Customer Reviews

Loved It!
This DVD is great! The first episode is the longest with two shorter ones to follow and they are great entertainment for my son. Both episodes have great tunes that my 2 year old has completely memorized. It is actually entertaining for the whole family!

Lazytown
I'm not sure where my toddlers first learned about Lazytown, but it's a nice swith from the normal pre-school cartoons they normally watch. I wasn't sure they'd really follow the story, but now they totally do push-ups like "Sportacus" and sing and dance like Stephanie. Lazytown has 3 real people on an animated sets with puppets. I honestly didn't think the DVDs would motivate kids to exercise like other people say they will, but apparently they really do and they're entertaining to watch!

Lazytown: Great for Kids
Lazytown, takes a high action crack at Children and healthy lifestyle, and makes a new market in educational children's media! Finally a show that's tackling the issues!
Lazytown, is a children's television show adapted from a successful play from Iceland. Icelandic gymnast and role model Magnús Scheving, conceived Lazytown as an effort to combat obesity, and inactivity in kids. The show has been globally sucessful; in the Uniyed States it has landed primary slots on Nickelodeon channels, and CBS Saturday morning programming. The themes of the show are very positive and attractive to children. The shows target audience age is 4-7.
The plot involves main character Stephanie visiting her uncle in Lazytown. Upon arrived she displeased with laziness and negativity of the town and tries to encourage change. Stephanie is a very attractive character for young girls. She promotes gender stereotypes with her pink hair and matching feminie accessories. She also has many singing breaks, and dance modeled like a pop star music video. Her dance moves resemble aerobics and often start to involve the whole town in exercise fashion. The superhero of Lazytown, is Sportacus (played by Magnús Scheving). He immediately agrees with Stephanie about making a change. Sportacus is naturally the admirable character for boys. He wears a blue jumpsuit, and is excellent in every sport. He uses gymnastics to get from place to place. The antagonist is Robbie Rotten, who employs all the schema of cartoon villany, right down to the evil laugh. Robbie uses temptation to align the townpeople to his side of laziness, selfishness, junkfood, and trouble. The townspeople are of diverse gender and ethnicity. Each have their vices, which make up most of their personality. The ones with most appearances are Stingy (selfish), Ziggy (candy), Trixie (mischeif), Pixel (Video Games). Through misadventures all the townspeople overcome Robbie Rotten's temptation and learn moderation and healthy lifestyle tips from Stephanie and Sportacus. Parents can use the townspeople and their lessons in moderation as an example for their own children. I witness my own cousin turn off video games saying he played too long, and referenced a plot from the show.
The only live action characters in the show are Stephanie, Sportacus, and Robbie Rotten, which give them grave importance in a show with CGI background and puppet supporting characters. The show uses lighiting fast jump cuts, and speed up motion speeds, sublimnally expressing high activity. The shows techno music and bright colors, seemingly raises pulses in kids. Watching this program with my younger cousins, it wasn't long before they were jumping along with the program. The uses of editing to evoke this reaction helps with the overall goal of the program. The catchy pop songs in every show usually have lyrics that push the shows moral.
There isnt any commercialism in the show, which is a breath of fresh-air. The only thing show seems to endorse is "Sport Candy", which is just fruits and vegetables. The continue use of the "Sport Candy" phrases makes me think that they could use it to appear on a brand of fruit and vegetables, however there is no blantant brand marketing. For a show, with a classic good vs. evil theme, there is no violence whatsoever. Robbie Rotten is usually defeated after losing in some physical game or activity. He often gets tired and retreats home. I enjoyed the lack of pain, and humilation in the show. The viewer still understand the Good has conquered evil without anyone getting hurt emotionally or physically. The cicrumstances are usually realistic, with common consequences. However, Sportacus numerous acrobatics don't frequently come with a "Im a professional, don't try this at home" disclaimer.
I enjoyed my viewing of Lazytown, and find the use of plot, characters, and setting a lot more effective in encourage activity, than the surrealism of Boohbah. I think as long as Lazytown, stays true to mission, and doesn't surrender to branding and heavy merchandising, it will do a lot of good. I commend Magnús Scheving for his endeavors. The show is needed, as physical education slowly declines in schools.