Word World: Where Words Come Alive

The Parent Bloggers Network sent me this promotional DVD, Word World:  Where Words Come Alive from PBS Kids.  The promotional DVD had two little cartoons featuring a merry band of animals shaped like their words (The bear, for example, had a "B" for a head, and so on.  I thought the cat was very clever, with a "T" sticking straight out for a tail).  All in all, there are Pig, Sheep, Frog, Duck, Dog and Ant.  It's no accident that Dog can't talk - much like Pluto, it seems like dogs in cartoons are always actually dogs, while everything else is human.  Would anyone like to take this further? I don't have the energy right now.

Sheep was my favorite character. I think she must be loosely based on Ellen DeGeneres.  Duck, much like Daffy, had a speech impediment.  Clearly, some of these Disney themes found their way into the Word World creative meetings. 

I watched the two cartoons with the little angel.  One was about a bunch of "Os" going missing (everything in the cartoon is made of its name word - the bridge is made of the letters that spell "bridge," and so on - very clever), and the other was about a baby bird who needed to find its mother.  Sometimes these "saving baby animals" themes makes me nuts - between the Wonder Pets and Diego, how many lost animals are left in the world?  But the cartoons WERE cute and not too obnoxious from the parental perspective, and really, how can exposure to words be bad from a writer's point of view?

The songs were cute.  What else should I say?  Would I buy this for the little angel?  YES.  Do I think it's hugely differentiated from the other "educational" cartoons?  NO.  Other than the animals being made of words, I didn't see a huge difference between this and Dora or Mickey Mouse Playhouse in terms of teaching progression of events, literacy, counting, etc.  Maybe there was a little more emphasis on words, which is always good.  That said, I don't have a problem with Mickey Mouse or Dora or anything else, as long as the little angel is not glued to it for very long. Like me, she gets cranky if she watches too much TV. I like to think she longs for a unique plot sequence.

Comments

[mothergoosemouse]

I long for a child who gets cranky if she watches too much TV. Both of mine inherited their father's need to have the TV on all the damn time. Bleah.