DVD Review: The Backyardigans Mighty Match-Up
Nelvana, Paramount Series Created by Janice Burgess
There's something inherently disturbing about DVDs marketed to very young children. Between the excessively cheerful lead characters (especially the "desperate for you to like me" human stars), the loopy imagery and the bizarre plots, it's sometimes hard to tell if it's entertainment for Little Johnny or Julie, or indoctrination into some cult of the excessively happy.
Quite frankly, Rev. Jerry Falwell got The Teletubbies all wrong; those creepy little critters weren't promoting homosexuality so much as pushing the recreational use of hallucinogens.
What's The Backyardigans About?
The Backyardigans are 5 assorted animals, who live in separate houses, that share a back yard. There's Pablo the impetuous penguin, Tyrone the laid-back moose, Tasha the girly hippopotamus, Austin the fun-loving kangaroo and Uniqua, the one and only. Pablo, Tyrone and Uniqua are the three characters who appear the most, followed closely by Tasha. Austin is the most recent addition to The Backyardigans, and appears only rarely.
Every day, several of them meet up in their communal yard to have adventures, that last long enough so that they don't miss their mid-morning snack. According to the needs of the story, their yard morphs into whatever scene the adventure requires, whether it's Ancient Greece, a Midwestern ranch, or under the sea. And every so often, they feel the need to break into song, courtesy of tunesmith Evan Lurie of the Lounge Lizards.
The CGI animation is not half bad. Unlike other animated shows (such as Dora the Explorer), Nelvana at least has the intelligence to draw shadows underneath their characters so that they actually appear to be immersed in their world, not just floating above it. The characters are likable, and realistically childlike, and the stories are fun to watch. Okay, so they move a bit stiffly but otherwise the production values are quite high for a show aimed at little kiddies.
Extras on Backyardigans DVD?
Now that DVDs are becoming the standard format for home video, producers aren't packing them with extras the way they used to. Mighty Match-Up features a few music videos: "Chichen-Itza Pizza" plays with Mayan imagery and chicken pizza (just run with it) and "Amazing Inventors" is about what you'd expect. A sneak peak at Yo Gabba Gabba brings us back to that word "creepy," with something that looks like it crawled out of a child's anxiety closet rapping about good nutrition.
The Final Analysis
Given that most DVD entertainment geared for young children ranges from the odd to the downright disturbing, The Backyardigans is a relative oasis of sanity. It lacks the all-ages appeal of shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Muppet Show but, if you want to dump your munchkin in front of the idiot box for some much-needed peace and quiet, you could do a lot worse than The Backyardigans Mighty Match-Up.
