Review rated by 14 Ciao members on average: very helpful
It's only over the last 3 years that I was made aware of Bear in the Big Blue House when it was on Channel 5's Milkshake - a series of programs aimed at the under 5's on between 6.30 and 9.30 in the mornings. Every time the theme tune for this came on my son would stop what he was doing from an early age and start laughing - we ended up taping one episode to start with just to stop him crying, it was great. Now 3 years on he still loves this big furry bear and all his friends who he helps along the way.
Bear lives in Woodland valley in a big blue house and there are a number of friends who spend time with him. Tutter is a small blue mouse who lives in the house with Bear - he has his own little mouse hole where he tries to fit as much cheese into as possible. OJo is a young female bear cub who's favourite toy is snow bear. Pip and Pop are 2 fun loving otters who live in the pond in the garden. Treelo is a mad lemur who finds it difficult to stay still for long and gets very excited. Ray and Luna are the sun and moon who sing songs with Bear in the morning and at night. Then there is Shadow - a shadow who tells strange little stories or tells rhymes in the form of shadow puppetry. There are also other characters who pop in to the show from time such as Doc Hogg - the piggy doctor and Grandma Flutter who is Tutter's granny.
In this dvd we have 3 episodes of Bear all to do with cleaning and tidying up. Working like a Bear is the first in which we see Tutter doing a bit of spring cleaning and hear the songs Working Like a Kid and Everybody in the Tub where the friends all get clean at the end of the day. We are also told of different types of jobs that people do.
Woodland House Wonderful is about getting the house clean in time for the photographer of the local magazine to take pictures of his house in a sort of OK style or so Bear thinks. After a lot of hard work singing Clean up the House as they go he realises that she wanted to see all the mess and take a more natural approach. We hear Everybody in the Tub again as they all clean themselves again and Brush Brush Bree as the importance of dental hygiene is explained.
We Did I Our Way is all about working together to get things done and shows the importance of teamwork. Songs featured in this episode are Get It Together and Clean Up The House. It may seem that the songs are repeated a lot but I feel that this is a good idea as your child recognises them and starts to join in.
There are other similarities in all episodes of this show such as when Bear sniffs out a smell at the start of each one and the goodbye sequence with Luna. The most hilarious part of the shows though is when Bear dances - he really rocks and this encourages the child to join in with the catchy songs. There tends to be a moral in each of the stories whether it's about sharing or help others and although there are certain learning scenarios it is more about fun and entertainment than the likes of Barney who focuses more on learning.
You can tell that Jim Henson production has a hand in the making of this show as the puppets are very realistic and each character has a very distinctive personality. Reminders of the early muppets are visible with some of the crazy characters.
This is a great fun dvd with sing a long extras and a bear brochure with colouring pages you can print off if you have a computer. Just right for small children. It's around 70 minutes long with all 3 episodes so you get good value for around £10 although there is a special gift pack around if you look hard enough which comes with a bear toy and you would normally pay around £12 for this.
Great fun with laughs all the way - what more could you ask for.
My mum is a child-minder, so I used to be subjected to this every morning as I got ready to leave. I'm not sure I should admit this, but I think I ended up enjoying it more than the kids! :D John
My nephew loves Bear. I think I know half the songs myself. lol Play.com usually have some good offers on these DVDs. I think I got one for £6.99 for my nephew two Christmas's ago. Great review.
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by (50%):
08.09.2005 15:08
My mum is a child-minder, so I used to be subjected to this every morning as I got ready to leave. I'm not sure I should admit this, but I think I ended up enjoying it more than the kids! :D John
08.09.2005 12:48
My kids loved this when they were younger, but like most programmes, it really gets on your nerves after a while.
08.09.2005 12:11
My nephew loves Bear. I think I know half the songs myself. lol Play.com usually have some good offers on these DVDs. I think I got one for £6.99 for my nephew two Christmas's ago. Great review.