Customer Reviews

Baby Newton [VHS]

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(52)

 

 

would do what they did. Disney went and tried to make the videos better. Lots of animation, loud music and fast moving things. They did keep some of the old (simple) concept but they added to it and made it more like most other kids videos. It was so peaceful to watch the old ones. I have all of the other Baby Einstein videos and love them and both of my kids love them. I bought this one because of the reputation of the original company. Now, that Disney owns them I guess I'll be thinking twice before I buy the next one that comes out. I was wondering if they would try to improve on something that worked so well just like it was. There are also no children in this video and the puppets are limited. These were my daughter's favorite things in the other videos. It certainly isn't a bad video but it's just not as good as the others. So, if you really liked the others you might be disappointed in this one also. And, to be fair, my daughter asked to watch it a second time right after watching it so it can't be all bad.

Personally, I was mildly excited about Disney buying the Baby
Einstien company. They had more resources to develop more
products and bring them to market, perhaps faster. A
Family-oriented entertainment company buying an infant-oriented
entertainment company. It made sense.

Unfortunately, they have effectively killed Baby Einstein.
Instead of a video of "real world objects" they have gone
computer-generated. Ok, the intro is classic Baby Einstein
stuff, but that's where it ends. It is not recognizable as a
Baby Einstein DVD after the intro.

Get Baby Mozart & Baby Bach for your very young infant. They
will love it and you have a built-in 20 minute baby sitter so
you can eat dinner. Both of my twins LOVE these.

Add Baby Shakespeare, Baby Santa and the Baby Doolittles when
your baby reaches 6 to 10 months. I used-to consider the Baby
Einstein tape the dog of the bunch, but that distinction is
now reserved for Baby Newton.

I own Baby Bach, Shakespeare, Doolittle, and Van Gogh and my 15-month-old has always loved them. This video is VERY DIFFERENT. It is not of the quality that Einstein video owners have come to expect. There is a lot of blurry animation and the host, a creepy animated clown, leaves me feeling cold. My son, who is usually mesmerized by the videos, did not even look over. Maybe this has something to do with Disney buying the company, but I don't recognize it. The music is different. It is usually light, airy, and playful. This music is bad adult music. I'm truly disappointed because after personally having to view my other tapes hundreds of times, I still enjoy them. The other videos are wonderful - simple, clever, playful, use real objects and children, and classical music. Newton is not well-made and a true disappointment.

They decided to add animation and lyrical music that is just regular music and not classical. Basically they decided to mess with the format that works for them. The whole point of Baby Einstein is that it is DIFFERENT from the million other things out there. Animation and "kid rock" music.....gee there's an original idea.....so original that you can find that in every video already out there. The whole point of Baby Einstein is that it is NOT animated and they play classical music. I am sorely dissapointed that they marketed this as a Baby Einstein product when it by no means follows the same format AT ALL. There is a lot of talking in this, a lot of singing with lyrics, a lot of animation. If they wanted to make this video they should have made it a seperate video with its own title and NOT marketed as part of the Baby Einstein series. This one was definitely a return (and I am a HUGE baby einstein fan)

We own all the other videos by this company and this one is by far the weakest. That's not to say it's bad, but it's not as good as the others. There is a strong reliance on computer animation that just isn't as engaging as the toys of the other videos, and the animated crayons don't really seem to have anything to do with the shapes of the video's topic. Also, the so-called music video is played twice, which means a good portion of the show is simply a repeat. We watch these videos enough to have them memorized, and we really don't need to see the same thing twice in each viewing. The song "I Know My Shapes" (the music video) isn't as fun as the "Deep Blue Sea" song in one of the animal videos and you can't sing along to most of it because it's talking instead of singing.

We've only had this video a few weeks and it's boring the heck out of the adults. My 18 month old likes it, but that's partly because Isaac the lion is his favorite character. He already has it memorized and I'm beginning to see him find other things to do during particularly dull portions, such as when there are computer animated designs on the screen. Bring back the clever toys!

As a side note, we had to return the VHS version and buy the DVD because the VHS sound quality was so poor. The speakers in our TV kept switching from stereo to mono and it was annoying.

I can't believe that this video only has an average customer review of 3 stars at the time of my posting this review. Baby Newton All About Shapes is proabably my most favorite Baby Einstein video (the other 3 good ones are Baby Neptune, Baby Galileo and Numbers Nursery).

At the beginning of this video, an animated crayon box tips over and these crayons spill out. They have faces, arms and legs and run around. There is a song about shapes, which is real cute and catchy. The crayons draw a clown. The clown has parts that are different shapes (circle for his head, triangle for his hat, etc). The clown ends up becoming this 3-D clown that walks around. He is really cute. There ar 5 shapes on the wall (triangle, square, circle, rectangle and oval). The clown walks to a shape and then there will be all kinds of things about that shape.

For circle you'll see bubbles, clocks, owls eyes, a tire swing, a basketball, etc. For triangle you'll see the Pyramids (this is really cool because it's time-lapsed photography with fast-moving clouds above the pyramids), a sail boat on the ocean (it looks like you are zooming over the ocean and see this sail boat with a triangular sale below you). It is live-action. The music is really good too.

This video has a purpose behind showing toys and shiny spinning things (unlike most of the other Baby Einstein videos) because they have to do with that particular shape. This still shows puppets and they are actually cute puppet scenes. This dvd is so different from your typical Baby Einstein videos because of the animated crayons and the clown. This was a great idea and they should have done something like this more often in the other Baby Einstein videos. I see that one reviewer commented, "They changed the format. Why mess with what works?". I thought just the opposite, "They changed the format. Way to go! They should have done this more often". LOL! To each his own, I guess. This one is definitely a keeper; my personal Baby Einstein favorite. Please read my other reviews for more childrens videos.

I don't mind the use of graphics and lyrical songs in this program except that, in my opinion, the lyrics and tune to the "I Know My Shapes" song are plain dumb and annoying and then they play it twice (at the beginning and end!) I feel sorry for the composer and the person that actually chose it. I'm sorry but I think it's just a really bad/dumb song. Once that song is over, the program improves a bit. I was a little disappointed with some of the real life objects that were chosen to illustrate some of the shapes, the objects were more modern/city like and were viewed from a rather artistic angle, not very practical in my opinion. Like instead of the triangular trusses of a bridge that even I don't recognize as I speed across the Ohio river, why not show an ice cream cone or a party hat, etc. They also show falling drops of water for both circles and ovals, which I thought was a bit abstract for a toddler. All in all, kids will eventually get it, but I think this is more of an artistic venture for the Baby Einstein company than an attempt to teach young children about shapes.

We too are a family who has really enjoyed Baby Einstein's previous offerings. My daughter loves Baby Bach and the Baby Dolittle DVDs. But this one is nothing but junk... Gone are the cute interactions between the puppets and real-life items. All that's here are some stupid, dancing animated crayons and this hideous animated clown; there's no fun or education for anyone...

This video is a horrific departure from the previous outstanding productions. Expecting similar high standards in the selections of classical music, we were mortified when we were greeted by digitally created 'rapping' crayons.
We only made it through 5 minutes of the film before we turned it off and started looking for the receipt.
Our children LOVE the other videos in the series, but showed little interest (thank heavens) in this particular video.
Do yourself a favor, buy the new "Baby Beethoven" instead.

What a major disappointment- I felt cheated for my triplets- they are 18 months and afraid of most of the animation and characters. We miss the "kithcy" feel that the previous videos had. Sure hope the Clark family has more say in the production of new releases! Get back to basics...!