"DISNEY LEARNING ADVENTURES: WINNIE THE POOH’S SHAPES AND SIZES & WONDERFUL WORD ADVENTURE"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: **** (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: ** (out of 5 stars) Not Rated Studio: Disney Back to DVD Review Home |  |
The Walt Disney Company continues its rich tradition of producing quality education videos for kids. Last year, the Mouse House launched a new series called “Disney Learning Adventures.” The initial run used the beloved characters of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy to teach the concepts of geography, reading and math for kids ages 2 to 6.
Disney has released a new wave of these films starring Winnie the Pooh and the gang from the Hundred Acre Woods. This is notable in itself as it’s one of the few Pooh videos that don’t rely on the old, haggard episodes of “The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.”
Usually when there’s a Pooh compilation video, these substandard, direct-to-television shows are cobbled together with loosely created themes. It’s a not-so-subtle way for Disney to cash in on previously produced shows. Even the previous Mickey, Donald and Goofy shows had some recycled material in them.
However, with these new “Disney Learning Adventures,” they each provide a new story with new animation. Each tells a complete story, featuring all the characters kids love.
In the first disc, “Shapes and Sizes,” Rabbit needs help organizing his garden. He calls on Pooh and the others to help him find boxes, baskets and crates of different shapes to hold the vegetables. The video teaches different shapes with early geometry. There’s other skills involved like comparing and contrasting, sorting and organizing and problem solving.
The second disc, “Wonderful Word Adventure,” Owl has organized a series of races in the Hundred Acre Woods. The whole group of animals join in to earn a medal. The thrust of the activities involve them identifying opposites. Using this theme, the story teaches spatial concepts and relationships as well as sight words. It also encourages word recognition and builds vocabulary.
Both discs come with a DVD set-top game that the kids can play along with you after watching the show.
These new videos are perfect for showing kids. They aren’t just there to tell a story, but educate as well. Likewise, they aren’t just pedantically showing kids different shapes. They also have a cute story you’d expect from Winnie the Pooh.
These new videos are labeled with the new age range of “Pre-K to K,” which is ideal for my own kids. I have a three year old and a five year old, and both of them love these videos. Both kids got a kick out of talking back to the screen and helping the characters solve the problems.
Although different from the first two discs in the series, these new “Disney Learning Adventures” are excellent tools for education and entertainment.
Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Fullscreen aspect ration (1.33:1). French language track. English subtitles for the hearing impaired.
