Tiny Planets: Bing Bong Bell and Other Adventures

A co-production between Sesame Workshop and Pepper's Ghost Productions, the Tiny Planets 3D-animated educational children's series follows furry white alien duo Bing and Bong on bizarre outer space “missions.” Formulaic (to a near-Teletubbies extreme), each episode starts out at the pair's giant-crystal-encased pad where they use their couch-turned-fantastic-traveling-machine to journey to one of six tiny nearby planets (worlds of nature, technology, self, sound, light and color, and stuff), to investigate and help denizens (including flamingo-looking Flockers and jellybean-like Locals) with various tasks and predicaments. Since Bing and Bong don't speak, viewers are guided by extraterrestrial narrator Halle (who follows, reports on, and provides rhyming recaps of the pair's every move). In “Ups and Downs,” the opening half-hour of this two-episode compilation, Bing and Bong note the importance of warm clothes in cold weather, help Flockers warm snow into water for showers, and find a simpler way to move a giant ball up a steep ramp. In “Winds and Chimes,” Bing and Bong figure out how to combat wind to get to an ice cream machine, use wheels to pull a huge statue, and help a dense Flocker figure out which doorbell sound goes to the correct door. A nice (though rather unusual) exercise in critical thinking for the target age group of ages 3 to 6, this is recommended. [Note: Tiny Planets: Making Rainbows is also newly available at the same prices.] Aud: K, P. (J. Williams)