All Rise...

Judge David Johnson likes the grittier, edgier Prisonyardigans.

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: Operation Elephant Drop (published July 18th, 2010), The Backyardigans: Surf's Up! (published May 30th, 2006), and The Backyardigans: The Snow Fort (published January 10th, 2006) are also available.

The Charge

Imagination FTW.

The Case

One of Nickelodeon's signature series, The Backyardigans sports a group of painfully adorable computer generated animal characters (and one horrifying genetic abomination) going on adventures fueled by their imagination and engaging in epic musical numbers.

Four episodes on this Yule-theme disc:

• "The Action Elves Save Christmas Eve"
The friends turns themselves into the Action Elves in an effort to retrieve the stolen sack of Santa Claus.

• "Pablor and the Acorns"
The kids pretend to be wilderness scouts and end up in space somehow battling interstellar totalitarians.

• "The Big Dipper Diner"
More space hijinks, this time with the kids pretending to operate a galactic restaurant and later battling a monster named Blarg.

• "The Amazing Splashinis"
Uniqua, Tyrone and Pablo play around a water park and fend off a Sea Monster.

And there's your episode selection. There's only one Christmas themed episode and the remainder of the installments are just random offerings, but this is still a great little show, packed with charm and attractive animation and surprisingly catchy songs.

The DVD: full frame, stereo, a "Matching Gift" game and a music video.

The Verdict

Not Guilty.

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