Why So Blu?

The Elephant DVD With Eric Herman (DVD Review)

The back of the DVD tells me that Eric Herman is an award winning kids’ music star.  To be honest, I am not at all familiar with him but I knew one of his videos was featured in the movie Life As We Know It. I also should admit that although I loved Life As We Know It, I do not remember seeing the video in the movie but I assumed someone involved in making the movie probably thought it was pretty special.  As the mother of a three year old, I am always looking for new things to watch with my son as he doesn’t seem to need much of a variety.  My goal is to find something for him to watch that he loves and I am willing to tolerate.  Usually, I am pretty happy when I find something he will sit still through.  The Elephant DVD kept him still and content so it wasn’t a bad ninety minutes.

Film  

I expected The Elephant DVD to be a movie with songs by Eric Herman, but it is actually a collection of animated music videos for children.  The following videos are included:

• The Elephant Song – A humorous song where Eric sings about animals but is wrong about what each animal does and where it lives.  A little girl corrects him stating “you don’t know anything about animals.”
• Ants In Your Pants #99 – This is a song kids will definitely get up and dance to.  The lyrics are very cute and with a few more viewings I could imagine my son singing along “dance like you have a bear in your hair…..dance like you have bees on your knees.”
• Blackbeard, Bluebeard and Redbeard – My son gleefully exclaimed “A Pirate Story Mama!”  The three pirates argue over the best color to paint their pirate ship.  One even takes off his hook and replaces it with a paint roller.  I thought the line “Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of pop” was especially cute.  With my son’s love of all things pirate related, I’m constantly worried what he’ll learn and repeat.  At some point I’m sure he will call someone a scurvy wench.  A nice reference to LOST at the end with the pirate on the island eating food from a Dharma Initiative looking box.
• Steve the Superhero –As the lyrics state, he has a smile that will crack a mirror, breath that makes you faint and when he takes his socks off it’s been known to peel the paint.  Apparently the bad guys get the wind knocked out of them and they just leave.  It’s certainly a new take on the idea of superheros.
• My Lucky Day – A song about four leaf clovers, a rabbit’s foot, Lucky Charms cereal (with a Conan O’Brien figure inside!), horseshoes, a lucky penny..basically all things lucky.
• The Tale of the Sun and the Moon – This is the video that plays during Life As We Know It. It’s a very cute video where the moon is wearing pajamas and the sun wears a bathing suit.
• Dance Like An Animal – Various animals dance under a disco ball.  This one was a particular favorite of my son and he asked me to get off the couch and dance with him.  I tried to appease him with a little boogie on the couch but he was unsatisfied and wanted me to stand up and copy the animals dancing on our TV.
• Snow Day – This is all about the fun (and danger) of snow days.
• In the Box – This is one of two videos that is not animated.  I like anything that reinforces the need to clean up your toys.  My son decided that this song made him want to get out his play piano and play along.
• Crazy Over Vegetables – The second non-animated video.  Again, a good idea to reinforce with my son – eating vegetables.

Video  

The Elephant DVD was obviously created with a relatively low budget.  The animation is simple, but charming.  The live portions appear to have been recorded with a home movie camera.  Detail is acceptable and the various colors pop off the screen.  Since most of this DVD is animated, it looks pretty good and will works just fine for its target audience of children.

 

Audio  

Again, the audio is as simple as the video and is suitable for what it is.  All of the songs and dialogue are perfectly understandable and well balanced.  All of the music videos are available with English subtitles as well.

 

Special Features  

• Eric Herman Interview – An adorable five year old interviews Eric Herman about his music.
• Live Footage – Eric Herman sings The Elephant Song to a group of kids at a park.  It’s interesting to see how a group of children react to the song and that they all quickly correct him with each mistake.  He sings other songs and it’s clear that the children are enjoying the show.  I would certainly take my child to see Eric Herman should he come to Sacramento.
• Jukebox – All  the video songs in their original full length versions.
• Picture Day Gallery –Very creative children, teens, and adults submitted Eric Herman inspired art during a 2009 online contest.
• Ants In Your Pants #99 Dance Compilation – You Tube videos of people of all ages dancing to Herman’s music.  This is the second time my son directed me to get off the couch, as it was “time to dance.”

 

Final Thoughts  

I was briefly disappointed when I realized that The Elephant DVD is a collection of music videos and not a movie.  Luckily my three year old son was entertained and I was able to watch the entire DVD straight through without interruption.  He’s seen the DVD several times now and he’s still enjoying it which is always nice.  He would probably enjoy the music on CD too since he likes to sing some of the songs now.  Overall The Elephant DVD was a surprisingly enjoyable experience as a parent.  The videos are simple but charming and have enough little touches directed at parents to help them enjoy it as  much as their kids.  These songs and videos are obviously made with a lot of love and that comes through clearly.  While the audio and video categories certainly brought down the overall score, if this was judged solely on a preschooler’s enjoyment it would have received a solid 4 out of 5.

This title will be released on July 19, 2011 so order yours now!