Disney

A couple of years ago, my wife and I found ourselves watching an episode of The Lizzie McGuire Show on a lazy Saturday morning, when nothing else was on. While we are certainly not the target market, we were both pleased to find that the half-hour was genuinely entertaining. Saturday mornings are a perfect time to watch this show, as it is mildly humorous, yet still benign enough that you don’t really have to get your brain working to enjoy it. It has since become a fairly-regular part of our weekend routine.< ...p>

This disc features four episodes with that ever popular sitcom convention; the guest star. The stars in question here are the unbelievably arrogant Aaron Carter, surprisingly funny Frankie Muniz, rock god Steven Tyler, and Raymond’s own Doris Roberts. Once viewers get past the horrible Aaron Carter episode, the remaining segments (including a bonus featuring Erik Estrada) are the same kind of entertaining family faire that viewers have come to identify with Lizzie.

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat… this is a title intended for viewing by small children. Very small children. As a result, all of my usual judging criteria (picture quality, sound quality, character development) are pretty much unimportant. The target audience for this title has trouble forming words, so I am willing to bet that the more subtle nuances of the narrative will be lost on them. Nevertheless, I will continue on as best as I can.

If you are still reading this, you are most likely a...parent, or will soon become one. Personally, I don’t have children. Having said that up front, I feel that this is a tremendous title that would prove to be invaluable in the task of teaching young minds to recognize colors, shapes, and even words. The content is presented in a way that would be interesting to children, with a nice mix of bright colors, moving images, animation and live action. Vocal narration is virtually nonexistent, as the people at Baby Einstein allow the images to speak for themselves.