Friday, May 12, 2006
Disney Getting Back to Basics
This one is for XIS:
Technorati Tags: Family | Disney | They Might Be Giants
- There is music on "Mickey Mouse Playhouse" but not too much: a new introductory theme song that spells out the letters of Mickey Mouse, but with a slight Caribbean lilt, and a finale, "Hot Dog!," both of them written and performed by the pop group They Might Be Giants. During the instructional part of the show, there is a restful quiet that is mostly found only on public television programs. <...>
Mickey's show is also light on sardonic pop-culture allusions, which is also remarkable in an era where every cartoon carries a double entendre. Even series tailored for preschool children, like "Rolie Polie Olie," a Disney cartoon about cute little robots, includes an Elvis impersonator.
Children don't automatically choose the lowest common denominator. One of the top-rated shows for preschool-age children is "Wonder Pets," on Nickelodeon, a series about classroom pets — a guinea pig, a duckling and a turtle — who turn into superheroes when the children go home, sing opera and travel the world rescuing animals in distress. Disney Channel's highest-rated series in the 2-to-5 age group is "Little Einsteins," which casually drops references to Antonin Dvorak.
"Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" is simpler, and sometimes less is more.
Technorati Tags: Family | Disney | They Might Be Giants
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