Hello. My name is Rebecca, and my sons and I are... *sniff* ...Wiggleaholics. We've been singing all day long, and I am afraid that it is never going to stop. Is there a 12-step program that can help us?

After a search, I find that there isn't. The best thing to do is to go with it! When you need to "Quack!", quack loud, dance around, and don't forget to sing "Cocka-doodle-doo!" every so often.

To support our new Wiggle habit, and keep my kids wigglin', we purchased this video, and several others, from half.com.


Huh? What is a Wiggle, anyway?

The Wiggles are 4 Australians that sing, dance, and provide wholesome entertainment for little kids. The main group they focus on should be toddlers, preschoolers, and some kids older than that. I know first-hand that they are making a difference and being noticed by this age range! Between my kids, and the amount of children I saw wiggling at the Wiggles LIVE Show at the Universal Amphitheater here in Los Angeles, California, they have certainly taken America by storm!

The Wiggles started over 10 years ago, when 3 of the members - Anthony Field (the blue one), Murray Cook (the red one), and Greg Page (the yellow one) - were studying Early Childhood Education at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. They wrote children's songs as a class project, but once they graduated, they saw where their destiny lay, and they launched their careers in children's entertainment. To this end, they recruited their friend and 4th member, Jeff Fatt (the purple, narcoleptic one), in 1991, and The Wiggles were born!

You will recognize them from their bright solid-colored t-shirts (a.k.a. "skivvies" in Aussie Speak) and black pants. Along for the ride with the Wiggles themselves, they have friends that join them. The most popular in my home is Captain Feathersword, and there is also Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus, and Wags the Dog. Sometimes other people are involved, but most of the time it is young children dancing, or young adult females dancing in native costumes to go with the songs.


What will we find on this video?

This video is made up of seventeen songs, with some talking in between each song. Many of the songs on this video have been shown on Playhouse Disney as shorts in between shows. I feel that this tape has the most songs that my kids know - really know, and know the words and dances, even!

We begin the tape with these selections:

1. Get Ready to Wiggle
2. Here Comes a Bear
3. Captain Feathersword
4. Uncle Noah's Ark
5. Ponies
6. Dorothy the Dinosaur
7. Whenever I Hear This Music
8. Henry the Octopus
9. Rock-A-Bye Your Bear

I wish I could describe how much my children love the first 5 songs in this video. Most videos get ignored as no more than background noise to play with, or they will just sit and watch others. This particular one gets the kids up and moving, dancing and trying to sing. And many times, I find my little one on the floor dizzy, but he'll get back up and do it all again!

After the 9th song, Rock-A-Bye Your Bear, we have an intermission with Greg displaying some magic tricks for the audience. You know he is a magician from his yellow cape! Very cute, Greg!

Our next section of songs includes:

10. I Love It When It Rains
11. Quack Quack
12. Marching Along
13. Dorothy's Birthday Party

Now, we get into my son's favorite part of the tape! I guarantee you that I hear the word QUACK in my home at least 5 dozen times a day, easily. I was getting rather tired of it up until the other day when my little one, Matthew, came up to me while I was helping his older brother clean their room. I had him watching this Wiggle video in another room, so as to be able to actually clean up their room! He walked up to me, folded his arms under to make wings, and said, "Quack! Quack! Doo!" while turning around in a circle. This child only has a handful of words that I understand, and I was just shocked to hear this come from him!!
He is in the middle of the terrible two's, and most anything sends him into a crying, kicking, head-thumping tantrum, but the joy and love we shared for his accomplishment was a moment I will remember forever.

The last section is the other reason that I love this tape more than the others. This section is LIVE footage:

14. Wave to Wags the Dog
15. Five Little Ducks
16. Dorothy - Would You Like to Dance?
17. Mix/Medley

This is a wonderful introduction to what a Wiggles LIVE Show is like. It was very much like this when we went on June 6th, 2002 - although Greg was chunkier at that show. I was disappointed that we did not have ducks for the Five Little Ducks song, but we have this video to watch them over and over and over again! If you were ever thinking about whether to take your child to their live show, this is a good video to watch to see what it is like. Oh, and Captain Feathersword on stage is all he appears to be in the videos, and more!


Other details from this tape

This video reports on the box that it runs for 40 minutes, and has 13 songs. Funny thing is that as you see on my list above, there are more than 13 songs. In fact, I could not locate one of them listed, "Sing a Song with Polly" on this video! I've checked around, and found out that it is an instrumental bit, so I must have either missed something, or someone messed up! They also recommend this video, along with their others, for ages 1-8. I'm not sure that 8-year-olds would be interested, although as a young girl myself, I might have found it interesting to sing and dance along, figuring out the choreography.....but maybe not! I can report that 2- and 4-year-olds love it, and I know I saw some 6-year-olds at the show that were into it. You know your child, and you would know if they might like something like this, or if they are too old for it.

Most of the Wiggle videos - all but one, so far - have one big problem, in the eyes of my husband and myself. That problem is with the commercials at the beginning. As this video is put out by HIT Entertainment (which also has acquired Lyrik), most of it is okay. Kipper the Dog and Bob the Builder are approved viewing in this household, and we own many of them. But the commercials for what my husband refers to as "IT of the one tooth", a.k.a. Barney the Violet Vermin, are NOT allowed. This home is a Barney-free zone, and we have even taught our older son that if Barney comes on the TV, to go away from it, ignore it, and tell us and we will remove it.

Why would we do that? Well, ever since my husband found out that in one episode Barney says to the children that 'strangers are just friends you have not met yet,' it has been banned. Our children have enough videos that are approved and wholesome for them to watch, like the Wiggles, and others mentioned, that we do not have a problem foregoing Barney altogether. So we always fast-forward past IT, and let the kids watch the bits afterwards if they want to, and on to the feature! Another good idea is to fast-forward once, and then reset the counter on your VCR, and set the memory function if you have one. Then, when the feature is over, just hit rewind, and it should rewind to zero.



Final Recommendation

I really recommend this tape to anyone that is interested in seeing more about the Wiggles, and especially for those kids that have seen the songs on Playhouse Disney. This is a fine start to any collection, and hopefully will get your kids hopping, growling, and quacking!

As for me, I think I'm going to have recurring dreams about that quack quack song. In the end though, I'll be happy to know that the Wiggles taught my son how to quack, and dance. Now, if I can just get my older son not to repeat the quacking so much, maybe I can get a peaceful few hours of sleep.

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For more information on HIT Entertainment, and their products, go to:
http://www.hitnewsonline.com/

You can find this video and other information, including press releases, photos, and a press kit, specifically at this link:
http://lyrick.wieck.com/forms/wiggles/

For more information on The Wiggles, go to:
http://www.thewiggles.com.au/

Here are the ones that we own, in the order of most requested down:
Hoop-Dee-Doo!
Yummy Yummy!
Toot Toot!
Wiggly, Wiggly Christmas
Yule Be Wigglin'
Wiggly Play Time (http://www.epinions.com/content_62544383620)
Wiggly Wiggly World (http://www.epinions.com/content_63693295236)
Dance Party


Look out for:
Wiggly Safari with Steve Irwin (on CD June 24th, 2002, Video and DVD September 3rd, 2002)



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8