Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

After witnessing the incredibly positive effective Baby Mozart had on my daughter (now 14 months old) and the way she was mesmerized by the music, the colors, the shapes, and the activities that were appearing before her on the TV set, I knew I wanted to try out some other movies from the Baby Einstein company.

Scanning Amazon.com, I decided to purchase Baby Bach, Baby Van Gogh and Baby Shakespeare on DVD. I'll be reviewing the later two separately in the near future. I was most excited to see how Baby Bach compared to Baby Mozart since I assumed the same perfectly executed format would be used (beautiful music surrounded by colorful, playful objects).

Unfortunately, in some areas, it wasn't quite what I expected. In others, it was. Allow me to elaborate.

One of the nicest aspects of Baby Mozart was the way the video flowed from one segment to the next. The selection of music, specially composed for little ears, was perfectly segmented; the video representations were silly, fun and engaging and, most importantly, always based on toys, puppets and other colorful objects. The point here was to show some stunning colors in a variety of shapes and motions. Baby Mozart ends in a delightful way of showing a small baby, dressed in white, playing with one of the highlighted toys from the video. We later realize that this baby is the youngest child of Baby Einstein founder Julie-Aigner Clark. As the credits scroll on Baby Mozart, scenes of Ms. Clark's eldest daughter are shown as she interacts with some of the puppets also featured in the video. I found this to be a nice way to end the video, but my daughter typically lost interest at this point. Hey, they're credits. Who needs to watch them? ;)

For a more in-depth review of Baby Mozart, please read http://www.epinions.com/content_38732598916.

Now that I've given you enough background information on Baby Mozart, let me get to what I see as a slight problem with Baby Bach. First, I'm from the school that says "If it ain't broke, don't fix it..." which is why I was hoping for much more of the same with Baby Bach. And while Baby Bach begins in the same format, displaying colorful objects, new puppets, spinning tops, perpetual motion machines and the like, the video also contains a considerable amount of footage of Ms. Clark's two daughters - a few years older from their initial, limited appearance on Baby Mozart. Where they only appeared at the end of that video, here they're in various segments that makes this video feel more like a home movie than anything else. Honestly, Ms. Clark's daughters are adorable - no question about it, but they seem to detract from the true nature of this video.

But perhaps I'm being unfair. To test this, I played this video several times for my daughter. She remained mesmerized as always, but I paid special attention when the two daughters were highlighted. On almost every occasion, there was a notable change in the attention-span of my daughter when this occurred. During one viewing, she actually got up and walked away while one of the two daughters was telling a joke.

I'm not really complaining about the addition of Ms. Clark's daughters in Baby Bach, but their appearance does seem to break up the natural flow of the video, and it does seem to distract my daughter in particular. After reading several other reviews posted here, I've noted similar experiences from other members, but I've also read just the reverse - that the two daughter's were the most enjoyable segments of the video. To each his/her own :)

Now that I've harped on that subject matter enough, let me continue by saying that once again, the musical selections of Baby Bach are splendid and very enjoyable to listen to. True, Bach is no Mozart, but his musical compositions are beautiful nonetheless.

As for the DVD features included here, the most notable is the electronic flashcard segment. Simple, picturesque flashcards are shown and spoken in a nicely-paced video. Since most of the objects are from the video, it'll likely help your child recognize each item.

Additionally, the music behind the video is available on the DVD in a music-only format. It's nice to play as a prelude to nap/sleep time. It's also rather soothing for the mommies and daddies.

All in all, Baby Bach is another solid video from the Baby Einstein company. It's not quite as engaging as Baby Mozart, but sometimes it's hard to improve on perfection.

As always, thanks for reading...



Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up to Age 4