Babyvision; Beautiful Dreamer

Babies are a largely untapped market in the video retail world...for good reasons. They have difficulty holding their heads still when watching TV, they're unable to track swiftly moving objects with their eyes, and, most importantly, their grasp of reality is tentative. Logic suggests, therefore, that it's probably not a good idea to muddy the water between what's real and what's not with babies. On the other hand, as BabyVision reminds us, Piaget said "the more a child sees and hears, the more he wants to see and hear." But I kind of doubt that he had BTV (BabyTV) in mind. Essentially a compilation of simple video sequences with accompanying music, BabyVision offers clips of animals, flowers, children on a merry-go-round, colorful balloons, and faces of children or adults making cooing sounds. In general, the program is well-made, the video usually crisp, and the audio track pleasant if mostly benign. However, two things bother me (besides the whole concept): 1) the producers have used both slo-mo and some staccato MTV-style editing in the sequences (thereby disjointing what little sense of reality babies have), and 2) I'm not convinced that all babies will love the idea of strangers in their face whispering sweet nothings. Aimed at 3 mos. to 18 mos., the tape would obviously not slow down an 18-month-old, but I don't see the advantages for the 3-month-old. An optional purchase.Beautiful Dreamer has just the opposite intention in mind: to dampen rather than heighten the senses. Aimed at toddlers who are having difficulty traveling off to the land of dreamy dreams, the program features six slo-mo video sequences of children playing with bubbles, on swings, in a sprinkler, with balloons, and finally going to sleep while lethargic muzak versions of "Beautiful Dreamer," and other tunes play on the soundtrack. Here's the problem: even though the kids are shown playing in slow-motion, if I were a child on a hot summer night watching this tape, I'd be twitchin'. A second problem, of course, is that if the child grows accustomed to the tape he'll want to keep it as he would a favorite teddy, so this one might be overdue a lot. Still, the library discount is a handsome one, and there's certainly no harm in trying the program on a kinetic bundle of energy that makes the Everready rabbit look like Aesop's tortoise. An optional purchase. (R. Pitman)