Little Einsteins: A Long Strange Trip

As a father, I usually spend most of my free time with my 2 year old daughter. It's funny that the shows that you enjoyed as a kid are still on TV (like Sesame Street), but it's the new shows that I continually come back to.

So far, I've really been impressed by the quality of the shows. They balance the "educational" aspect of TV with plain old fun. That is until Disneys' "Little Einsteins".

To sum up this show with a couple of words -- LSD Trip.

A typical show starts off with a theme that is really geared toward decreasing the adult population by mass suicide so little kids will rule the Earth and buy more Disney products.

Then we get into the show. There are five main characters:
1. Leo: he's the leader because he carries around a conductors baton (which would get him beat up in just about every playground in America).
2. Annie: she likes to sing a lot and usually ends up making the most ridiculous songs that go along with the music. A Diva she is not.
3. June: she dances....well, that's pretty much it. She also sounds like she is voiced by a 25 year old girl.
4. Quincy: he likes to play instruments. He is the most annoying. I just want to punch him when he says "I cannot believe it" every FREEKIN' episode.
5. Rocket: (yes a rocket) serves as the transporter for the Little Einsteins on all of their adventures. It communicates with the use of a stupid little dingy bell thingy on the top of its head. Rocket can pretty much do anything and is powered by a revolutionary new type of energy...patting your knees. Look out fusion.

Each episode is a mission. The goal of the show is to teach kids music and art appreciation. There is a featured painting and a classical piece of music. The Einsteins move within the world usually doing something really stupid, like returning a ring to Saturn (and they get caught up in a Klimt painting along the way).

The straw that broke the camels back was today's episode. The plot centered around getting a caterpillar to become a butterfly. Instead of just doing something like that, our intrepid band had to discover the butterfly, watch it fall off of a mini-pickup truck full of caterpillars, take it aboard rocket to the "magical tree of many colors", and then watch it become a butterfly. I'm serious, this was the plot.

My question is, how much acid do the Disney people need to drop in order to figure something like this out? A mini-pickup full of caterpillars?

Taking a step back for a minute, I see that the Disney Channel really doesn't have that much original programming. They tend to see Nickelodeon try something new and then they try to copy it. For those that don't believe me, check out the new Disney show "Handy Manny" and tell me that they shouldn't have a huge ass lawsuit on their hands from the "Bob the Builder" folks.

If you have kids, I don't think that you need to subject them to the Disney Channel. Hopefully Pixars' integration into Disney will help their innovation and quality a bit.

Until then, enjoy Nick Jr....much better shows.

Links
Little Einsteins
Disney Channel
Nick Jr.
Handy Manny