Customer Reviews

Barney - Let's Go to the Zoo

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you have a child who loves the zoo.. then this is the video for you. My son loves going to the zoo and he enjoys Barney music so this was a perfect video. I wasn't sure if this video had actually LIVE zoo animals or if they were going to use pretend ones... this is the real stuff! You see Elephants, Hippos, Lions and so much more. It felt like you were really at the zoo. Barney, B.J. & Baby-Bop took you on the zoo trip from starting out by buying you a ticket to getting you a drink of lemonade to great info. about the animals and let's not forget about the Barney animal songs. It is a purchase you won't be disappointed with.. My 10 & 8 yrs olds watch it along with my 5 yr old!!

This tape is excellent! It took my baby several viewing to like it, but once she did, she really liked it! Barney, B.J. and Baby Bop go to the zoo and see many animals like Elephants, Lions, Tigers, Parrots, Tortises, Kangaroos, Hippos, Merkats and Bears. The songs are very good! Half are new and half are the same ones. I particarly like the Elephant and Tiger songs a lot. My baby loves The Wiggles and only one other Barney video, Sing And Dance With Barney. After several viewing of this tape she fell in love with it. Now she giggles at B.J. and Baby Bops anitics, as well as the puppet squirel guy. It is bright and colorful and fun to watch. Just like being at the zoo right along with them!
A very good tape and a must have for a active child who won't sit still for most tapes on the market!

My 16 month old granddaughter loves Barney but the only Barney video she would watch was "Sing and Dance with Barney". We bought other Barney videos that she wouldn't give the time of day to. When we bought "Let's Go to the Zoo", we figured she wouldn't watch it either but we wanted to give it a try since she loves animals. She absolutely loves it and we watch it many, many times a day. You get to see so many different animals close up. I know all the words to all the songs. There is just something about Barney, Baby Bob and BJ with all of those wonderful animals. If you are not able to get to the Fort Worth Zoo, you can see it all on video. Simply magnificant and highly recommended. I think I'll buy another in the event she wears this one out.

My 1 year old son received this tape as a gift and it is his absolute favorite tape (and his first introduction to Barney). It is shot on location at the Fort Worth Zoo which lends such a pleasant and sunny atmosphere. The songs are very catchy, and I often find myself singing along or them playing in my head during the day! They are simple but instructive songs such as "Everybody Needs A Nap", "Have A Snack", "Growing" and the wonderful song and dance intro "Lets Go to the Zoo". The choreography is perfect. Even though this is for kids, Barney, BJ and Baby Bop's tour of the zoo and their description of each animal is very interesting as well as adorable. Barney's cheerful, polite and gentle demeanor are a beautiful example for any child. I must say, in all aspects this video is beautifully produced.

In this video, Barney, BJ and Baby Bop spend a day at the Zoo where Scooter McNutty and Ms. Kepler (the science teacher from school) join them. Typical Barney fun ensues with jokes and songs and lots of animal pals.

Some of the animals featured:
Flamingos, meerkats, giraffes, tortoise, tigers, lions, porcupines, chimps, apes, monkeys and gorillas, hippos, parrots, zebras, warthog, elephants, barn owl, bear, kangaroo, koala, among others I might have missed :)

The real strength of this video is that there are lots of opportunities for kids to learn about animals. Among other things Barney discusses how different animals prefer different environments: food and activities, for example. Hippos, he points out, like the water and kids learn that hippos' noses are high on their heads to allow them to stay mostly submerged while they breathe.

The photography is very good and the music catchy. A great Barney addition!!!

I am not a Barney fan, and despite having now a 4 and 2 year old, I have steadfastly refused to purchase Barney items. My kids got this one from Grandma around the time my youngest was born. Although the other Barney DVDs that have found there way into our house have been quietly re-routed to other places, I find this one much less irritating than the other Barney episodes that have been borrowed from the library. Since the video wasn't designed for parents, it's best recommendation is that after more than two years, my kids still watch it at least once every few weeks (about as often as I offer it).

There's some information on the animals, including some views that only very lucky zoo-goers ever get to see. Other than that, there's lots of the singing and dancing characteristic of Barney. It's a hit with my kids.

My 2- and 4-year-old girls love this show!! Barney, BJ, Baby Bop, and a stowaway, Scooter, take a trip to the fabulous Fort Worth Zoo. As they sing and dance their way around the zoo, they see many different animals and learn a little bit about each one. Interspersed throughout the video are short animal spotlights by BJ. Also, as the gang visits each exhibit, they ask viewers things like, "Can you hop like a kangaroo?" "Can you roar like a lion?" and it shows children doing the things Barney asks them to do. Songs such as "What'll We See At the Zoo?", "Jungle Adventure," "Elephant," "Everybody Needs A Nap," and a song about snacking on fruits and vegetables are included. This video is interactive and fun, and the short facts given about the animals are very easy to understand (did you know a koala has two thumbs on each hand for climbing?!). It doesn't go into great detail about each animal, but it is a great introduction to help the child want to learn more. I also like seeing all the families spending a fun day at the zoo together. To top it off, the filming and graphics are top-notch! I highly recommend this video for all zoo-lovers and zoo-lovers-to-be!

I have revised my earlier review -- see the bottom for an update!
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What a letdown. I was looking forward to this because our baby likes Barney reasonably well, but the TV shows are not consistent and I had high hopes for a video that was not a rehash of previously broadcast material. In my view, this tape is actually weaker than the typical TV show.

What our child likes about the Barney TV show is the interaction among the real live children; the singing and dancing; and to some extent, the silly stuff (like Scooter the Squirrel). At 18 months he is more patient with long sections of talk than before, but still, a child needs some stimulation.

The regular cast of Barney kids are totally absent, as are most other regulars like Stella, et al. Just Barney, Baby Bop and BJ, and Scooter, along with some lady they meet at the zoo, whose dramatic purpose seems to be to explain things -- except that Barney explains things half the time anyway. They could have left her character out, because she just slows things down.

There are ridiculous running "plot" lines, like BJ trying to take pictures that don't turn out. Wow, that's funny -- not. There's one scene that I thought was cute, where two kids visiting the zoo mistake Scooter for a monkey. It made ME laugh, but zoomed over the head of our child. Maybe such humor makes more sense for older children since it is rather verbally oriented. The reason I've given it a middling kind of rating is to allow the possibility that older kids might put up with it more readily.

In any case, if you expect anything remotely resembling a regular Barney show -- OR if you expect to get a reasonably intimate visit with zoo animals -- you will be disappointed on both counts. They try to shove in a few songs like those in the regular shows, but it's a force fit.

Above all, animals simply do not get a lot of screen time for such a long program. I would expect a couple of quick scenes where the stuffed characters move from place to place, maybe with a little banter or even singing, and then most camera time would be devoted to showing the animals. But it's nothing like that!

Our son loves animals when they show up in other videos, so if this tape had spent more time showing and identifying the zoo creatures I'm sure it would have been better received. Instead, the adults have to fast forward through all the pointless banter or else risk having a very bored child crying for something else.

My suggestions: Use Barney for the singing and dancing and socializaton skills that he's best suited for; and find some other program to show and explain zoo creatures in a more focused and coherent manner.

----UPDATE-----

As our child got older, he became more of a Barney fan, and started requesting this tape fairly often. It was obvious that he liked the singing and the occasional gags with Scooter the Squirrel and other characters, and the occasional glimpse of an animal was sufficient.

I suspect that part of that is because he has been to a real zoo several times since we bought this tape, and he has his own memories of some of the animals. If we had not made those trips, I have no idea if he would have had the same response. In any case, he decided he liked it enough to request it pretty often. Just goes to show, you never know what they're going to like. So if a tape doesn't go over well at first, just hang onto it for a while, and try again!

My 21/2 year old daughter watched this over and over and laughed again and again in spite of the availability of many other Barney choices. She joins right in and "talks" to the animals and has increased her vocabulary. A must for any child with a love of animals.

Both my 2 1/2 year old and 11 month old love this DVD! It's got great songs, tons of pictures of animals and information about the animals at the zoo. Plus, it's long . . 50 minutes. Perfect for me to get things done around the house while they watch!