Disney // 2008 // 33 Minutes // Not Rated
Reviewed by Judge David Johnson // April 30th, 2008
Discoveries for Little Ears.
Let's cut right to the chase here. Baby's First Sounds is pretty much impossible to review. What am I supposed to say? The baby acting sucked? The writing ("baaa!" "ball!") was disappointing. The feature relied too much on puppets and sacrificed storytelling for repetitive images of toy blocks? That it didn't provide enough of a narrative bridge to Young Einstein?
Of course not. If you're familiar at all with the Baby Einstein series, you know that it's built specifically to teach basic sensory concepts to small children. And I'm talking really small, like "your baby still looks like an extraterrestrial" small. The disc case recommends the program for 6 months and up, which explains the simplicity of the content.
Puppets, simple animation, live action footage of guffawing children and monkeys combine with classical musical samplings to offer a crash course in simple sounds. Vowels, consonants and basic words are the focus -- "Mama," "monkey," "ball" and so forth. As a bonus some Spanish language is tossed in as well.
Now as I am yet to be a father and currently can't mentally put myself in my booties when I was an infant, I admit to having difficulty gauging the effectiveness of the enrichment protocols espoused in Baby's First Sounds. But I'm sure it doesn't do any harm. The images are clean, bright and attractive and there is plenty of sensory stimulation onscreen to keep the small fries engaged. I like the classical music inclusion because I do recall that studies have shows exposure to Mozart and company make kids into nuclear physicists or something to that effect.
That's all I've got. Obviously, stuff like this appeals to a very select audience. If you have age-appropriate tikes and don't mind parking them in front of the TV for 33 minutes at a time watching cow puppets stammer out syllables, then by all means track this down.
Full frame, stereo for the tech specs. Bonus materials include some informational materials for parents, an image gallery, a four-minute feature called "Baby's First Sounds" and "Fun with Phonemes," some additional phonetic acrobatics.
Review content copyright © 2008 David Johnson; Site layout and review format copyright © 1998 - 2008 HipClick Designs LLC
Scales of Justice
Judgment: 90
Perp Profile
Studio: Disney
Video Formats:
* Full Frame
Audio Formats:
* Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (English)
Subtitles:
* None
Running Time: 33 Minutes
Release Year: 2008
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Distinguishing Marks
* Bonus Programs
* Information for Parents
* Image Gallery
Accomplices
* Official Site
http://www.babyeinstein.com