Nelly & Caesar: Volume 1

In this delightful and smart animated series, Nelly, a mouse, and Caesar, a frog, are best friends and roommates who love to pretend, run around, and imagine their futures. But there are challenges, as Nelly and Caesar discover in this compilation of 12 episodes. In “Stumped for Real,” a game of make-believe outdoors becomes too real when Nelly is stalled by her fear of heights, which she experiences while walking across a fallen tree stump. As with many others, the moral of this tale is that there is always a kind, patient, and considerate way of helping a friend, as Caesar learns when he stops trying to direct Nelly and shows her compassion instead. The shoe's on the other foot in “The Surprise Picnic,” in which Caesar can't shake off a bad mood and no amount of prompting from Nelly is going to change that until he's ready. In “The Quarrel,” the two pals have an argument and then must figure out how to resolve their differences, while in “The Search for a Lost Robot,” teamwork jogs Caesar's memory to help find his misplaced toy robot. At the end of each episode, a fun activity—such as the “Mirror Game” (in which a viewer can mimic the silly movements of cartoon characters)—encourages children to move or sing. Also newly available is Nelly & Caesar: Volume 2. A solid animated guidance series for youngsters, this is recommended. Aud: P. (T. Keogh)