Little Einsteins

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Little Einsteins
Little Einsteins title card.png
Genre
Developed by Douglas Wood [lower-alpha 1]
Written byJeff Borkin (head writer) [lower-alpha 1]
Directed byAndy Thom (supervising, season 2) [lower-alpha 1]
Creative directorOlexa Hewryk (season 1)
Voices of
  • Jesse Schwartz
  • Natalia Wójcik
  • Aiden Pompey
  • Erica Huang
  • Harrison Chad
Theme music composer Billy Straus
Composers
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes67 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
ProducerKris Greengrove [lower-alpha 1]
Running time24 minutes
Production companies
Original release
Network Playhouse Disney
ReleaseOctober 9, 2005 (2005-10-09) –
December 22, 2009 (2009-12-22)

Little Einsteins is an American animated children's television series based on the Baby Einstein line of videos. Produced by The Baby Einstein Company (at the time owned by Disney) and animated by Curious Pictures, it marked the Baby Einstein Company's first project for preschoolers. [1] The series follows the adventures of a group of four young children: Leo, June, Quincy, and Annie, who travel around the world in their friend Rocket and go on missions. The group must work together to achieve their goal by solving a problem, helping someone, or finding something.

Contents

Little Einsteins was announced in November 2001, when Disney purchased The Baby Einstein Company. Press releases stated "there are already plans to extend the Baby Einstein brand into a Little Einstein product line aimed at preschoolers." [2] The show's concept and characters were developed by Douglas Wood, with further development led by Emmy Award-winning director Olexa Hewryk and Dora the Explorer co-creator Eric Weiner. Like the original Baby Einstein series, Little Einsteins makes heavy use of classical music. According to Common Sense Media, both series share the same "philosophy of artistic visuals and stimulating classical music to enhance brain development and learning." [3]

Little Einsteins started out with a direct-to-video film, Our Huge Adventure , that was released on August 23, 2005. The series proper premiered on Playhouse Disney on October 9, 2005, and ended on December 22, 2009, after two seasons and 67 episodes.

Overview

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 eras) into the scenery, story and soundtrack of each episode. The show is also designed to encourage viewer interaction (such as encouraging the audience to pat their knees, gesture or sing along to help the characters succeed on their "mission").

Broadcast

The first regular episode of Little Einsteins premiered in the United States on October 9, 2005 on Disney Channel, through the Playhouse Disney block. The final regular episode aired on December 22, 2009, and a standalone special titled "Rocket's Firebird Rescue" was released direct-to-DVD on August 21, 2007. The series continued to air in reruns afterward, including after Playhouse Disney was rebranded as Disney Junior on February 14, 2011, through March 25, 2019. The show is currently available on Disney+ and DisneyNow. [4] In Canada, the show aired on Family Channel.

In the UK dub, the Little Einsteins are voiced by Piers Stubbs (Leo), Poppy Lee Friar (June), Mitchell Zhangazha (Quincy), and Kirsty Hickey (Annie), and certain American terms are changed to fit within British English, such as changing mentions of candy canes to those of "sweetie sticks".

Reception

The series was given a 5-star rating by Common Sense Media. [3]

In other media

A video game based on the show was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2006.

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Information about the cast and crew is taken from the closing credits of each episode.

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References

  1. ↑ "The Baby Einstein Company Grows Beyond Video Aisle and into Preschool Television" (Press release).
  2. ↑ Maughan, Shannon. "Disney Buys Baby Einstein". Publishers Weekly .
  3. 1 2 "Little Einsteins TV Review". Common Sense Media. 27 November 2007. Archived from the original on February 18, 2015. Retrieved February 18, 2015.
  4. ↑ Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. pp. 169–170. ISBN   9781476672939.
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