Customer Reviews

Where On Earth is Carmen Sandiego?

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Earlier this year Shout! Factory released The Electric Company on DVD in a best of format. They continue to bring educational young adult programming to DVD with the release of Where On Earth Is Carmen San Diego?.

Where On Earth Is Carmen San Diego? was a popular young adult educational series during the 90's. Prior to the series Carmen Sandiego was popular computer game series. The television show further spread awareness about the title.

The Emmy (r) award winning animated series is now available on DVD for the first time. The DVD set includes 13 episodes from the shows first season which began in 1993.

This series is recommended for young adults between the ages of 8 and 14. Younger kids may find themselves lost at times and older kids may not find the show very challenging.

Special features include opening title sequences from around the world, storyboard to screen: The Stolen Smiles, original art galleries and episode trivia.

Where On Earth Is Carmen San Diego? is a great series that teaches about geography and the world.

Disc 1
1. The Stolen Smile
2. A Higher Calling
3. Dinosaur Delirium
4. Moondreams
5. Bonus: Storyboard-to-Screen: The Stolen Smile
6. Bonus: Episode Trivia
7. Bonus: Art Galleries

Disc 2
1. By A Whisker
2. The Good Old, Bad Days
3. Rules Of The Game
4. Chapter And Verse
5. Bonus: Episode Trivia
6. Bonus: Art Galleries

Disc 3
1. Music To My Ears
2. The Play's The Thing
3. Split Up
4. A Date With Carmen (Pt. 1)
5. A Date With Carmen (Pt. 2)

Finally! While this series wasn't perfect, I have to admit that it led to my interest (and college degrees) in Anthropology and International Relations. It won't make your kid a geographic wiz but might pique his/her interest where dusty artifacts and flag memorization won't. As an adult some of the educational facts seem simplistic now, but I still appreciate that they attempted to have people speak in the language of the country visited. It had characters that were intriguing (Carmen especially), and most of the plots were good too. I was a big big fan of the show when I was a teenager, and hope they come out with the other seasons. (Though I noticed some of the worst episodes from Season 4 were already released, leading not surprisingly to at least 1 bad review). Seasons 2 and 3 were, I think, the best, so I hope they get released too.
Note: Some facts may no longer be valid at this point in time, like the names of world leaders who were current at the time. But most of the information has a historic basis.

I can't even do this justice with this review but I am absolutely thrilled that the long long wait for this to arrive on DVD is finally over! WOEICS is my favorite animated series of all time, occasionally even better than the X-Men animated series that was popular around the same time as this.

ACME detectives Ivy and Zack work on cases where they are on a nearly perpetual mission to apprehend and catch the 'uncatchable' criminal thief Carmen Sandiego. Together they must decipher the clues that she leaves behind in order for them to solve and recover stolen items especially of historic landmarks.

This series is very educational for younger TV goers especially kids and teenagers and yet even for adults like myself as I was just entering adolescence when this series premiered in early 1994.

Although catering to younger audiences, I am suprised that grandparents have found this to be very entertaining as many older people I know have actually told me that they loved this show. It goes to show how diverse it's fans really are.

As of writing this review, animated TV series have declined back into banal garbage lacking any good character development and no innovation. WOEICS pushed the limits in animation and stands as a landmark series of the 1990s.

This DVD is of the first season of the series and is highly recommended for all CS fans out there, wherever they are!

I am a 6th grade Geography teacher and this product has been great in helping my students with Geography. The episodes are only about 25 minutes each. The students always look forward to watching! :)

This is a great DVD. You can finally have Carmen Sandiego on DVD!
Shout Factory will not be releasing Season 2. Still, buy this. It is the best!

My kids love this show (9 and 7). They have certainly learned new things from it. It is exciting and has a real kid draw while dishing out the info. My kids watch the shows over and over and now know all the information given in the shows (places, peoples, definitions) by memory.

I really wish they would release additional series. I would buy them immediately.

Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? is one the best Educational shows of the 90s. I wish Shout! Factory has plans to release more DVD sets of the series in the future. Please Shout!, release more Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? on DVD!

Yes, it is true. I have finally found her TV Show. I have been hoping that this series would be released so long ago: So what can I say about this...

If only the biggest reason possible for watching any video: It is both entertaining and educational. Now when I say educational, I don't just mean there is a few things you can learn. I mean there is lots you WILL learn. Although primarily geared at a younger audiance (which means this is perfect for elementary school classrooms!), there is still much I at my age (early 20's) still will learn from this. After watching the whole series once through recently, I knew I would have to watch it at least twice more to learn most of everything it was offering. As well, it is 'Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?', so obviously you will learn about things from all over the globe.

Of course, if it were just educational, it would be only classroom appropriate and wouldn't have lasted four seasons. The series does have a good action pace, with well placed humour and deffinite kids appeal. There's even a bit of mystery (through Carmen Sandiego's character -of course). It is a very well rounded show.

Now, the only thing I need to know is... Where in time are the next three seasons coming out on DVD?

Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, was one of the best cartoon shows back when it aired on tv, educative, thrilling and fun. I highly recomend this cartoon for children and parents as well. Is just a fun way to learn. The dvd box set is really nice too, cant wait for the second season to be released on dvd.

I've played several computer games of the "Carmen Sandiego" franchise from when I was seven years old, and this disappointed me in the respect that ACME was portrayed very differently, without any recognizable computer game characters (I missed the "Good Guides" and Lynne Thigpen's portrayal of the Chief). But this made up for that for its original characters. The computerized Chief was not interesting to me. I felt he was mainly there for comic relief, which was very mediocre. However, both detectives were likable and relatable characters. They also are very different but work well together, and the relationship they have is also enjoyable, as their role as coworkers conflicts with their relationship as siblings.
I think what really makes this DVD is Carmen herself. In the computer games, particularly "...Great Chase Through Time", Carmen was always very one-dimensional who had no other character besides "smart globe-hopping thief that is against ACME". In this, it is clear from the start that Carmen is not the stereotypical villain. Her main motive is boredom. She steals because she wants to be chased by the detectives, and hates to be upstaged. Carmen also seems to care about the wellbeing of her detectives, as she does save their lives a few times. When they are up against less moralistic criminals, she does sometimes help them. But analyzation of Carmen's character aside, I'll continue with the episode storylines.
These early storylines portray the conflict in the traditional way and Carmen is more of a protagonist, even though there are a few occasions when the sides help each other. However, this would drive younger viewers crazy until the end, as Carmen's plans are mostly quite elaborate and it is difficult for even teenagers to understand her clues until they get more information.
The main problem I have with this is the aspect of the "Player". While their short conversations with Carmen at the beginning and end are enjoyable, the detectives are such good characters in their own right, that the Player doesn't make much sense at all. Also, the animation is very simple, sometimes annoyingly so. Carmen also looks very different to her computerized counterpart. In spite of the coat and hat she still wears, she has black hair, not brown hair, which will confuse players of the computer games.

However, I do advise people to buy this. It has great characters, interesting knowledge, and good storylines. "Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego" is a worthwhile TV show to watch more than once!