#I just wanna give her a headpat! -🍎

[tulipkitties]

Little Einsteins review

Welcome back to more “nostalgic reviews!” Today, I’m talking bout the 2005 playhouse Disney show, little einsteins.

“What is little einsteins?”

To introduce this show, we first need to discuss why the show is called little einsteins. “This show is bout music and art. How does Albert Einstein play into this?” U prob asked urself. Well, you see, there used to be a direct to home video (dvd/vhs) series called baby einstein, created by Julie Aigner-Clark as a way to entertain/educate her baby with classical music, (her baby also appeared in the videos up until 2002) in 1997, the first vhs of BE (later called language nursery) was released. And instantly, it was a success, that caught the attention of one Mickey Mouse (aka Disney) who in 2001/2002, bought up the rights of BE from FHE (family home entertainment) and julie, Disney decided to make a spin off of BE for preschool aged kids, and thus, little Einstein was born!….then they changed the name to little Einsteins, (later on disney attempted to create another spin-off, Einstein pals…it never released.) starting as 2 pitch pilots in 2003 and 2004, and in august of 2005, a direct to dvd/vhs movie (which later got split into 2 episodes, “A brand new outfit” and “The missing invitation”) our big huge adventure, then getting its own season later in october of the same year as the movie, much the thing it spun off from, it was a success from day 1.

Animation:

being done by curious pictures (yee, that codename: kids next door curious pictures.) this cartoon was rather unique for its time, as it combined 2d animation with cgi, real-life stock footage and real art. Format of the show:

After the (very very catchy, no wonder why som1 made a trap remix of it,) theme song, the title for the episode, and the art and music of the day gets called out. We get introduced to a member of the team and the set-up for the mission (in the first tv episode “Ring around the planet” one of Saturn’s rings falls down and befriends June, and in “Annie’s solo mission” after leo teaches annie how to pilot rocket, Leo, June and quincy accidentally get trapped inside a super bubble.) Once leo waves his baton…it’s mission time! If they are near rocket, they walk to rocket, but if they are somewhere else, they walk to the tree that serves as a entrance to the HQ. this also has a song, (which is a mix of the Leo’s mobile song and the theme song.) Leo welcomes you aboard rocket, next, they have to charge rocket up. “How?” you may ask, viewer interaction! by patting on their lap, the team (and you) charge rocket up, and then.. “blast off!” (In season one, this part was longer, “June’s patting, Quincy’s patting, Annie’s patting, but we need. more. power!” - Leo, season 2 shortened it by removing leo commenting on the member’s patting.) rocket zooms off. The show also has running gags, which happen usually once (or twice) in a episode, such as…

Running gags:

quincy exclaiming “I can-not believe it!” When somthing crazy/surprising happens.

Annie making up lyrics for the song of the day,

Quincy playing a instrument for a certain obstacle in the way,

June’s incredible dancing skills.

Leo’s conducting (as seen in the pilot movie, where he’s able to conduct a group of cows to sing ode of joy.)

June saying a “great big fancy word” (yee, I made a pinky dinky doo ref) lik anemone or hieroglyphs, and annie (or someone else) asking what it means, and june telling what it means.

Leo asking you to tell rocket to go slower or faster, by using music terms,

June’s “dancey dance dance” song playing as a instrumental whenever she dances,

Once the mission is done, Leo waves his baton, says “Mission…Completion!” And we get the curtain call, where the team claps for themselves, rocket, a character they met, you, the music of the day, and the art of the day, (in season 1 it was all dialogue, season 2 changed it into a song, which Ngl, it reminds me of the octonauts creature report song.) cue credits!

Mc’s:

Leo: Named after Leonardo da Vinci or the composer Leopold Stokowski, 6-year old Leo (short for Leonardo) is the leader of the team, always carrying around his trusty baton for conducting in certain scenarios or when a mission starts/ends. he’s also the one who pilots rocket, (other than in the episode Annie’s solo mission, where Annie has to pilot rocket) in season 2, he gets a pet, melody, introduced in the episode “Melody, the music pet,” melody was from the pet train, which delivers pets to people who’ll take care of them, near the end of the episode, melody and Leo said goodbye, and Leo (who is usually upbeat and cheery) is noticeably upset/saddened by melody’s departure..until the team finds out melody was gonna be delivered to leo as a pet. The writers (and the fans) lik to ship him with June, as in the episode “Ring around the planet” he hugs june, although in the episode “The glass slipper ball,” rocket dances with June, And june kisses rocket at the end…..weird. va; jesse schwartz.

Annie: Named after jazz singer anni Rossi, 4-year old annie is leo’s younger sister, Despite her age, she’s very talented at singing, she usually comes up with lyrics for the song of the day, she’s also very good with animals, befriending a caterpillar/butterfly in the pilot movie, in season 2 her outfit changes, going from green and blue to pastel blue and pink, she also gains a microphone and her va’s singing is improved, in season 2, she and Leo get a spotlight episode, “brothers and sisters to the rescue!” Where they have to save Hansel and gretel, (who in this show’s universe is real, as while they have a book of the story, they somehow manage to go and rescue the storybook characters, LE takes place in the super why universe?!/j) it’s heavily implied the writers ship her with quincy, as Annie’s the one who cheers on Quincy’s instrument playing the most, va; natalia wojcik.

Quincy: Named after quincy jones, 5-year old quincy is a African-American boy who loves to play any instrument he finds, instantly being able to play it very well, in the season 2 episode “Quincy and the magic instruments” annie, Leo, june and rocket get stuck. and quincy finds..well, magic instruments that can shapeshift, he’s also shown to have a fear of the dark, as in our big huge adventure, he’s a bit hesitant on going inside the cave, and in “Northern night light”, he sings a silly song to help him when durning a mission, it gets dark out. va; aiden pompey.

June: Named after the dancer june taylor, 6 year old chinese-american June is the smartest of the team, and a great dancer, in the episode “Ring around the planet” she befriended ring, one of Saturns many rings. which fell off and June was able to tell it to come to her, she’s the one who noticed rocket was missing from the mobile in “How we became the little einsteins: a true story” and was the one who came up with the teams name, after annie commented on how they’re all very smart. va; erica huang.

Rocket: While being unable to talk normally, (only communicating in marimba/xylophone noises) Rocket has a kind heart, and his noises is actually (as coined on the Disney.go website) “rocket-speak.” As the team can understand him, rocket also has the ability to shapeshift, (such as into a sub or a firetruck) in the episode “How we became the little einsteins: a true story.” It’s revealed that he used to be apart of Leo’s old baby mobile, but (velveteen rabbit logic perhaps, aka “if you love somthing enough, it’ll become real”) he grew big and flew off, only returning when the team sings the song the mobile played, in the episode “Hungarian hiccups” rocket is able to have hiccups…huh, the team tries to get rid of rockets hiccups in time for a race, but it’s only when rocket sees a mouse that his hiccups are gone. He also has a grandma, seen in the episode “Rocket soup” why does he have a grandma when we know he was apart of Leo’s mobile? Idk. And in the same episode, it’s shown that he can eat..despite him not having a mouth. (He reminds me of a precure fairy, lik kururun from tropicrouge, with the fact that they both can’t talk normally, LE takes place in the precure universe?, although, that would explain a few things…someone make a Little einsteins precure au!)

A…villain?

Big jet: Yee, a preschool show had a villain, this being big Jet, big jet, much like rocket, is unable to speak, big jet’s hatred for the team started after the team and rocket beat him in a race, (as seen in the episode “The great sky race,”) and and now, he likes to cause despair and mischief wherever he goes, (such as changing the seasons in “oh yes oh yes it’s springtime!” ripping up a sheet music for Annie’s song in the episode “Annie, get your microphone!”) however, in the season 2 episode “Show and tell” big jet…goes through a character arc, and turns good and apologizes for stealing the teams stuff. Although we never see who drives big jet, I imagine him being more self-aware (aka older) than rocket and not needing a driver.

Season 2’s changes:

Much like pinky dinky doo, season 2 changed quite a lot of things, such as in the opening, where certain scenes and transitions were changed, (such as the addition of clapping when the team’s name gets mentioned, annie now having her mic and her season 2 outfit, quincy playing a drum at the end, the locations seen in the intro being different) The animation being better, Annie’s singing being improved, the addition of the “super fast!” Segment, more interactive moments, and leo having a new line for when the mission starts (“let the mission…begin!” -leo)

Mission….Completion!

After 2 seasons, much lik how the show started as a direct to home media movie, the show ended as a direct to dvd movie. Rocket’s firebird rescue. (released in august of 2007) This movie is special, as instead of the usual credits, it’s a different song..almost lik the crew were aware the show was ending, although the episodes of the show officially ended with the episode “Little elephant’s big parade!” I consider the firebird rescue special to be the true finale, the show has a lot of merch, books, (which for the season 1 episode adaptations, has annie in her season 2 outfit,) fisher price toys, plushies, (yee, there’s even a plushie of rocket, if u are wondering. No big jet plushie though.) stickers, a cd, and a whole lot more, as for home media, there’s a lot, the show reran quite a lot after it ended, even after Disney lost the Einstein brand to kids ll, rn the show is on Disney+, and there’s a lot of flash games, such as mission to learn, which is a fun fact viewer/clip viewer, theres even a gba and a vtech v-smile game!