Customer Reviews

Bilingual Elmo

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

 

 

My 8 month old daughter loves Elmo, and loves this toy. It is fun and educational, but, the problem that my Husband and I found was that we don't understand the Spanish version of the "Sunny Day" theme song. My husband is fluent in spanish thanks to his Mexican heritage and upbringing, but, we can't make out most of the words, we suspect it is Castillion Spanish (Which is not what they speak in Mexico), but it is hard to say for certain because of Elmos highpiched voice. We tried, unsuccessfully, to find the lyrics to the spanish version. I would say that for our family, this was the only drawback of the toy.

I gotta hand it to the creative geniuses at Sesame Workshop -- Elmo is the most seductive character of all time. My husband and I had shielded our daughter from all television (except NFL football!) and yet one of her first words, at age 19 months or so, was "Elmo." Or actually "ELMO! ELMO! ELMO!" I don't know how she knew about him, but our daughter LOVED Elmo and expressed that love loudly and often. When I took her to visit her newborn cousin she fell in love with an Elmo-framed mirror and dragged it around Arizona with her. On our last day there my sister presented her with her very own Bilingual Elmo, the only cuddly Elmo toy in stock at the mall toy store. Over the next three years Elmo racked up 1000s of frequent flyer miles, and hours of snuggling. We took him everywhere, as he was her absolutely favorite toy. I've had to repair a couple of rips in his fur, but to be honest I'm shocked that he didn't just fall apart. After much abuse, I mean, loving, he still looks pretty good and his voicebox still works perfectly. In other words, the quality of the materials is very good. As for educational value, I think it would have been pretty easy for me to teach her how to say "sol," "adios," and "amigo" without Elmo, so there's not that much added there, but a little exposure to Spanish is better than none. We have had his voice turned off for several months, actually.

Her baby brother got interested in Elmo a couple of months ago and adopted Bilingual Elmo, who had by then lost his prime position in big sis's heart. We have certainly gotten our, or my sister's, money out of this toy! My daughter is now seeking to reclaim her friend so I am ordering a new Elmo for little bro, although I'm not getting him the talking version. Since this doll's primary purpose has been snuggling I'm getting a simpler, smaller, cheaper, lighter plush Elmo. I'm the one who schlepped Bilingual Elmo (and his heavy internal electronic parts) around countless airports, so I figure for round 2 I might as well lighten my own load, and it will be all the same to my son.