DVD Review: Barney Book Fair
HiT, Lionsgate Produce Children's TV Show Created by Sheryl Leach
Aug 12, 2009 Dominic von Riedemann
There's something inherently disturbing about Barney, the big purple dinosaur that's been a staple of preschool entertainment since 1992. It must have something to do with the eggplant-shaped body, the voice that sounds like a cross between Goofy and Hannibal Lecter, or the way he acts around the glassy-eyed child co-stars who dance in his videos and silently signal the director, "Gimme my union scale and my SAG points, and get me off this frakkin' show!"
Others feel that Barney & Friends offers a hearts-and-flowers view of childhood. In his February 1994 article, "The Bad News About Barney," Parents' writer Chala Willig Levy claimed the show preaches "denial: the refusal to recognize the existence of unpleasant realities. For along with his steady diet of giggles and unconditional love, Barney offers our children a one-dimensional world where everyone must be happy and everything must be resolved right away" (cited in Lyons Partnership vs. Ted Giannoulas, July 7, 1999).
Acclaimed children's author Neil Gaiman (Coraline) might have been describing Barney & Friends when he decried children's programming that, "presents this vision of an impossibly hospitable world which children know doesn’t exist.”
Small wonder that anti-Barney humour cropped up almost immediately after the show hit the airwaves. People like NBA star Charles Barkley, the San Diego Chicken, songwriter Tony Mason ("Barney's on Fire"), Eternity Comics, comedian Stephen Lynch, and players of computer games Doom and Starcraft have mauled, mutilated, massacred and otherwise violated the big purple dinosaur. They all did this knowing they were protected by every parodist's friend, the 1994 decision in Campbell vs. Acuff-Rose Music Inc.
HiT Entertainment and Lionsgate's Barney Book Fair DVD offers more of the same saccharine fare. Preschool kids may love it, but older kids and their parents will soon want to throw something through their TV screens.
HiT Entertainment, Lyons Partnership, Lionsgate Home Video Present Barney Book Fair
The plot – such as it is – may involve Barney helping his human friends put together a book fair, but here's what really goes down: Scene 1 has dialogue, then a song-and-dance. Move to new location. Scene 2 features possibly a new character, some dialogue, then a song-and-dance. Rinse and repeat ad nauseum.
The DVD is almost guaranteed to provoke violence from anyone outside its immediate age demographic.
Although Barney and his friends Baby Bop, Cousin Riff and BJ (don't go there) are the supposed stars of the show, but the real standouts are the kids who try to inject some life into the tepid situations. They're clearly "acting" while pretending to have fun on the set, dancing with the costumed dinosaurs and reciting the banal dialogue. The songs aren't much more interesting than the classic "I love you, you love me . . ." lyric that school-age kids so love to parody.
DVD Extras
The DVD is nestled in a storybook, featuring Barney and his pals, that teaches kids how to count. The story and the art are bland to the point of numbness: to use a well-worn phrase, it ain't half bad but it ain't half good either.
The Final Analysis
Barney Book Fair claims to instill a love of reading, but has little value as entertainment or education. For the sake of your kids' mental health, your sanity and possibly the health of your TV, you'd be better off taking 10 - 15 minutes every night to read to your children.
Barney Book Fair gets a 3/10.
Barney Book Fair DVD cover
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