resent classical music. Over the last year or so, I've rekindled the love of classical music by watching my boys watch and interact with Playhouse Disney's "Little Einsteins." The animated half-hour series is a wonderfully fun and educational program that's perfect for our two boys, ages two and four.
This is the fourth Little Einsteins DVD, which collects three episodes of the series, including one that hadn't been broadcast yet when the DVD was issued. Each episode focuses on one piece of classical music and one piece of visual art. The episodes also work in other curriculum: geography, science, history, and more "preschool" type stuff like colors, counting, problem-solving, sequence, and of course, music.
Each episode follows a similar format--four friends: Leo, his little sister Annie, and their friends Quincy and June, find a mission. Sometimes they discover a mission together, other times one friend finds a problem that needs addressing. They have a fifth friend, a bright red rocket (named "Rocket") is powered by them (and us) patting their laps, raising their hands and yelling "BLAST OFF!" Rocket has the personality of a puppy, and doesn't talk, but has a kind of chiming beep that he uses to communicate. Rocket also has all sorts of special gadgets, like a "Look and Listen Scope," a "Super Booster," and a "Grab-Snatcher" to help his friends on the mission. During the course of the mission, you'll hear certain "Little Einsteins" songs repeated, but the musical focus is always on one composer's work. The visual art masterpiece is usually incorporated into the mission itself as an obstacle or aid to the completion of the mission. The animation of the children is cartoony, but everything else--backgrounds, objects, and the artwork, is photorealistic, which seems like it wouldn't work, but is quite striking, especially when they go to "real places" in the world.
The three episodes on this DVD are:
The Legend of the Golden Pyramid
Quincy's pyramid built of building blocks inspire the kids' trip to Egypt. They discover obelisks, the Sphinx, the Nile River, and other features of Egypt, including hieroglypics. The musical piece is Brahms' Hungarian Dances #5, and the artwork is the Rosetta Stone.
Dragon Kite
June makes friends with a little Dragon Kite, who wants the Little Einsteins' help in finding other kites for the Kite Parade at the Great Wall of China. Once in China, the friends need to round up kites from the Forbidden City, the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, and K2. The music is "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Edvard Grieg's "Peer Gynt Suite No. 1," and the artwork is from four Chinese artists whose names I can't remember, let alone spell.
Annie and the Little Toy Plane
Annie has a new toy plane, who can fly high when you sing high notes, and low when you sing low notes. The friends use the plane to rescue Green Helicopter, another toy who's caught in the top of a redwood tree in Northern California. To get to the tree, the Little Einsteins have to fly over Coit Tower, through busy San Francisco traffic (represented by artwork by Keith Herring) and over the Golden Gate Bridge and into the redwood forest. A piece from Mozart's Symphony No. 40 guides them along the way, and gets them safely back again. This episode is the newest, from the current (third) season of the show. The show's theme changed a little this season, adding hand claps in the music, and Annie now wears a pink dress instead of blue. Along with these changes, now there's a special curtain call song that has more lyrics than the old version, which just had music and shout-outs to the kids.
I love the interaction and life that this program brings to classical music. It's fun to have that music in the home again, and hear my four year old running around the house singing the melody of "In the Hall of the Mountain King." The boys like the adventure and the music, and it's just at the right level to really engage and excite them. If your kids like "Dora the Explorer" and "Go, Diego, Go!" they'd enjoy "Little Einsteins." And so would you. Check it out on Disney Channel or pick up the DVDs--you'll love it.
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Are you hot on the trail of the coolest adventures under the sun? The sky s the limit with Disney s Little Einsteins. Join Rocket, Leo, June, Quincy a...More at Buy.com
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