Little Robots Hooray! - Let's Build And Play! (DVD And Toy) (Gift Pack) (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	fun and learing  -  a dvd with toy to enchance learning fun
Disadvantages:	only 1 hour long

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

One of my kids favourite DVD's from last christmas and it still gets dragged out from the bookshelf and shoved in the dvd player every now and then. Usually whilst i am cooking or doing the housework.

Upon the first watch I sat with the children to see what it was like and also to encourage an interest in television aided learning. It is actually one of modern days great blessings at times, - I can runa round doing my chores whilst the kids can be educated by a more colourful and more energetic and enthusiastic source than tired mummy.

Cost: £9.99
Place of Purchase: Woolworths
Date of Relaease: 2003
Number of Discs: 1
Extras: Free toy!

The enclosed toy is a lego kit which you can build along with the DVD as it plays and unbuild it to teach children complexity and variation in things. Although it's been lost now, my sons still enjoy watching the dvd without the lego and can be watched alone, unlike some it's not dependant upon the 'toy' - it's a simple fun bonus which is fun at first but i take it the boys must have outgrown the novelty!

The single disc DVD includes several episodes of the CBBC television programme and before buying my sons had actually already seen a couple of the episodes on the t.v. but still they seemed to enjoy rewatching them with no complaints.
The episodes included are; * Robot Race Day - In this one It's the day of the Robot Races and Sporty wants to show off his sporting skills. rated 8/10 from both me and my sons - there are many laughs on a childish slap stick comedy scale. The story is also nicely rounded up at the end so everyone learns a good lesson about not winning does mean not having friends.
* Knock Knock: - Here the Sparky Twins and their homes are identical - no wonder the other robots get confused - this leads to all sorts of muddle and teaches children the importance of difference in todays society. I like this one as is enjoyable and has some good songs in it 9/10
* Scary Scary: Scary is trying - and failing - to scare the other Little Robots. But thanks to some unexpected magnetic magic, he has them all trembling in fear - without even knowing why! 7/10 not really scary as this is trying to be the aim, but fails - not one of our favourites but doesnt stop them sitting in front of it for 15 mins.
* Noisy's New Song:- Stretchy's junk chute is jammed shut and the robots can't get it open. It's going to take drastic action and for once, Noisy's noisiest song ever might be just what they need … 6/10 again a bit boring as agreed by all of us - daniel said 'needs some music in it' - which is a fair recommendation i think.

• Stretchy in a Twist: - Stretchy gets his neck twisted in a knot trying to do too many things at once. Tiny and Rusty come to the rescue. 9/10 full of whimsical jest and muddles - very funny (even for me) one of the better episodes on the dvd.
• The Hiccalots:- Noisy gets a bad case of the hiccalots and Tiny, Scary and Sporty try everything they can to cure them. 7/10 a good episode to end the dvd section with and links nicely on to the extras games as are related to this episode.

Extras: include a joyfull sing- along entitiled '' Little Robots sing-along'' in extras section. Also features 'Mend the Machine' and 'Tiny in the Tree' games which allow guessing and interaction by using the dvd remote to make selections, choices and by entering answers to problems. A special Bonus episode called Sound of Music is also featured in extras and was a pleasant surplise for my sons as they didnt discover it until a few months after owning the dvd!

For those of you not familiar with Little robots, it's a CBBC programme on channel 1 which is graphically animated. The robots live on a scrap heap of junk and spend their days making new things from parts and bits of old scrap metal. The Little Robots make big things happen from little bits and bobs - the programme aims to inspire imagination, team work and resourcefulness. However non of mine have yet been 'inspired' to fix the dishwasher, after being 'imaginative' enough to stick play dough in it. .... Maybe a few more viewings are required? - oh well, perhaps i should write to BBC and make some suggestions to include household electrical themed cartoons to resolve this.

Overall an enjoyable DVD, and deserves a 4 star rating, only let down by the fact that it is only 1 hour long - which really isn't enough to get all jobs done and it would be great if I could keep them in one place for longer than that. However it's a qualtiy dvd - helps in basic numeracy and english skill learning. The graphics make it a fun and enjoyable programme to watch over and over. Definately recommended by my 5 year old to those of similar ages.
Thanks for reading, take care, mintz :) x x x