If You Can't Trust a Monkey

Here's my tv thing: we watch it. We have DVR so we watch what we want when we want it. And we skip commercials. My boys can each pick one show a day to watch. They don't have free reign, they chose from a list of recorded shows. This week we are heavy on the "Wonder Pets" and PBS's newest addition "Curious George." (I always loved these books. I drew the short stick and missed seeing the movie in the theater with my boys. We have the Jack Johnson soundtrack and I'm looking forward to the video.)

My son's enjoying Curious George right now, and I've heard two beautiful quotes:

"If you can't trust a monkey, who can you trust?"

and

"How many roller skating weiner dogs can there be in the city?"

So, the Wonder Pets was introduced to us by a 37 year old childless friend who stumbled across it one day on Nick jr. Here's what the Nick website says about the show:

The show features photo-puppetry animation--an animation style created specifically for this series--which allows the animators to manipulate photos of real animals. The result is striking, memorable, and truly unique. Each episode is like a mini-opera with dialog often sung to an original score by some of Broadway's top composers. And each episode encourages teamwork, empathy, problem-solving skills, and an appreciation of music and humor.

Linny the guinea pig, Ming-Ming the duckling, and Tuck the turtle don't have super natural powers, but they travel around the world (and into story books and paintings) to save baby animals who are in a pickle. They rely on team work and when the task is done they share a stalk of celery. The music is great (although I admit it sticks with me for hours- days even). "We're not too big and we're not too tough, but when we work together we've got the right stuff. Go Wonder Pets!" My criticism of the show is this: The freakin' duckling speaks babytalk majorly. So. Annoying.

What the heck is the point of this post? There is good stuff on the tube. There is also a lot of crap. Grown up crap and kid crap. Some of the kid's stuff is pretty entertaining- even for adults. Come on, roller skating weiner dogs, folks. If you're thoughtful and careful and help your kids make good choices, and help them limit their screen time (tv and computer), enjoy it. Alot of the shows out there are very creative, pretty to look at, and funny to boot. Toss in some teamwork and you're all set.

Disclaimer: too much tv, like too many deep fried twinkies, is not good for anyone. Duh. Make good choices.