Genre: Children’s Educational
Runtime: 61 minutes
Age Range: Preschoolers
"Little Einsteins" DVD Summary
Disney and The Baby Einstein Company have teamed up to create “Little Einsteins: Our Huge Adventure,” an interactive DVD for preschoolers. The creators combine real-life footage, art, music, and animation to guide kids on their first “mission.”
Little Einsteins Leo, June, Annie, and Quincy enlist viewers’ help in their mission to aid a little lost caterpillar who communicates through singing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The musical caterpillar needs to find his friends at the “Tree of Many Colors” and get his new outfit.
Children can pat to the beat to power Rocket, the team’s flying ship, as it takes off with the four Einsteins and the caterpillar. Once in the air, Rocket zooms through a musical roller coaster with traffic signs such as “Allegro” and “Crescendo.” Children are asked to help the characters make decisions along the way, such as which musical track to take, and which tree is singing the right song.
Finally, the group arrives at the tree, and the caterpillar gets his new outfit; however, the mission is not over. Now a beautiful butterfly, the caterpillar must migrate to Mexico for a family reunion, and he will need the Little Einsteins help to get there.
"Little Einsteins" - Educational Value
The combination of animation, art, and live-action footage gives children a much richer experience than with animation alone. Kids will get to see footage of nature and caterpillars, as well as of New York City in ways that will hold their attention and make actual places and events part of the animated story.
The way in which the story uses music, instruments, and musical terminology to facilitate the adventure is brilliant. The DVD introduces kids to musical notes and terminology, and also to the idea of keeping time through clapping or patting to the beat.
The characters in the story, June in particular, use a broad vocabulary of words. June uses terms such as “perseverance” and “courageous” in a pointed way that will allow kids to ascertain their meaning through the context. The characters also describe the caterpillar’s metamorphosis and migration, so kids will learn these terms as the events unfold.
This unique new series gives children the most effective learning experience possible – one in which they do not realize that someone is trying to teach them something.
