Goodnight Baby, Baby Goodnight

Memo to video producers: slapping together fairly random live-action footage of kids and setting same to a mostly public domain nursery rhyme soundtrack is--and I'll use the proper critical term here--boring. Billed as suitable for ages 6 mos.-5 years, this "video lullaby" offers scenes of children in various stages of preparation for bed, accompanied by short sound bites describing the action onscreen (brushing teeth, jumping on the bed, and so on) and lullaby music (as well as Pachelbel's Canon). The idea seems sound: young viewers watching their peers will learn by example, polishing those pearlies and skedaddling into the crib tout suite. However, if this program does succeed in sending children off to the land of dreamy dreams, it will be due to a far simpler cause: lack of interest. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)