Customer Reviews

Spot Goes to School

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

 

 

We are fans of the spot books and this videos is is one of our favorite kiddie videos. We play it over and over. Spot is a sweet, gentle and curious little pup. Our daughter is 16 months and the pacing and simple animation are perfect. I also appreciate the fact that the music and Spot's voice are soothing and easy to listen to in the background. We watch the video just for entertainment but I must say that this video has been educational as well. There is a story where Spot has found a key and now my daughter walks around trying "pretend" keys in all our doors. Despite what the other reviewer said, I've found this to be one of the gentler kiddie videos. We will purchase other Spot videos. We also highly recommend Kipper.

I'm really surprised by the poor reviews of this video! My son who just turned 2 years old- can't get enough of Spot and insists on watching Spot a couple of times a day. Although simple, I have found this video to be educational and great at teaching animals and things around the house. My son has learned several new words and now repeats them every time he sees the respected animal. I have purchased "Sweet Dreams Spot" and "Spot Goes to the Farm." This are both very good -- however this one seems to be the favorite!

I first learned of the "Where's Spot?" series when it was featured on a preview on one of my daughter's Winnie The Pooh videos. She just turned 18 months old and loves dogs more than any other animal. "Where's Spot?" holds her attention, makes her laugh in places, and in general provides her with much entertainment. However, there is one scene in which Spot discovers a large cat living in a shed. Upon opening the door, Spot is terrified to find a screeching, multi-colored, fanged feline sitting there. Spot runs behind a tree for several seconds. Every time this scene plays my daughter cries and takes several minutes to console. Since this occurence she has been terrified of cats. So fast forward this scene if you have very young children--it's on the second little vignette called "Spot's First Walk" or something like that. If not for this scene, this video would rate five stars.

My son adores the Spot TV episodes. But even at 2 years of age he was as surprised and disappointed as I was that the original Brittish voice and original music had been replaced by American substitutes on the video. It seems to have taken away some of the charm.

My toddler LOVES Spot. This is the only reason we watch this video. It's production quality pales in comparison to other kids videos and the stories are slow and completely devoid of educational value. But of the group of Spot videos this is the best one. If you toddler MUST have a daily dose of Spot, this is your best bet.

Why are Spot videos so popular? It can't be for the chintzy animation, with mouths that don't move and cheesy computer paste-ons. It's not the story; there isn't one. Each segment is just a series of non sequiturs that occur in the same venue. Spot isn't educational; the videos don't teach anything concrete like numbers or shapes, and any socialization the videos show is bad (e.g. making fun of how fat Helen Hippo is). It can't be the voices (the same man and woman are obviously doing all the voices except Spot, with ridiculous accents and changes of pitch) or the dopey, repetitive music with inane lyrics. And it's not because Spot is so appealing; while he doesn't rival Barney for most annoying kids' character, Spot is boring and charmless. When there are fresh, original and delightful videos like the Maisy series, Blues Clues or even the old standby, Sesame Street, why bother with this drivel? Oh yeah, because my toddler likes it.