John Deere Earth Mover Action

Kids love watching big machines tackle formidable jobs. This program focuses on the John Deere company and its lineup of tractors, road graders, backhoes, dump trucks, and more, serving up entertaining footage of equipment engaged in the Zen-like process of moving earth. Shiny, spanking-new mechanical beasts sporting the familiar yellow/gray and green/yellow color schemes are shown here excavating buckets of dirt, moving rocks, creating terraced roadsides, and leveling the underlying surface for asphalt and concrete roads. Intercut with the live action scenes are segments of stop-motion animation featuring the full line of Deere earthmovers tackling a different sort of undertaking: lifting, moving, and hauling payloads of M&M'S and marshmallows. But this isn't all eye candy: facts and features of the machines are illustrated throughout, while one segment follows the delivery of a load of vehicles from the Iowa factory to a Midwest dealership. Sporting catchy original tunes by singer/songwriter James Coffey, this sure-to-be-popular title is recommended. Aud: P. (C. Block)