Tag / Television

by jo

Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom ‘The Elf Games’ DVD Review

Ben and Holly Logo

We love Ben and Holly in this house. I love it when H makes a friend called Ben so there’s a Ben and Holly reference, though I also realise this could be just me who finds this funny.

Anyway, it may have escaped your attention, but this summer we’re hosting the Olympic Games in the UK. This means anything and everything is going (or getting ready to) Olympic Crazy. (there’s also the Queen’s Jubilee which we’ll come to another time)

Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom The Elf Games DVDBen and Holly’s Little Kingdom are no exception – there’s a brand new DVD ‘The Elf Games‘ due for release by Entertainment One on May 14th, with a RRP of £8.99. You get ten episodes (coming in at around 11 minutes each), including The Elf Games, Cows, The Toy Robot, Dinner Party, Big Bad Barry, The Wand Factory, King Thistle’s Birthday, Daisy & Poppy’s Pet, The Elf Rocket and Picnic on the Moon. There’s no new content, but in true Ben and Holly fashion there’ll be plenty of magic, exploding or expanding jelly, mischievous princesses and elves and some proper laugh out loud moments in all the episodes.

Ben and Holly The Elf Games

Most of these episodes are being aired on Nick Jr at the moment, though there’s a few we haven’t seen. Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom is made by the makers of Peppa Pig – so you know you’re onto a good thing.
We received a preview DVDR for review.

by jo

Tickety Toc on Nick Jr.

Tickety Toc is a new programme on Nick Jr.

Tickety Toc logoTickety Toc, ahhhh how I like you. H is at the age where she’ll identify numbers when she sees them and is hugely excited every time – so we decided to teach her how to tell the time in a very basic way. We bought some books, we have clocks, and now we have the addition of Tickety Toc on Nick Jr!

Tickety Toc started showing on Nick Jr on April 23rd 2012 – two short episodes at 8.15am – so we would miss it most days due to me being at work. The wonders of modern technology (i.e. a V+ box) and having a preview DVD of the first two episodes, meant we could try them out – and so far they’re quite popular – Nick Jr really is a favourite in our house when we have any television on.

Firstly, it’s a British made programme! So this means I wont moan about it being dubbed (which of course H doesn’t care about either way, and that’s what counts right now).

Secondly, each episode is just eleven minutes long – just the right length to keep H’s attention, which is always a good thing.

Finally, it’s a programme you can watch and learn with – delivering lessons about teamwork, problem solving, compromise and interactivity – as well as the added element of the characters who live on the other side of the Tickety Toc Clock (which I’m assuming there’ll be some kind of merchandise in the future because they’d be daft not to, especially if it helped pre-schoolers learn to tell the time at the same time) and their crazy adventures.

Tommy Tickety TocTallulah Tickety Toc

The two main characters are twins Tommy and Tallulah, and each adventure challenges them to save the day, return life to normal and help keep the clock ticking.

Tickety Toc Nick Jr site

by jo

Easter On Nick Jr.

 

DE_Logo_1B_EA copy

We’re very much a Nick Jr. house here, thanks to their almost constant Peppa Pig repeats, and some Yo Gabba Gabba in the early hours (recorded, don’t worry, we’re not that bad!), and of course Dora The Explorer.

Easter is coming, and there’s some specially themed programmes coming up too – we’ve got Dora’s Easter Adventure – and Team Umizoomi have an Easter themed episode too.

We were sent a preview DVD, so having found the time in our busy schedule to sit and watch, all programmes get a huge thumbs up from H, a proper Dora addict these days, demanding we go to Car Boot Sales for Boots – and we’re not talking footwear any more (I think she thinks Boots The Monkey will be there).

Dora Easter - Copy[1]Dora’s Easter Adventure involves Dora and Boots rescuing eggs from the Hip-Hop-Bunny’s basket after Swiper swiped them (always a great excuse to shout “SWIPER NO SWIPING!”) – and what’s worse is it’s for their Easter Egg hunt. Oh, and the Hip-Hop-Bunny does have some slightly hip hop sounding songs too – as ever, it’s standard fab Dora stuff, the map of course makes an appearance and Swiper is just plain bad again!
Dora’s Easter Adventure is on Nick Jr Friday 30th March at 4.30pm.

 

Team Umizoomi have the Umi City Egg Hunt coming in April – they’re on a hunt for the extra special Rainbow Egg – it takes a tumble down a rabbit hole, so the tiny Team have to jump in after it – where they discover a world of rabbits – they’ve got to be quick as if they don’t get the rainbow egg, it’s set to be scrambled!

Keep an eye out for transmission dates for this.

by jo

Meg & Mog Giveaway!

Meg, Mog, Owl and other StoriesMeg, Mog, Owl and other StoriesHow do you fancy winning a DVD of Meg & Mog episodes? You get thirteen episodes in total (they’re nice and short too), featuring Meg, Mog and Owl on their various adventures – as well as two interactive games – The Hiccup Game and The Circus Game.

We love Meg & Mog in this house – we bought the book set recently from The Book People, and these programmes were kept so faithful to the books that original illustrator Jan Pienkowski is very much involved.

The programmes air daily on CITV, and feature the voices of Fay Ripley as Meg, Alan Bennett as Owl and Phil Cornwell as Mog.

So, what to do to stand a chance of winning? Click the Rafflecopter widget below and read on… Closes on the 17th March 2012, so you’ve three weeks!

Don’t forget – you can join in the chat over at the Mum Friendly group, or just check for updates via the Mum Friendly page on Facebook.

Continue reading →

by jo

Dora’s Enchanted Forest Adventures

We were extremely lucky to be sent a preview DVD plus Backpack goody pack for the new Dora The Explorer adventures, which are set to be shown on Nick Jr next week.

Dora’s Enchanted Forest Adventures are a three part adventure with an hour long finale – which starts on Tuesday 8th November at 4.30pm, continuing on Wednesday at 4.30pm and the finale on Thursday, again at 4.30pm. All episodes are repeated each night at 6.30pm.

The full trilogy is then repeated back to back as a two hour special on the following dates:
Friday 11th November at 4.30pm
Saturday 12th November at 11am and 4pm
Sunday 13th November at 12pm and 3pm
Saturday 19th November at 1pm
Sunday 20th November at 9am and 5pm
Friday 25th November at 4pm
Sunday 27th November at 12pm

Dora’s Enchanted Forest Adventures starts on Tuesday 8th November at 4.30pm…only on Nick Jr. (Sky 615, Virgin 715 and TalkTalk 318).

Dora at Nick Jr

In the week of the show there will also be Enchanted Forest games, drawing activities and clips all related to these specials. We’ll add a Mum Friendly review very very soon!

by jo

Dora’s Ballet Adventure – the review

H is only just two, so only just entering into the world of Dora the Explorer – so we’re all learning as we go along. What I have to say, most of all, is I love how we get dialogue in spanish and english – we’ve both been teaching bits of french to H, so we’re all learning random words (and bits that crop up in Nick Jr trailers).

Dora's Ballet AdventureSo, Dora’s Ballet Adventure – H has a fairly low attention span, and usually gets bored around 15 minutes into longer programmes – but we found with this one that the characters all have their own individual parts (the map, for example) that there was enough going on we were able to sit and watch in one sitting – plus Dora getting the shoes and getting back again had plenty of different things happening.

The songs are catchy, and simple and repetitive – which is perfect for H as she picks things up straight away at the moment. The story was easy to follow, and the dialogue not too complicated – even the spanish bits. There were plenty of interactive sections which H joined in on, and Dora would reply (obviously on the review DVD we were sent, so an appropriate gap is left) – which in turn made her feel a part of it.

All in all, a fun and enjoyable episode – and we’re already looking forward to the Halloween Special I’ve started to see being trailered… (which may well be an old episode, but to us it’s new!)

by jo

Dora’s Ballet Adventure

Dora's Ballet Adventure
If you watch Nick Jr you can’t fail to have spotted the trailers for a new Dora The Explorer – Dora’s Ballet Adventure! Read on for more info… and we’ll add a review (with input from H) very very soon…

Break out your dancing shoes because Dora the Explorer’s dance class is having a big show! In this brand new special Dora Ballet Adventure, Dora is opening the ballet show and she can’t wait for her family to see her perform. She just needs her dance slippers, but by mistake the Delivery Duck has brought scuba flippers instead! The show can’t start without the slippers. Can Boots help Dora find a pair of dance slippers and save the show?

Dora micro site:
http://www.nickjr.co.uk/dora
Preview link here:
http://www.nickjr.co.uk/watch/dora/dora-ballet-adventure-preview/
There’s a game over here:
http://www.nickjr.co.uk/play/dora/ballet-adventure/#!
A drawing activity sheet here:
http://www.nickjr.co.uk/create/dora/ballet-dancing-colouring-sheet

To celebrate this special there are a number of repeats throughout the week, so fans of Dora won’t miss out on the show. Here is the full line-up:

Friday 30th Sept at 4pm and 6pm
Saturday 1st Oct 10.30am and 5pm
Sunday 2nd Oct at 1pm
Monday 3rd Oct – 8.30am and 4.30pm
Tuesday 4th Oct – 10.00am
Wednesday 5th Oct – 2pm
Thursday 6th Oct – no show
Friday 7th Oct – 4.30pm