But the kids like 'em. But the kids like 'em. But the kids like 'em. Repeat that mantra, and you may be able to stomach the more sugary ingredients in the phenomenally successful Wee Sing video series, six upbeat musical fantasies full of morals and characters that sound like candy: Spurtlegurgles, Rolypolys, Snoodle Doodles, and Twirlypops.
The denizens of Sillyville and other Wee Sing video locales (the Big Rock Candy Mountains, Wee Sing Park, and so on) may make parents' teeth ache, but the kids like 'em. Heck, they love 'em. The Wee Singvideos dish up large portions of terribly cute child actors and stuffed animals come to life (via costumes). They dance, clap, goof around, and sing classic rhymes and songs and new ditties. A pinch of plot and a dollop of message complete the Wee Sing video recipe, and it is a wholesome one. Little ones can snack on a serving before dinner without triggering a guilt attack in TV-wary parents. Even the hypersweetest of these tapes invites singing along. The best ones have charming sets that look like storybook pages, amusing special effects, and genuinely funny shtick.
Dreamed up by two moms from the Pacific Northwest who turned a homemade book into a kids' media sensation, the Wee Singvideos are intended for 2- to 8-year-olds, but that's probably stretching their appeal by a couple of years.
Wee Sing Together(1985)
''It's the middle of the night,'' says
Sally to little brother Jonathan. ''So why are there giant stuffed
animals dancing around my room?'' As the commercial says, why ask why?
Hum Bear and Melody Mouse, formerly of Sally's toy shelf, explain
they're going to throw the birthday party of her life. They whisk the
siblings and pooch Bingo off to Wee Sing Park, where musical notes
grow on trees. The songs are infectious (''Skid-a-ma-rink
a-dink-a-dink, Skid-a-ma-rink-a-doo, I love you'') and are punctuated
by join-in activities of the hokey-pokey sort. The moral of the
story: ''The very best times are the ones that you share,'' says Sally.
B
King Cole's Party (1987)
En route to a party for the ''merry old
soul'' of nursery rhyme fame, Mary (sans lamb), Little Boy Blue, and
Jack and Jill encounter various characters, including the Six Little
Ducks, whose leader has a Rodney Dangerfield attitude, and a
professorial Humpty Dumpty, who gets put back together again. The
self-described ''ovoid rotundity'' shares his secret means of entry to
the castle (a magic word: please), and the jovial king proclaims the
children's homespun offerings ''the greatest of gifts gifts that are
given from the heart.'' A standout Wee Sing video, this one combines
clever sets, beautiful costumes, zesty music, and droll bits. A
Grandpa's Magical Toys (1988)
Peter and two friends visit his
grandfather, a twinkly-eyed fellow who has a playroom with a mind of
its own. When Grandpa leaves, a magic box opens and the three
children shrink to the size of the toys Punchinello the puppet, the
Muffin Man, a Dutch Girl with a Brooklyn accent, and an absentminded
cuckoo clock, among others. Like King Cole's Party, this one is cute
without being cloying. The songs are warm and sweet, & like a
fresh-baked cookie: ''Say, say, oh playmate, come out and play with
me,/ And bring your dollies three, climb up my apple tree.'' A
Wee Sing in Sillyville (1989)
One minute Laurie and Scott are
coloring a picture with a rainbow, and the next they are transported
into Sillyville, a formerly happy place torn by racial strife. The
yellow Spurtlegurgles won't play with the blue Twirlypops, who avoid
the green Jingleheimers, who shun the red Bitty Booties. Angst and
alienation aside, the Sillyvillagers manage to put on a humdinger of
a revue while waiting to settle their differences and ''Make new
friends/But keep the old;/One is silver/and the other gold.'' C
The Best Christmas Ever (1990)
One of Santa's elves crashes into
the Smith family's cozy living room on Dec. 20, to no one's
particular amazement. Poofer, the size-changing elf, turns the
agreeable Smiths into miniature, and they all ride the
snowflake-mobile to Santa's workshop, where the elves you guessed
it have a problem. Elf Gusty's clumsiness has put Christmas toy
production way behind schedule. Bespectacled Susie Smith provides the
answer glasses for Gusty Christmas is saved, the elder Smiths
recapture their youthful wonder, and lots of cherished carols are
nicely rendered. B
Wee Sing in the Big Rock Candy Mountains (1991)
Lisa can't get
along with her friends and retreats to her jungle-gym fort. Her
stuffed bears come to life as joke-spouting Snoodle Doodles, and the
trio slips down Lisa's slide into a land where popcorn and puns grow
on bushes and flowers are lollipops. But all is not well. The
snack-crazed Snoodle Doodles won't go with the others to Stew Lake
for a good lunch and some recycling, and Little Bunny Foo Foo will be
turned into a goon (''Hare today; goon tomorrow'') if he keeps bopping
the Meecy Mice on the head. In time, Foo Foo and Lisa learn ''you
can't always have your own way.'' C


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