DVD Review: Go, Diego, Go: Diego's Halloween
Nick Jr. And Paramount Cartoon Spinoff From Dora the Explorer
Sep 9, 2008
A spin-off of the popular kids' cartoon series Dora the Explorer, Go, Diego, Go! features her 8-year-old cousin, Diego Márquez, who lives in the rainforest and helps save various animals. It's a charming little series, aimed at the pre-school market, that seeks to teach youngsters common Spanish phrases, and facts about the animal kingdom.
Diego's Halloween: Diego Saves the Animals
Diego's Halloween features 4 episodes from the show, three of which are from the 3rd season, and one from the second. Despite the fact that Paramount Home Video is marketing this DVD for the Halloween season, only the first one, "Freddie the Fruit Bat Saves Halloween" has any kind of holiday theme to it. The 3 other episodes just feature Diego, his sister Alicia and their various animal friends up to their usual tricks.
Here are the episodes:
- In "Freddie the Fruit Bat Saves Halloween," Diego and his pal Freddie try to fix a broken bridge so that the llamas can bring their panniers of treats to the Halloween party. In the process, Diego teaches the viewer about fruit bats.
- Dora the Explorer guests stars in "Diego and Dora Help Baby Monarch Get to the Festival," where Diego has to convince a baby monarch butterfly to leave its coccoon on Snowy Mountain. In the process, the viewer gets an in-depth look at Monarch butterflies.
- "Alicia Saves the Crocodile" features Diego's older sister, who finds Kyra the Crocodile in a filthy city pond. Alicia tries to save Kyra, and take her back to the rainforest. While she's at it, your little Trouble in Trousers learns more about crocodiles.
- "Manatee's Mermaid Rescue" depicts Diego and his pal Manatee jumping into a book and swimming down the Forest river in order to save Mermaid City. In the process, Diego teaches your kids about . . . The Crumple-Horned Snorkack! Sorry; it's manatees.
The animation is decent enough, and the character designs are charming. There is that glossy aspect that is inherent to a lot of CGI work, and shadows only appear when the characters' are in mid-air. But it's not annoying enough to interfere with the viewing experience.
Extra Bits
As with many recent DVDs (you're supposed to be buying Blu-Ray, don'cha know), Diego's Halloween is light on the extras. The only things really of note are the previews, which advertise other Go, Diego, Go and Dora the Explorer DVDs.
The Final Analysis
If you're looking to plop your preschool-age kid in front of the idiot box for a while, you could do worse than Go, Diego, Go: Diego's Halloween. Like Dora the Explorer, it's charming enough and there is a definite educational component to the show, where your child learns about various animals, and common Spanish phrases. There's also an interactive component, where Diego asks the viewer to help him solve certain puzzles, and asks the viewer to identify objects, creatures, etc.
And Diego also tries to get the viewer active during the songs, which is good to get Junior moving (albeit in front of the TV). Just be sure there are no breakables about if you see your child trying to imitate Freddie the Fruit Bat.
Go, Diego, Go: Diego's Halloween gets a 7/10.
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