DVD Picks: Brainy Baby

By Nicholas Moreau

• Ages: 6 months to 3 years
• Producer: The Brainy Baby Company
• Length: 45 minutes, plus bonus footage on DVD
• Live action, traditional computer animation*, colour, stereo
• Scene selection, automatic and repeat play modes
• Features: Behind the Scenes, Baby Bloopers, storybook, activities
• DVD SRP: $19.95
• VHS SRP: $15.95
• Release date: August 24, 2004
• The DVD can be ordered on http://www.brainybaby.com/, or by phoning toll free to 1-877-455-BABY (2229).

DVD Special features

Mairin, an older girl whose been in a few Brainy Baby videos, hosts an interesting and entertaining Behind the Scenes look at the home video series. The disc automatically plays after 36 seconds of inactivity at the menu, and can be put on repeated play. If you have a DVD-ROM on your computer, you can access even more activities. Previews of other Brainy Baby titles are also available on each disc.

A Parent Guide is also included to help parents collect their Brainy Baby libraries in sync with their children's development.

We all now how critical a child's first few years are. Brainy Baby's two latest titles, "Laugh & Learn" and "Peak-A-Boo" are near perfect ways to develop their learning skills in those precious first years.

These are Brainy Baby Company of Atlanta, Georgia's 12th and 13th titles in the acclaimed Brainy Baby Learning Library, which also includes CDs and other developmentally aiding products.

"It's been proven by child development experts again and again that children's minds are sponges that can absorb all sorts of wonderful information, if you present it to them in a way they can understand and enjoy," said Brainy Baby president Dennis Fedoruk. "Our new programs offer children the chance to further develop their minds in an enjoyable and interactive manner."

Both discs are of a similar, simple, slowly moving format, starring a multicultural cast of real kids. All but the nature scenes are set on a plain white background, making it easy to focus in on what's happening. Narrator Liz Raphael Heigesen's warm, motherly voice is on of the best possible voice-overs for this age bracket.

While both Peek-A-Boo and Laugh and Learn are recommended for tots 6 months to 3 years, they are best suited to babies and tots, respectively.

As Fedoruk has said, "Watching Brainy Baby videos is not a passive activity-- rather the program stimulates a child to interact with the action on the screen and encourages parent-child bonding through the fun activities."

The video Peek-A-Boo of course has this classic game in multiple participatory variations, involving kids, toys, umbrellas, even an animated dalmatian and its dog house. Matching and size comparison games, as well as simple yet amazing visuals of toys, mobiles, and dance "dizzy birds" round out this great video. Radio controlled cars even dance to ballet music.

Laugh & Learn is a step ahead, and teaches all kinds of basic concepts, including colours, numbers, letters, shapes, and sizes. The tots are naturally playful and silly, and Brainy Baby helps encourage them to be so when the time is right, by showing their on-screen counterparts doing the same. Such segments include a dress up with sunglasses, animal-ear headbands and "Groucho Marx"-glasses, or playing inflated saxaphones or toy drums, or pretending all different emotions.

Other Laugh & Learn activities ask questions like "Let's play a guessing game- what is it?", "Does a chair have hair?", "Does this face match?", and "Let's find things that go."

On both discs have stunning nature segments, set on location in the rainforest (Peek-A-Boo), and in a tropical reef (Laugh & Learn). Wisely, these segments focus more on both nature appreciation ("Wow!" is a recurrent quote from the voice over) and simple concepts. The footage is mixed in with bright toys of those creatures, and silly fish hat for good measure. Take the sea reef segment, where simple observations are encouraged, like "What color is this fish? Orange. What pretty stripes!"

There's a wide range of pleasant classical and child-oriented music in the background, that fit perfectly to compliment the visuals. Also, parents and the little ones sing together songs like "You Are My Sunshine", the first verse of "B-I-N-G-O", "The Itzy Bitzy Spider", and other favourites.

The children in the videos are extremely natural and enthuiastic. As senior producer says of the discs, the production crew's key to getting natural, fun videos is to "step back and let [the kids] be themselves".

These two titles, and presumably all of the titles in the Brainy Baby series stand up to multiple viewings, not only for kids, but for parents too. They'll make a valued addition to any learning library.

The bottom line: The stepping stones to a sucessful life, Brainy Baby videos are tops in their field.

The Brainy Baby Learning Library

Brainy Baby offers two other Brain Development titles, for tots 6 months to 3 years: "Right Brain" and "Left Brain", which are meant to inspire creative and logical thinking, respectively. Those a little older (1-4 years) can have fun with "Shapes & Colors: Rainbows & Circles and Squares - Oh my!" and "Animals: Apes to Zebras". For those aged 2 and up, there's the "ABCs: Introducing the Alphabet", "123s: Introducing Numbers 1 to 20", "Art: Exploring the World of Art" and "Music: Discovering Musical Horizons".

Brainy Baby also offers a Language Development line, including "French", "Spanish" and "English", to encourage a second language in simple words and phrases. Colours, numbers, favourite objects, action words, and familar phrases are all explored.

Coming soon from Brainy Baby are titles relating to sign language, math, phonics, and pre-reading. Additionally, all the Brainy Baby titles will be released in Spanish thos fall.

Brainy Baby also offers the "Brainy Baby: Music for Babies" and all new "Brainy Baby Music" lines. "Music for Babies" includes four discs of resonant acoustic recordings, played by the award-winning Arcangelos Chamber Ensemble, while the two "Brainy Baby Music" titles are essentially soundtracks of the eight Brainy Baby DVDs.

Finally, there are some licensed products in the Brainy Baby family. They include books from Bendon Publishing, electronic toys by VTech, nursery décor by Style Studio featuring stimulating patterns, and interactive games and puzzles by Imagination Entertainment.

The Brainy Baby Brain-Power Packs

The best way to get the Brainy Baby videos is in a Brain-Power Pack, consisting of four titles from the award winning series. Coming out on August 31, they are available on DVD ($75.95 SRP) and VHS ($55.95 SRP).

• Set 1: Right Brain, Spanish, 123s, and Shapes & Colors
• Set 2: Left Brain, French, ABCs, and Animals

Notes:

* Traditional computer animation is "2D" animation, that looks essentially like tradition animation. It is not 3D computer animation, as in Toy Story. Examples on television include Dora the Explorer and Blues Clues.

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