Little Einsteins is an American interactive animated children's television series on Playhouse Disney. The educational preschool series was developed for television by Douglas Wood who created the concept and characters, and a subsequent team headed by Emmy Award-winning director Aidan Abril and JoJo's Circus co-creator Eric Weiner, and produced by Curious Pictures and The Baby Einstein Company. The first episode of the Little Einsteins TV series premiered on Playhouse Disney in the UK on October 3, 2005, in the United States on October 9 and in Japan on TV Tokyo on February 14, 2006. In Europe, the second season of the show premiered on the Disney Channel around Christmas time, and in Japan, it aired on October 8, 2007, on Playhouse Disney Japan. Reruns were then moved to Playhouse Disney's successor, Disney Junior. The final regular episode was broadcast in December 2009, and a final standalone special was broadcast in mid-2010, marking the end of the series.
Little Einsteins was designed to teach the target demographic art and music appreciation by integrating famous or culturally significant art works (usually, but not exclusively, paintings) and classical music (most typically from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods) into the scenery, plot and soundtrack of each episode. The show is also designed to encourage viewer interaction (such as patting their knees, gesturing or singing along to help the characters succeed on their "mission"); at the end of the mission, the character Leo says "Mission Completion!" and the Little Einsteins then do the Curtain Call. At the end of the Curtain Call, Leo says, "See you on the next mission!", then the curtains close. In Season 2, a "That's Silly" segment is shown, where, as the main plot, Quincy would try to blow his tuba, but something would be in his tuba, like a sock, and Annie (or another protagonist) would say, "That's silly!" at the end.
The series was based on the direct-to-video film of the same name, subtitled Our Huge Adventure.
Like other Baby Einstein productions, the production company pays a royalty to Corbis, which acts on behalf of the estate of physicist Albert Einstein, for the use of the Einstein name ("Einstein" being a licensed trademark of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem). Despite the usage of Einstein's name, there is no discussion of anything physics-related in the series.
A video game based on the show was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2006.
Video Little Einsteins
Main characters
Leo is the leader of the Little Einsteins, and the one who pilots Rocket. He is Annie's big brother. His main talent is conducting and his most prized possession is his conductor's baton. Leo has red hair and green eyes. He wears green glasses. He is voiced by Jesse Schwartz, and singing voice by Harrison Chad.
Annie is a girl who loves to sing. She is Leo's little sister and the only character who has piloted Rocket alone. She loves animals, including dolphins and horses, but is afraid of spiders. She owns a silver microphone with orange music notes that she won in a singing contest. When she wishes to urgently point something out to the team, her usual phrase is "Look-look-look!" She has blonde pigtails tied in pink hairbows and blue eyes. She wears a green shirt with a blue denim dress and pink shoes in Season 1, and a light-blue shirt with a pink denim dress and light-blue shoes in Season 2. She is voiced by Natalia Wójcik.
June is a young ballerina who loves to dance. She also enjoys looking at the stars at night with her telescope. She has dark brown hair and brown eyes. She wears a purple dress and pink headband. She is voiced by Erica Huang.
Quincy is a boy musician who plays a variety of musical instruments, including the violin, guitar and trumpet. At some point in each episode, Quincy exclaims, "I cannot believe it!". He has dark brown hair and brown eyes. He wears a red and blue baseball cap, and a green and yellow t-shirt. He is voiced by Aiden Pompey.
Rocket is the Little Einsteins' main mode of transportation, as well as their friend. Rocket has an array of tools and accessories that help the team complete their missions. Rocket also has the ability to transform into any other form of transportation, like a submarine or a train. Rocket communicates by making xylophonic noises.
Maps Little Einsteins
Recurring minor characters
Big Jet is a blue fighter plane, who is the arch-nemesis of Rocket and the Little Einsteins. Big Jet has been known to ruin parties, and steal things to keep for himself. Big Jet hates springtime, owing to his being allergic to flowers, as seen in the episode "Oh Yes, Oh Yes, it's Springtime". He also hates losing, as seen in "The Great Sky Race Rematch". In episode 64, "Show and Tell", Big Jet becomes friends with Rocket and the Little Einsteins. Big Jet is depicted with yellow horizontal stripes on his vertical stabilizers.
Little Mouse, The Good Knight, and Joey the Kangaroo appeared individually in their own episodes, "The Mouse and the Moon", "The Good Knight and The Bad Knight", and "Jump For Joey", respectively, and collectively in "Rocket Soup".
The Three Little Pigs appeared in three episodes: "Farmer Annie", "Super Fast", and "Build It Rocket".
Melody the Music Pet is a musical pet that Leo helped find her ticket for the pet train in "Melody the Music Pet". After boarding the train, Melody is brought to live with Leo. She reappears in "Melody and Me", where it is up to Leo to save her after her hot-air balloon flies away.
The Bad Knight is the knight that imprisoned the good knight. In the episode "The Good Knight and The Bad Knight" he rides a cello that acts like a horse but at the end of the episode it is revealed that he was under a magic spell that made him a bad knight after rescuing the Good Knight he transforms back into a good knight. In the episode "Rocket Soup" he helps the Little Einsteins get peas to make Rocket Soup for Rocket to eat.
The Little Red Train is a good friend of Annie, and although he is very small, is very determined and very strong. He appeared on the episodes "Go West, Young Train" and "Annie, Get Your Microphone".
Ring appeared on the episode "Ring Around the Planet". Ring fell off Saturn and landed near June's Garden. Ring is also a great dancer just like June which makes them and the rest of the Little Einsteins friends. The Little Einsteins brings the ring back home to Saturn.
Episodes
Home media
All 76 episodes of the show are available for purchase on the iTunes Store, although they have been split into five volumes.
UK version
In the UK, the Little Einsteins are voiced by Poppy Lee Friar (June), Piers Stubbs (Leo), Kirsty Hickey (Annie), and Mitchell Zhangazha (Quincy). In the UK version, many American terms are converted to the British vernacular: for example, changing "Candy Canes to "Sweetie Sticks".
Broadcast
Little Einsteins is shown on Playhouse Disney in Britain and Australia, Disney Junior in Canada, CITV in Britain, and Teletoon in Canada.
Reception
The series was given a 5-star rating by Common Sense Media.
References
External links
- Official website
- Little Einsteins on IMDb
- Little Einsteins at TV.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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