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28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
More mesmerizing than stimulating - overall mediocre, December 18, 2000
I have a rather complete library of infant stimulation / development videos, including all of the 'So Smart' Series, Baby Einstein Company's videos, and the BabyScape videos. I decided to try the Baby Genius series for some variety for my infant daughter. The overall tone of the Mozart & Friends is more clinical and sleepier (even though it is supposed to be an infant 'stimulation' video). I have reviewed many other videos in this category, so, I will compare this with what I consider to be the 'state-of-the-art:' the Baby Einstein Company's latest production: Baby Van Gogh. First, Baby Genius's "Mozart & Friends" relies much more heavily on animation, and less on real world objects. My infant daughter is much less interested in the rather mundane animation. The musical score is superb, but it is not interspersed with other sounds / voices which would bring an infant's attention back to the video - unlike Baby Einstein company's videos. One thing Baby Genius does 'right' (in addition to the musical score) is to include shots of animals which is a real attention-getter, but for older infants / toddlers - definitely NOT the 1-5 month age group. There is a lot of counting & recitation in this Mozart & Friends (in a sort of "Brave New World" tone), which is absent from Baby Einstein's products. I am not a specialist, but I really doubt that rote memorization of the alphabet and numbers helps overall intellectual development in any way at an infant / toddler stage. I would also note that babies generally like to look at other babies / kids. Baby Einstein shows pre-schoolers that directly engage the viewer, while the Baby Genius video shows infants / toddlers just playing in an un-engaging way (from the viewer's perspective). Another 'downside' of the Baby Genius tape is that the information for parents clip is at the front end of the tape, while on Baby Einstein it is at the end. So to watch Baby Genius, there is inevitably a lot of fast-forwarding and an fidgety infant / toddler to deal with. My recommendation is that this is not a great video for infants under the age of about 4-5 months. The best videos for this age are the baby Einstein Company's products. From about that age (5 months) to 12 months, the Baby Genius' "Mozart & Friends" might be nice for variety (my daughter became interested in the Teletubbies at this stage, too). But at the age of about 10-11 months, my toddler became more interested in videos like Elmo's World and BabySongs. She still likes Baby Einstein, Baby Shakespeare and Baby Van Gogh (from the Baby Einstein Company) too. Baby Genius' strong point - their musical scores - might be best appreciated in their CDs: I don't think the video media is their best venue. As a change of pace the video is OK, but having viewed it repeatedly with my daughters, and with the frequency it is actually watched, I would not have spent my money on it - in retrospect.
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DVD ~ Disney
DVD ~ Artist Not Provided
DVD ~ Artist Not Provided
