Customer Reviews

The Backyardigans - It's Great To Be A Ghost

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Don't let this brightly colored CGI cartoon fool you into thinking it's only for kids. This is one you can watch for the umpteenth time without rolling your eyes way up in your head, and is one of the most entertaining shows to come out recently.

Each adventure takes place in the imagination of five young friends who turn their shared backyard into different fantasy worlds, each episode full of song and dance numbers of various music genres. Imagine hearing your kids singing `20s Jazz tunes while cartoon characters tap dance across the screen, and you'll pretty much get the idea.

This DVD has four episodes:

1. It's Great to Be a Ghost: This is the `20s Jazz episode, where Pablo (the blue penguin), Tyrone (the brown moose) and Uniqua (the pink spotted female of indeterminate species) pretend to be ghosts haunting an old house, and do their best to scare Tasha (the yellow hippo) an "unsuspecting stranger" who drops by the house.
2. Monster Detectives: This one has an early rock n' roll theme, and features Tyrone as a detective and Uniqua, who has lost her soccer ball, as they go to the castle of Pablo the Soccer Monster to get it back.
3. The Key to the Nile is another musical adventure, where Queen CleoTasha and her attendants Pablo, Tyrone and Austin (the purple kangaroo) seek three treasures of the Nile to present to the sphinx Uniqua.
4. Pirate Treasure is my favorite, set to a reggae beat, as the friends learn to work together to uncover buried treasure. Arrrr!

Janice Burgess has created a truly enjoyable, educational and fun series for all ages.


Amanda Richards, December 27, 2005

"The Backyardigans" is a fairly new series now airing in the United States and Canada about a group of five friends who get together and have adventures in their backyards. There's a lot of singing (all really quite good) and the animation is crisp CGI. The characters each have different and interesting personalities and the stories are strong. This is a Nelvana production and includes many staff that have worked on shows such as "Franklin." You'll also find if you check the credits that many former members of the "Blue's Clues" crew write for this show as well. So if you like either of those shows, or even if you don't, there's a good chance you or your kids will like this!

This DVD has four complete episodes of the show --- "It's Great To Be a Ghost!," "Monster Detectives," "The Key to the Nile," and "Pirate Treasure." These episodes have things to teach about bravery, politeness, facing your fears, speaking up and other important themes. So not only will you / your kids learn a lot, but you'll be entertained too.


The special features are as follows:

Promos --- These included promos for "Dora's Dance to the Rescue,"Blue's Room" on video and DVD, full length Dora specials and "My Little Pony's A Very Minty Christmas." You can't skip the promos at the start on the DVD version, although you can fast-forward through them.

"A Pirate Says Arr" Music Video --- The best special feature on the disc. A music video version of one of the best songs from the included episodes.

Meet the Backyardigans --- Each Backyardigan is shown while an instrumental version of the main show theme plays. Facts about the characters are displayed on the screen, but aren't read out loud.

How to Be a Backyardigan --- Tips on how to dress up and stuff to become various things that the Backyardigans become, such as ghosts or pirates.


While the special features weren't thrilling, they were kind of nice. That's why I've given this four stars and not five --- I believe that in order for DVDs of this type to really stand out and be deserving of five stars, they must include great special features.

The audio does not have any subtitles available, but you can turn on close-captioning. Audio is English only, there are no options for other languages.

The Backyardigans rock - literally. My wife and I sing along to the hip songs while our 11 month old is enthralled!

The Backyardigans has proven to be more education than most cartoons I have seen lately. My 16 month old son loves the music and the characters are very creative. The different genres of music for each episode makes me very happy to know that my son is learning about a varity of wonderful music like country and mambo! The DVD is good but you must get all the episodes if you can. Most of them are great for adults and children, my husband and I groove to the music along with my son!

This DVD is great! My daughters love it, and would have watched it all day if I'd let them. I highly recommend it to anyone who has a child who loves music, or who loves good music themselves.

It isn't apparent from the picture, but this DVD gives you four episodes. You can choose to play them all, or play just one. In the order they play, they are:
*It's Great to be a Ghost - Did you ever play at being scared when you were little, until you actually worked yourself up into being scared? In this episode, the Backyardigans pretend to be ghosts, but it's all fun and games - for a while.
*Monster Detectives - When Uniqua's ball is stolen by the Soccer Monster (Pablo), it's up to Tyrone, the Monster Detective, to help her get it back.
*The Key to the Nile - When Egypt suffers a drought it's up to self-centered Princess Tasha to find the key to restoring the Nile. But will she ever remember to thank the faithful servants who are doing all the real work?
*Pirate Treasure - Two sets of pirates (you can tell they're pirates by the way they say, "Arrr!") are looking for the same treasure on a desert island.

Each episode starts with the same opening musical number you see on television, and ends with a closing credits sequence that I thought was a little lengthy, but that my daughters didn't seem to mind at all.

I have to admit I was disappointed by the Special Features. The first two special features require reading skills, which makes things difficult for parents if their children can't read. Since the Backyardigans' target audience age is 2 to 5 that's probably going to be most of us who are interested in owning this DVD.
*Meet the Backyardigans - This feature presents each of the Backyardigans, one at a time. They do not move, but are presented as stiff drawings (I was reminded of paper dolls) bouncing around against the show's backyard play area. At the bottom of the screen is a description of the pictured character. There is background music (the music from the opening sequence), but no voiceover reading of the description.
*How to Be a Backyardigan - As with the first special feature, this one requires an ability to read or a parent with the patience to read and reread ad infinitum. Pictures of the various Backyardigans doing things from the shows are shown, with written instructions on how to be like that character. Example: Picture of Pablo playing drums. Written next to it is, Be a MUSICIAN How to be a musician like Austin: Bang your drums, Play the tuba, Say, "Let's polka!" You use the remote to move on to the next character.
*"A Pirate Says Arrr" Music Video - By far the best of the special features. Scenes from the episode are arranged pleasingly. My only quibble is that it isn't the full song from the episode and it ends a little abruptly. My girls loved it though, and asked me to replay it several times.
*Previews - Ads for other DVDs being released in fall 2005.

I wanted this for the episodes, though, not the special features, so it's not an issue for me.

Overall, I have to give this high marks, because it is, after all, the Backyardigans! Which is the first kid's show that I enjoy as much as my children.

Don't I wish that that title was hyperbole! My four year old LOVES this DVD. He asks for it EVERYDAY. My husband and I enjoy the music and the dancing. They do an amazing job of utilizing different musical styles! It is not the type of video that will have you trying to lose/break it (accidentally of course).

I just recently bought this for my daughter in my department at work since we enjoy watching Backyardigans on tv. I am glad that they have 4 episodes on the dvd. The extras could have been better, so I only gave this 4 stars.

The colors are very vibrant and the songs are pleasent and catchy. I haven't come across one that is annoying. My daughter isn't interested in other shows like Dora, Max & Ruby, etc, so I'm glad she is interested in Backyardigans. She dances along to them and even laughs.

I recommend this show to anyone who wants something GOOD for their child to watch. Thank you Nick Jr for having a decent show out. Now my daughter can take time out from playing, and watch/sing/dance to some entertaining characters, it is one show I am glad she watches and will watch with her.

My 2 1/2 year old daughter loves watching the Backyardigans. It's fun to sit back and watch her act out an episode. She actually picked up using please and thank you from The Key to the Nile episode. This is by far the best young kids program on television right now. It teaches children to pretend play. I would recommend this for any young children.

I like this DVD. I liked it when Tyroe chased Pablo, Uniqua, and Tasha when they thought he was a ghost. Tyrone really scared Tasha, who is not scared of anything. I thought the funniest part was when Tyrone kept shouting "BOO!" at Tasha through the door when she hid in a closet and she kept shrieking with fear. I also liked it when Tyrone and Pablo screamed three times when Uniqua scared them. BOO!

The Backyardigans are wonderful, and this dvd is our favorite. Our four year old LOVES the pirate episode and the Soccer Monster one. We all love the music, including my 18 month twins who now "arrgh" whenever this comes on. Darling dvd. The Backyardigans is a rare show; one that parents like as much as the kids. A+++