TV - Imagination Movers

☻☻☻☻☺
(four smiley faces out of five)

Imagination Movers is a television show that airs on the Disney Channel and is aimed at kids from the ages of three to seven or eight. The show stars the Imagination Movers, four guys who “work” together in a warehouse. Their job is to solve people’s problems imaginatively, problems that they refer to as “Idea emergencies”. The Movers consist of four cool guys named Rich, Scott, Dave and Smitty who are far less dorky than the four guys on the Wiggles, though the Wiggles is certainly not without merit.

The Movers’ website touts the show this way: What would happen if the Beastie Boys collaborated with Mr. Rogers? But I think that’s taking it a bit far on the “street cred” scale. Imagination Movers is more like a mix of the Bare Naked Ladies and Mr. Rogers.

The Imagination Movers are often joined by their grumpy neighbor Knit Knots who is very boring and always wears beige, and his niece, Nina. Knit Knots is actually one of my favorite characters on the show, as the depth of his boringness is seemingly unending and for some reason his straight guy act just cracks me up immensely. For you hetero dads and lesbian moms out there, Nina is apparently extremely hot.

The movers also play instruments and sing songs, so there’s lots of music on the show. Thankfully, it’s modern, catchy music that’s usually quite good. You might even find yourself tapping your foot and singing along, and maybe, just maybe, you’d find you could stand purchasing the CD and listening to it over and over again in the car with your kid(s).

Overall, Imagination Movers is fun to watch for adults and kids. The plots are inventive and original (in one episode, the Movers have to help a lady figure out how she can carry around her gigantic phone book), the writing is good, and the actors are excellent. I often find myself laughing along with my daughter.

So why did I only give the show four smiley faces? Well, the show’s main educational focus is teaching kids that there are always several ways to attack a problem, even if only one solution will ultimately work. It also teaches tenacity and stick-to-it-iveness, which is certainly not a bad thing, but it’s not really educational, per se. I dunno. I kinda figure that either a person has tenacity or they don’t. I’m not sure if it’s something that can really be taught; it’s more like a decision that each person much reach on his or her own.

Ultimately, Imagination Movers is a good, clean, half-hour of eye and ear candy for you and your kid.