Customer Reviews

Baby Football DVD

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I borrowed this DVD from the library for my 2 1/2 year old daughter, and I was so dissappointed I felt compelled to warn potential buyers against wasting their money.

I should preface my comments by saying that we could only get through about 20 minutes before turning this off. So if some of my comments are inaccurate, I apologize.

The content seems to be modeled somewhat after Baby Einstein. It goes from scene to scene with no real sense of continuity. There is very little narration, and essentially no dialogue. Maybe this works for babies, but it was confusing and boring for my preschooler and the DVD jackets says that its for ages 0-6. The quality of the content isn't anywhere near Baby Einstein anyway.

On to the content. There are basically four types of scenes; a group of mostly boys (more on that later) in football equipment doing drills and other football practice activities, a group of girls in cheerleading outfits and pom poms, a dog-like character running around with no purpose, and stuffed footballs with faces and helmets hopping around. The boys were probably the best part, they did real activites you would see in a football practice, like running obstacle relays and passing the ball to each other, but I never saw them actually line up and run a play. There was more cheerleading than there was football, which I found to be very odd for a DVD supposedly about football. The dog was cute enough, but he never seemed to do anything that kids would learn from. The hopping footballs were not remotely cute, and although they did some things that might provide some education, like bouncing along the hash marks, they were mostly strange. The narration did provide some information for children, like the fact that the field is really big, and that when the ball is thrown it's a pass, but there simply wasn't enough of it, even for a preschooler. At one point, the narration counted down the yards as the balls bounced towards the end zone, but 'TOUCHDOWN' was called before the line was crossed, which I found to be misleading and poorly planned.

The production quality is poor. There is no menu - at least I couldn't find one if it exists - and therefore no chapter selection. The sound is also poor, so poor that I can't tell what the characters are saying.

If you're not into equal opportunities or feminism, skip this paragraph. I've always been the type of girl that believed it was better to be on the field playing than on the sidelines cheering for the players, but I understand that there are plenty of people who feel differently. There is one girl putting the equipment on at the beginning, but after that, the only ones playing football are boys. I wonder why they even bothered to put the girl in the first scene to begin with. My daughter has a great deal of natural interest in sports, but she told me that she didn't want to do what the kids playing football were doing because they were all boys. A little bit of cheerleading wouldn't have bothered me, but there was so much of it, only with girls, that I felt it was presenting gender roles to an audience much too young and impressionable. That said, my opinions on this subject did not influence my other comments about this video. Even if I supported the notion that boys should play sports and girls should cheerlead, I would still find this a poor presentation of football, and a poor quality DVD.

If you want to teach your child something about football, put on a game and explain it to them as long as they're interested. That would go much much further than this DVD does.

this video and babypro: basketball,baseball, soccer. are my sport obsessed child's favorite videos. he can watch them over and over.It's what a video should be, something they love, that keeps their attention while you get something done! he loves tiny tots, it's babies, and balls, and it keeps moving and it has funny sounds, everything a toddler loves. He's 18 months and it keeps him occupied for a good 40 minutes. great video!

To all moms and dads out there... you want these DVDs!!! I bought the series for my nephews who are 2 and 4. They loved it. At a recent family party, 6 kids were entertained for over 30 minutes laughing and cheering for the kids. This is not a training DVD. It is an introduction to the sport using mascots and children. It is ingenious! I am online right now to order the series for my 18 month old who was one of those 6 kids in the room!!