Bear in the Big Blue House: Volume 3

It's comforting to know that the care and feeding of Jim Henson's Muppets continues after the famed puppeteer's death some years ago, with the new material continuing to deliver top notch quality entertainment for children of all ages. The latest endeavor, Bear in the Big Blue House, stars a very huge (person-in-a-costume) bear who lives in a big blue house. We watched the third volume--a total of four volumes, with two episodes per tape, are available--which opens with Bear getting his groove back and dancing the day away. Muppet-esque friends drop by the big blue house and everybody gets jiggy wit it, dancing to rap music, a jig, a waltz, the Cha Cha, and lots of other rug-cutting, joint jumpin' tunes. In the second episode, Bear and his friends decide to camp out and discover a wonderful world of night sounds--crickets, frogs, wind in the trees, owls...and something rather scary. The music is toe-tapping good, the new characters quite memorable, and the situations engaging. Highly recommended. Aud: P. (N. Plympton)