TV – The Backyardigans

☻☻☻☻☺

(four smiley faces out of five)

The Backyardigans is an animated show airing on the Nickelodeon networks that is aimed at kids aged two to five or six years old. It stars five creatures who are kids, three boys and two girls. There's Pablo the blue penguin; Tyrone the orange moose; Uniqua, who I've always thought of as a pink dinosaur; Tasha the yellow hippopotamus and Austin, a purple kangaroo.

Much like the variety of brightly colored puppets and monsters on Sesame Street, the creature-kids are meant to be representative of the melting pot that is the U.S. The premise of the show is that the kids meet in their backyards to play, always acting out a specific scenario that they spontaneously agree on. Once they’re into their play, the backyard scene melts away, revealing a new world created in the kids’ imaginations. The Backyardigans might be cowboys or explorers. They might travel through the dessert or to a volcano.

The CGI animation is not only easy on the eyes, but extremely well done. The plots are interesting and original, with whimsical twists.

Here’s where I’m going to get myself into trouble. Apparently the creator of the Backyardigans, Janice Burgess, prides herself on the show’s songs and dances, which encompass a plethora of genres and dance styles, and require a lot of work from choreographers and writers. These musical segments almost always earn high praise from parents and reviewers, including a review on IMDB.com that describes the songs in the Backyardigans as “Broadway caliber.”

But I just don’t care for them. To me, they seem more like time killers or fillers than anything else. Then again, I can admittedly be a grump, so I decided to get the opinion of a kid and recently asked my seven year old if she liked the songs in the Backyardigans. (In, I assure you, a completely neutral tone.) “No,” she said. “I just like the episodes.”

So, maybe the aversion to the Backyardigans music sequences is just a wacky gene that runs in our family. I dunno.

I’ve also always thought it was ironic that here we are, watching kids playing outside and using their imaginations when really, our kids should be outside playing and using their imaginations rather than watching a television show about it. But then, that’s more due to our failings as parents than the fault of the show, right? Besides, sometimes the weather is bad or there’s not time to go and play outside before school.

The fact is that the Backyardigans is a high-caliber show that you can enjoy with your kid(s). Our family just has to suffer through the musical interludes.

Oh, and incidentally, there are several really great Backyardigans video games on the Nickelodeon web site. Some are free and some you have to pay for, but they’re all really well tailored to younger kids.

Books – Mr. Putter and Tabby Pick the Pears

 ☻☻☻☻☻
(five smiley faces out of five)

Mr. Putter & Tabby Pick the Pears is a book by Newberry Medal winning author Cynthia Rylant. It’s about an older man, Mr. Putter, and his cat companion, Tabby. Mr. Putter dreams of making pear jelly from the pears growing on the pear tree in his front yard, but first, he must get the pears down off the tree. Trouble is, old Mr. Putter has “cranky legs” that won’t allow him to climb a ladder.

Recently, my grade schooler brought this book home as part of her home work, and at about page three, I was hooked. I get so aggravated with children’s books that are sappy, dippy, drippy, poorly written or just plain boring. That’s not the case here. The writing is fresh and funny, and Rylant takes an interesting plot concept and works it through to a satisfying end. And let’s face it; what with video games, television, DVDs and the internet, books need to be particularly entertaining to engage today’s youngsters.

Mr. Putter decides that to get the pears off his tree, he’ll shoot them down with a sling shot. But first, he has to make one. What to use for the elastic? Why not the elastic from an obnoxious pair of pink boxers with poodles printed all over them that his brother gave him as a gag gift? But it’s not gratuitous use of underwear and slingshots; it’s how Rylant treats the material that really makes it entertaining. After all, several authors these days seem to think that referencing underwear, or farting or potties equals engaging reading material for children, but it’s the writing itself that makes a book good; not just gimmicky concepts or material.

I would say that the Mr. Putter series is geared toward kids from the ages of about five to nine, depending on how well your child reads or how much he or she likes to be read to.

Mr. Putter & Tabby Pick the Pears is only one in a series of Mr. Putter books, including Mr. Putter & Tabby Pour the Tea, Mr. Putter & Tabby Paint the Porch, Mr. Putter & Tabby Walk the Dog and more. Our family enjoyed Pick the Pears so much that we will definitely be purchasing several Mr. Putter books for our own personal library.

TV – Phineas and Pherb

☻☻☻☻☻

(five smiley faces out of five)

Phineas and Pherb is a cartoon aimed at kids aged about five and up that airs on the Disney networks. It stars two smart, inventive stepbrothers who spend their seemingly eternal summer vacation (it’s always summer vacation on Phineas and Pherb) building impossibly incredible gadgets, inventions and mega structures. For some reason, all of this activity irritates Phineas and Pherb’s bossy older sister, Candace, who is always trying to get the boys in trouble with their mother. The only problem is that somehow, the evidence of Phineas and Pherb’s activities always seems to conveniently disappear before their mother can see it.

There’s always a side plot in this show, which involves the boys’ pet platypus, Perry. Perry is a secret agent (his family is unaware of this) whose nemesis is the evil Dr. Doofenschmirtz. And yes, Dr. Doofenschmirtz is as doofy and tragically hilarious as his name, because of course, Perry always manages to foil him.

Since the new episodes of Sponge Bob Square Pants continue to go downhill (really, people, just let a great cartoon die with dignity), Phineas and Pherb is probably the funniest, most well-written cartoon series specifically aimed at kids that’s currently being produced.

Another stand-out aspect of this show is the music. Generally, I HATE musical interludes in cartoons. Remember the old, old episodes of Scooby Doo? Great show, pointless, crappy songs. And The Archie Show? They had exactly one great song come off of that show: Sugar, Sugar. (You know. "Oh Sugar, do do do do do do, oh, Honey, Honey...) Don’t even get me started on the annoying songs from the Backyardigans.

But somehow, inexplicably, the Phineas and Pherb writers manage to come up with a great song, in a variety of genres, for every single episode. Our family’s favorite is probably Squirrels in my Pants, which is a sort of hip-hop-ish pop-ish ditty, but I swear to you that if the Phineas and Pherb people would get really smart, write a longer version of the song Busted and release it for airplay, it would be top-40 gold.

Phineas and Pherb is so clever and fun that I hope for your sake, your kids like it; because honestly, it’s far better than much of the schlock television written for adults these days.

DVD – School of Rock

 ☻☻☻☻☻

(five smiley faces out of five)

School of Rock is a comedy movie rated PG-13 for lightly rude humor and apparently “drug references” but those must be pretty vague because I’ve seen the movie at least 20 times and offhand, I can’t think of what they are. There’s a tad bit of bad language, which mostly consists of the word “ass” being uttered—I dunno—maybe three or four times.

The movie stars Jack Black as a hapless rocker wannabe Dewy Finn, who needs to find a job quick or his roommate and his roommate’s bossy girlfriend (played excellently by Sarah Silverman) are going to kick him out.

Dewy happens to take a phone call for his roommate Ned who is a substitute teacher. Dewy decides that it’ll be easy money to take Ned’s “temping” job at an elite prep-grade school. I’ll stop summarizing here so as not to reveal any spoilers.

Let me just say that School of Rock is what I like to call a perfect movie. The writing is excellent. The dialogue is witty. The characters are expertly played by every actor in the movie, and that includes the kids. Joan Cusack, who I LOVE, plays the school’s uptight principal to delicious perfection. The plot is extremely satisfying, with everything wrapping up at the end like a big ol’ gorgeous present on Christmas morning. (Yeah, film major, that’s all cheesy and oh-so-typically American, but I happen to enjoy it sometimes.)

And the number one most awesome thing about this movie is that your kids, from the age of about four or five, will love watching it as much as you do, probably over and over and over again.