One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish - NR
Common Sense Note
Parents should know this video is ideal for pre-reading children -- if nearly static images don't lose their attention entirely. Themes of creativity and diversity are explored.
Families who watch this video might discuss animation. What is animation? Does moving around cut-outs of drawings qualify as animation? Or must the characters speak and move fluidly?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Nancy Warren
No one can beat Dr. Seuss for inventive rhyming, but the visuals are just close-ups of his original illustrations.
Three well-known Dr. Seuss stories -- One Fish Two Fish Red Fish blue Fish, Oh The Things You Can Think, and The Foot Book -- are fashioned into videos by adding a bit of animation to the original illustrations. Seuss's rhyming always reigns supreme but the poor visuals here will sink the interest of most preschoolers.
The video's three episodes are taken directly from Dr. Seuss stories. "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish" is a series of vignettes that explore counting and rhyming. Diverse species such as "wumps," "nooks," and "ginks" make appearances.
"Oh the Thinks You Can Think" shows children all the silly things they can make up, including "snuvs in gloves."
"The Foot Book" identifies right and left feet and the numbers of feet per person or animal. The vignettes explore the theme of tolerance by presenting diverse beings who look, speak, and act differently.
But the original purpose of Seuss's beginner books was to aid learning by making reading fun and, in this sense, it's unclear how useful the videos are. Only the last episode, "The Foot Book," has writing on screen that synchs with the pictures and the dialogue, and could conceivably help children learn to read. Unfortunately, many kids won't last that long: two 4-year-old viewers walked away long before the third story started.
The books are excellent and for the children who love them, the video may be interesting. Higher quality animated Seuss can be found in the Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss series, an imaginative Muppet production.
Rate It!
| Content | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CS | adults | kids | ||
Sexual Content |
 |
|
||
Violence |
|
|
||
Language |
|
|
||
Message |
|
|
||
Social Behavior |
 |
 |
||
Commercialism |
|
|
||
Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco |
|
|
||
