| "Wow!
Wow! Wubbzy: A Tale of Tails" DVD
You know, I'm not exactly
a great judge of children's fare. Most of my experience is in
horror and science fiction. I'm not a father, and I haven't been
a kid in decades. But I do have a pretty good idea when I'm being
conned.
However, the boys and
girls out at Nick Jr. / Noggin who put together Wow! Wow! Wubbzy
are not trying to do that. And for that, I have a lot of respect
for them.
Basically, Wow! Wow!
Wubbzy: A Tale of Tales, is a compilation of various Wubbzy adventures
in the town of Wuzzleburg--Wubbzy here being some kind of unusual
boxy chimpanzee and frankly, I'm not all that sure just what exactly
Wubbzy is, nor does it really matter--that revolve around the
kinds of things that small children might be facing, and some
that they likely never will. For instance, Wubbzy will lie to
cover up breaking something, get dirty (only occasionally of his
own accord), spy on his friends...commit mail fraud, try to win
a street race that is apparently legal in Wuzzleburg, stop a volcanic
eruption from covering Wuzzleburg in something called "sour
milky-milk" and be directly responsible for unleashing a
fifty-foot-tall monstrousity on Wuzzleburg.
But if you're reading
this, chances are you're looking for a good kids' movie that you
can safely leave the kids with, and despite that last, I'm fairly
sure Wow! Wow! Wubbzy is going to fit the bill. Applying actual
logic to these proceedings will be a truly futile task, but the
results are actually fairly benign. That monstrousity he unleashes
is hungry for candy only, and easily tamed by reading a manual
and discovering the monster reverts back to a small, cute form
under an onslaught of carrot juice. Also, I'm fairly sure that
Wubbzy is not old enough to drive, let alone participate in some
kind of street race, but he'll be building a rocket-powered flying
go-cart with his friends and tooling around Wuzzleburg like it
was nothing at all. This is the kind of thing I imagined myself
doing back when I was, oh, five or six. For me to deny kids the
same fun would be somewhat cruel.
This isn't some mammoth
toy commercial--though there is a plethora of Wubbzy merch available
this is merely a sidebar. The stories themselves are halfway decently
constructed and put together in a fashion sufficient for children
to follow. Objectionable content is at a minimum with even the
smallest right-and-wrong knowledge instilled in children before
watching. The messages are delivered with all the tact and gentility
of a rocket-propelled sledgehammer (following one episode on not
touching other people's things there will be a musical number
whose lyrics are mostly "look but don't touch" repeated
over and over again) and thus fairly sure to leave lasting impact
on children's developing minds.
So I can confidently
recommend Wow! Wow! Wubbzy: A Tale of Tails
for anyone looking for a decent video for children. There's not
much out there, but it's pretty safe to give Wubbzy a spin in
your DVD player.
Wow!
Wow! Wubbzy: A Tale of Tails
***
DVD
Release
Date: September 23, 2008
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