Product Details

• Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 3
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: HBO Home Video
• DVD Release Date: August 30, 2005
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (163 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0009WPKYA
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,325 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #1 in	Movies & TV > Kids & Family > Birth-2 Years > Classical Baby
  #3 in	Movies & TV > Television > HBO > HBO Family
  #62 in	Music > Children's Music

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The fine arts have a universal appeal that offers an opportunity for forging intergenerational connections. Classical Baby is a three DVD set in which each DVD focuses on a single classic art form: dance, visual art and music. Each animated program is brimming with catchy melodies, brilliant colors, and fun animated animal characters that appeal to babies and toddlers as well as famous musical pieces, revered artwork and varied dance styles that encourage adults to share their love of the arts with a special child. "The Music Show" presents musical masterpieces from artists as varied as Bach, Mozart, Villa Lobos and Bartok and runs the gamut from large orchestral pieces to opera and intimate chamber music. Animated polar bears, toddling babies and violin-playing crickets ensure that little ones are fully engaged and entertained. "The Art Show" focuses in close on masterpieces from famous artists like Monet, Hopper and Degas and includes a snowy romp through a sculpture garden showcasing works from the 2500's BC to the 20th century AD. Accompanying the images are famous musical themes, ranging from classical to jazz and ragtime, and animation that allows modern artwork to spin and encourages cute little frogs to hop right into a Monet canvas. "The Dance Show" gives free reign to the imagination with animated animal characters performing dances inspired by great choreographers like Balanchine, Robbins, and Pilobolus in styles reminiscent of classical ballet, the Broadway musical and the silver screen. Adults may laugh aloud when animated sheep dance "Sheep to Sheep" ala Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but the beauty is that a classic moment has been shared and a connection forged between the generations. (Ages 6 months to 4 years) --Tami Horiuchi

Product Description

Three Pack includes:

Classical Baby: The Art Show: The gallery is set: it's time to see some of the world's greatest works of art accompanied by some great classical music. The exhibit features works by Monet, Degas, Pollock, Van Gogh, plus many other masterpieces. The music is playing, the tour is about to begin; it's time to explore Classical Baby: The Art Show!

Classical Baby: The Dance Show: The animal dancers are stretching and getting limber, it's going to be a fantastic show featuring some impressive moves inspired by George Balanchine, Martha Graham, Pilobolus, plus many other great choreographers. The warm-up music has stopped, the dancers are ready; it's time to begin Classical Baby: The Dance Show!

Classical Baby: The Music Show: The animal orchestra is warming up and the animals in the audience are buzzing with anticipation about the musical program featuring Tchaikovsky, Bach, Mozart and Copland, plus many other great classical composers. The baby conductor has made his entrance. The maestro is ready to lead the animal orchestra; it's time to begin Classical Baby: The Music Show!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a really fun intro to classical music!, November 11, 2005

By	M. Christensen "dmchr2" (Orem, UT United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MUCH better than Baby Einstein!, November 28, 2005

By	Kris (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews

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!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great for infants and their parents too, December 1, 2005

By	Elizabeth Noelene (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

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.