Customer Reviews

Classical Baby 3-Pack - Music, Art & Dance

5 star:		(199)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I bought this on a whim at Costco. I needed something to occupy my 2 year old while I did her hair. This 3 pack was far better than I expected it would be! We like it even better than the Baby Einstein videos. A nice feature is the menu selection (which Baby Einstein doesn't have) so we can just watch a couple of the songs each day while fixing her hair. ALL of my kids actually enjoy watching this (my oldest is 11), although perhaps not as much as the 4 & 2 year old.

We like the dance and music shows best. The art show puts animated characters into classical art, but often you don't look at the actual art very much. For example, there are cute creatures in a tree, but then Van Gogh's Starry Night is flashed on the screen at the very end. There are animated frogs that jump around in Monet's lilypad picture, but you mostly see the frogs, not the art. That said, I realize this is for babies, not an intensive intro to art. I think the kids will recognize the pictures later as ones they've seen before. The animations are cute, but not too cheesy as another reviewer thought. Plus all of the dvds have good music (mostly classical) for each scene.

The kids go around the house humming classical music. So if that's a bad thing, don't get these dvds. Frankly, I think you could do a lot worse as far as kid's dvds go!

My one complaint is that the baby voice they have to announce each selection is often hard to understand. My 2 year old repeats each one, but she usually says it wrong because the baby/toddler doesn't pronounce it very well.

I was all about the Baby Einstein series until I saw HBO's Classical Baby series - it's SO much better! Why?

1.The music is the real deal, not a "baby" version. In addition to a ton of classical music, there's also Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Mambo, etc.

2. The animation is really cool! My husband is an artisit & he loves Classical Baby - he refuses to put on Baby Einstein when he's home.

3. It's WAY cheaper! I spent $20 dollars for THREE videos instead of $45-60 for three Baby Einstein.

4. Besides music, it also has famous art & dance

5. It's a lot more interesting for parents!

Just my little plug. I stopped buying any more Baby Mozart, Baby Bach or Baby Beethoven & now give Classical Baby to my pregnant friends!

Although, when it's time to start teaching words & other ideas, I guess I'll have to go back to Baby Einstein - unless HBO comes up with some more in the series!

My husband and I love this show...and we are fairly certain that our 3 month old daughter does too. In fact, I am planning to take her to her first opera Gianni Schicchi by Puccini thanks to the "Cow Song"...she loves it that much.
I was one of those parents who was dead- set against their baby watching television but when you become a parent any distraction that can give you some kind of break is VERY NECESSARY. With HBO's classical baby, I have the guilty pleasure of entertaining my infant with slow moving, brightly colored images which is great for her eye development without the worry of seizures while exposing her to the arts at the same time. And it doesn't hurt that I can finally get to those dishes now or a take a breather also its great for putting them to sleep too. I...ahem (lol) we love it and anyone who ads this dvd to their collection will too.

One individual indicated that this DVD was "atrocious". You have to remember that this DVD is geared for very young children. My 10 month old calms down and is incredibly engaged with this DVD. My three year old likes to watch it as well. Young children need to experience music in this format. They can't sit through an entire performance and are often not allowed in the symphony before age five. This is a perfect introduction to music and can help children imagine and explore beyond the music. Demonstrating the art and dance involves all the senses. These DVD's are very well done and the animation is very good. Again, the animation can't be overdone. For a baby the animation must be slower and less defined or it would simply overwhelm. I find these delightful and calming to watch as well! The bad reviewer also asserts that because the DVD's are entitled "Classical Baby" that individuals who purchase them know nothing about music. Trust me, my husband and I know music!

I own around 20 Baby Einstein videos (bought the DVD collection), some Baby Genius and some Brainy Baby too. After watching them a lot, I can be certain than HBO's Classical Baby is the very best baby video ever made. Why?
* The music is played by an actual orchestra, not by a computer like similar products. This makes the video a really listening pleasure, even for adults.
* Music selection is wide, not just classical music, many contemporary and world music pieces are present, even jazz and mambo. The kind of music that will make your child smarter.
* The animations are so beautifull that I don't mind my baby watching it over and over. The replay value of this video set is huge.
* When my baby don't want to eat, I put any of these videos and problem solved, by baby eats anything I put in his mouth, even adult food.
* When my baby don't want to sleep, I put these videos and he get relaxed, and it is easier to take him to bed.
* The animations are based on real life art pieces, so you are giving a lot of culture to the baby. When I took my baby to a real museum, he felt as in home.
* Dance scenes are a pure work of art, they touches my soul every time, incredible choreography.
* It does not matter the language (english only), this is all about music.
* I played this video to my newborn since he was 3 month old, and now he is 16 month old and still his favorite. I also played this video to nephews and neices between two and eight years old, and all of them were glued to the tv.
* This production is unique. All competition looks similar when compared to each other, but HBO Classical Baby looks really different from other baby videos available. So if you are looking for variety, buying a cople of Baby Einstein, a cople of Baby Genius and some other Brainy Baby, your are not really buying different things, they all look alike.

Finally I would like to add that the reviewer that said that these 3 videos had the same content "is wrong", only the introduction is the same, but all the content from each video is original and related to the title, so Music in mainly Music, Dance is about dancing, and Art is about paintings and sculptures.
I have said so many times, thanks HBO, that I decided to make this little review.

I bought this set for my 1-year-old and my 4-year-old also happens to loves it. I like that the music is traditional and not babyfied, like the Baby Einstein stuff. Coming from a family well-versed in classical music, it was important to me that my children get an ear for the real stuff. It's like Fantasia for children.

We caught Classical Baby on HBO as well, and my two-year-old son LOVED it! It is the only show he will sit down and watch all the way through. I have not been able to find it on t.v. lately, but he still asks to watch his "baby show" every day. I decided to try to find it on DVD for Christmas and I am surprised at how reasonably priced the boxed set is. This will definitely be his favorite Christmas gift...if I can wait that long to give it to him!

I love Classical Baby. I too have Tivo'd this lovely show and it has held her attention and has soothed her in my daughter's time of need. Thank you HBO I am glad you came out with this show. This is a must have for babies young and old!

My 1 year old received this 3 DVD set for Christmas. I thought he might be a little too young yet to sit and watch a video, but after putting them on once a day for a couple of weeks he soon took interest. He will now sit through most, and sometimes all, of one of the 30 minute videos, completely entranced. He likes some of the cartoons more than others and will smile, laugh, and point at those. His favorite part is the scenes of the animal audience clapping between numbers. I have found the cartoons to be beatifully done and appreciate the fact that the music is not dumbed down to music box versions. It's all full on orchestral, and some really lovely and interesting selections. We usually watch one video a day and I am still finding them very enjoyable, not at all grating as some kiddie videos can become. The cartoons and music are really pretty relaxing.

One previous reviewer mentioned something about repeating footage between the three videos, but I haven't seen that at all. Certainly all of the cartoons are completely different. You will always go back to the animal audience between numbers, but even those segments are all different (trust me, I've watched them all enough times now to be sure).

I would very highly recommend this set of videos to any parent, even more so than any Baby Einstein video, which seem kind of cheap in production quality in comparison.

I had Tivo'd Classical Baby from HBO and it was a stalwart choice for a longtime in our household. In fact, it is the finest program we have discovered for our child. HBO followed with Classical Baby 2 which is also outstanding. Seemingly overnight, the format changed from "CB" 1 and 2 to the three part series: CB Music, CB Art and CB Dance. These are basically rehashes of the original 2 with some extra material added. My only issue is that this "3 disc set" contains all of 90 minutes of material (30 minutes each) - which could easily fit on one DVD - Twice! Instead, people will pay more for the perceived material that would warrant three discs. Bottom line: these are outstanding programs. I just wish it was packaged with same intelligence and consideration that went into the programs themselves.