All Rise...

When he's using his imagination in his backyard, Judge David Johnson pretends he's a migrant worker.

Editor's Note

Our reviews of The Backyardigans: Cave Party (published March 7th, 2006), The Backyardigans: High Flying Adventures! (published May 28th, 2008), The Backyardigans: It's Great To Be A Ghost (published May 10th, 2006), The Backyardigans: Mighty Match-Up! (published August 20th, 2008), The Backyardigans: Surf's Up! (published May 30th, 2006), The Backyardigans: The Snow Fort (published January 10th, 2006), and The Backyardigans: Christmas With The Backyardigans (published December 12th, 2010) are also available.

The Charge

We've got the whole wide world in our yard to explore!

The Case

Nickelodeon unleashes another collection of its winning little kiddo-friendly musical franchise, The Backyardigans. Who are the Backyardigans? They're only the most talented, most musically-inclined band of multicultural CGI animals and one weird alien thing to ever grace your television set. They're Pablo, Tyrone, Uniqua (the weird alien thing), Tasha and Austin and they have huge imaginations and a large enough backyard to implement them in.

Four episodes:

• "Elephant on the Run"
Pablo and Tyrone team up as delivery agents to return a large elephant to India. Along the way the Backyardgians chew through some seriously brutal alternative rock or, rather, what people composing music for a kids show thinks that kids show alternative rock sounds like.

• "The Magic Skateboard"
Obsessed with becoming the finest skateboarder in the backyard, Tyrone seeks the one thing to put him over the edge against rival skateboarding phenoms Uniqua, Pablo and Austin. That one thing is a skateboard that's…wait for it…magic.

• "The Flipper!"
Pablo has taken upon himself to be the last line of defense for Earth's asteroid problem. To swat away these lethal space rocks he uses the Flipper, which is a tennis racket, but don't tell him, he's so cute when he's in the middle of a sugar-fueled stupor.

• "Super Team Awesome!"
Great title. The Backyardigans assume superhero persona and team up to ride around on a mine cart and prevent a lava geyser from destroying the planet.

There you have it, four shows, 95 minutes and a boatload of charm. I like this show a lot. The music is catchy (alternative rock excluded), the characters are bright and charismatic and the computer animation is clean and full of energy. Plus that theme song—good luck getting that sucker out of your subconscious for the next five months.

The DVD: full frame, 2.0 stereo, no extras.

The Verdict

Not Guilty.

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