A cute video! - My 1 yr old son has been hooked on Bear since he was 6 mo old! It s so cute and definately not annoying like a lot of children s videos.
*Was* Made for September 11 - The 1997 release date listed here refers to the date the *show* first came out, which was 1997. But the DVD release date was in 2003.The episode featured on this DVD, Welcome to Woodland Valley (two parts) was the start of the fourth and final season of the program. The story is about a tree falling on the Woodland Valley Library. Everybody rallies together to get it fixed up and Bear holds a potluck at the Big Blue House. The kids have a great idea on how to help out, but Ojo is a bit disturbed by what happened.This DVD features a wonderful set of songs including No Harm and Everything Is Great About the Library.Bonuses include sing-along versions of most of the songs and trailers for other releases.
A great movie. Not made for September 11th - This movie was made in 1997, so unless they forsaw 9-11 4 years in advance, it was not written in response to that. It is however, a great movie. My kids LOVE rescuers of any type and they love bear in the big blue house!
Excellent and Reassuring during Troubled Times - My daughter loves Bear, and this special is one of her favorites. It was written in response to Sept. 11, and it is very reassuring. It s true that the format is a bit different- this was a double length special, so there isn t a goodbye song in the middle. I guess if your child isn t really following the stories, this might be more of a risk, but my two year old has been watching and loving it it for months. She likes seeing all of the extra characters that are not in every episode. As for realism, our local library has several trees inside! Besides, how can you expect realism from a show with talking animals, one of whom is a green striped lemur?
Unrealistic, Depressing , Big Disappointment - We were so excited to see this video, since our 2-year-old daughter is a HUGE Bear in the Big Blue House fan. We were expecting the usual Bear shows, pertaining to careers and the work people do in the community. It was such a disappointment. The video was more movie-like, and didn t carry out some of the normal favorites of a Bear show. My daughter, for the first time, actually completely lost interest not even halfway through the first part. The second show is a continuation of the first part, and Bear didn t even sing the Goodbye song after the first show. Ojo moped and was basically depressed throughout the entire show. In the video, a tree falls on the library, and the commuity works together to repair the library and collect new books for it. The original plan is to remove the tree from the library (like what would realistically be done), but when Ojo meets 2 moles who live in the tree, she feels sorry for them that they will lose their home. In the end, the tree stays, lying in the middle of the floor in the library.It was nice, and age-appropriate, to tell how the community worked together, but I don t think the solution was a realistic one. How many libraries are going to sport a large decaying tree with animals (not to mention BUGS!) running around it in the middle of the floor? Overall, I think it could have put more emphasis on showing the people rebuilding the building together, not on Ojo s displaced tree residents. Oh, and be prepared--Ray is now merely computer generated in a cartoon-like fasion, rather than the traditional puppet.