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ASIN : 0788819569
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Editorial Reviews
From Amazon.com
Spot the dog leaped from the pages of Eric Hill's books to the Disney Channel some time ago, and now he has his own full-length video. The 13 animated segments (each 4.5 minutes long) feature the puppy, his parents, and pals Helen the hippo, Steve the monkey, and Tom the crocodile in such everyday adventures as building a tree house, camping in the back yard, and donning costumes for a homemade theatrical production. Lovers of the simply illustrated books will recognize such familiar landmarks as the stairway, the rug, and the sofa, as well as the same understandable themes (share, cooperate with adults, follow through). In a universe away from his Oscar-nominated turn in The Sixth Sense, Haley Joel Osment provides Spot's voice. Each short story includes an original song and is followed by a brief live-action segment in which kids extrapolate Spot's lesson with their own in "Spot's Garden," an outdoor set that incorporates nature with dress-up boxes. This 74-minute video can easily be viewed in segments by toddlers and preschoolers. --Kimberly Heinrichs
Customer Reviews
Best of the Spot videos (2001-12-30)  This is our son's favorite video. He's 2 and a half and has been enjoying it for about a year now and never tires of it. I bought a couple of other Spot videos (not to mention other sesame street, barney, thomas the train, bear in blue house etc.) but this remains his favorite. After watching some of the others, it is my favorite too - it is sweet without being nauseating (like Barney) and it is quiet and calm and teaches nice simple values. Spot's parents and grandparents are great role models - patient, loving, and empowering, and we could all learn a lesson from them. In one episode Spot makes his own breakfast (to let his parents sleep in) and spills an egg, a loaf of bread and cereal and milk on the floor. When his mother comes in, he says, "Look mom, I made my own breakfast!" and she, unfazed by the mess, says something like "Yes, Spot, I can see that, can you help clean up too?" in a pleasant tone of voice. I'd like to be a parent like that. After watching this video repeatedly, we bought a couple of the Spot books and were disappointed. The books are almost completely devoid of content. The warmth and interpersonal relationships are missing in comparison to the videos. My son likes them anyway, but only because he is already fond of the characters from the videos. This tape has 10 short episodes on it, interspersed by real kids doing various tasks. I've seen other reviewers complain of these diversions, but my son likes them and never wants me to turn off the video until the "kids" are done. Spot on the Farm is nice too. Sweet Dreams, Spot, is not as good, in my opinion.
My Child's Favorite Video (2001-03-12) This is my 2 year old's favorite video by far. To all the people who gave this video a bad review and said they found it annoying - my first thought is who cares if YOU don't like it - what matters is if your child likes it or not. The songs and lyrics probably aren't annoying to your child. For the last year it has been my daughter's favorite and she will sit quietly and watch the entire video without getting up. It is a great video to put in when you need to get things done around the house. This video gets 5 stars from us.
Social engineering with liberal politically correct subtext (2001-02-08)  This full-length release is Disney's attempt at "updating and improving" Spot. Its real intent is to exploit Spot's popularity to insert a liberal socialization agenda. There is a conscious attempt by the producers to make Spot more like Sesame Street in that it explicitly and implicitly teaches children politically correct lessons. The video is made up of 13 short stories featuring Spot and his friends. After each story, there is a segment where children play various instructive games prompted by a narrator. They are very careful to make sure that at least half the children are minorities. There is a shift in emphasis towards learning through social interaction instead of from parents, which was the predominant theme in the older Spot videos. The parental roles have changed from teacher and disciplinarian to that of supporter and enabler. Parents are seen as an audience for Spot's various games where they look on and clap enthusiastically. They never disapprove of Spot's childish behavior as they did in previous videos. Most of the lessons Spot learns are now from his friends as he conforms to their behavior. Among the "improvements" in this new version of Spot are new music and the introduction of a song in each short story. The music is annoying and the songs are worse. The songs are mostly sung by the child they use for Spot's voice who cannot carry a tune. The songs are poorly written and arranged, and the overall effect is extremely grating. Finally, at 75 minutes, this video is long for toddlers and interminable for adults. On the plus side, there are a number of instructive lessons on various topics that help young children to learn practical lessons. The general tone is mirthful, so it is fun for kids to watch. I rated this video a 3/10. My principal objection is the politically correct subtext. The parental role has been trivialized in favor of social conformity and group behavior. I feel that the older Spot videos were more constructive, emphasizing proper family values and dynamics, showing the parents as supportive but setting clear boundaries. The message here is that the parents' role is to make the child happy, and that most of life's important lessons come from peers. This reduces the parents to just another one of the child's pals, like Columbine killer Dylan Klebold and his dad, who described Dylan as his "best friend". My recommendation is to purchase Spot videos produced in the early 90's before Disney started its attempts at using Spot for social engineering.
Absolutely wonderful video (2000-11-13) This is my 21 month old daughter's favorite video. She requests this one every day! It's very low key, the music is nice and catchy (I find myself humming it throughout the day), the voices are very clear and graphics are simple. The short stories are very well done. One thing that I love about this video is the way Spot, his parents, and his friends interact. Spot and his parents are very loving and respectful towards each other, and Spot and his friends are all curteous to each other. There is definitely something to be learned from that! I plan on getting more Spot videos. This is THE best children's video we own.
Oy. Insulting overload. Gave me a headache. (2000-09-12)  Relentless repetitive unimaginative music, intro sequences that flash images so fast as to disorient and confuse, short 'stories' that go nowhere and are followed by pointless 'real-life' episodes...a text of how to make an 'educational' video that promulgates short-term, superficial thinking and acceptance of mediocrity (I'm being kind) in art. Any Blues Clues video is miles better. The room felt so much calmer when we turned it off.
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