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Thursday, September 4, 2008

Review: Imagination Movers on Playhouse Disney

I admit I hadn’t heard of the Imagination Movers before Disney sent me a DVD of their new show (it’s first airing is Saturday, Sept 6 at 10 a.m. on the Disney Channel’s Playhouse Disney). Granted, I also don’t have cable, so I wouldn’t have seen the show otherwise. And it’s aimed at preschoolers, which isn’t my demographic (my kids are 5 & 7).

But I subjected them to the 30 minute show anyway, to gauge: Did they like it? And is it tolerable for adults? The answer was yes, to both questions.

First impression: the Imagination Movers are like an American version of the Wiggles. In fact, my daughter asked “is this the Wiggles?” when she first saw the four white men wearing matching blue mechanics’ outfits (granted, Jeff in the Wiggles is Asian, or Eurasian or something, but you get the gist). You can tell these guys apart because they all have different hairstyles or hats.

Like the Wiggles, one of the “Movers” was a school teacher (Scott Durbin). The others are trained as a firefighter (Scott "Smitty" Smith), architect (Dave Poche) and journalist (Rich Collins) – a modern day Village People. The hang out in an “idea warehouse” with their friend Nina, Shannen Doherty’s perky, smiley identical twin sister (okay, before I get sued, they’re not related).

In this episode they have to solve a problem (a tuba-noise is coming through the walls and disrupting their recording of “Nina’s Song.”). They help solve it, partly with the use of special glasses, which give an LSD-like vision of sound waves coming through the walls (yes, this was a Learning Moment). At the end, of course the problem is solved and we get to hear Nina’s Song in its entirety (it’s actually kind of catchy).

Even though the show is aimed at preschoolers, my kids loved it, especially the physical gags (of which there were plenty). And while I’m in no hurry to watch it again, it wasn’t as bad getting waterboarded.

As I write this, my kids are watching it a second time, but apparently they haven’t learned any problem solving skills from the show, because one just slapped the other in the face. And now they’re both crying.

2 comments:

  1. I want to do my son bedroom with imagination mover . Do you know where to buy the bed set at.

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  2. Tarsha - I haven't seen any Imagination Movers bedding (and I checked on Google). But you may want to look at Beyond Bedding. They have really cute stuff for boys. http://www.beyond-bedding.com/kids-bedding.html

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