Sunday, August 26, 2007

Cracking UP! Have Ya'll Seen This Show?

Ok ya'll, I am howling.

My brother Mark and his son - my much-adored nephew Camden - were over at Dad's and my house the other evening. We had gathered in the living room where we were having some dinner and watching TV. I saw my brother fiddling with the remote control, and the next thing I knew, we were watching a show on Nick Jr. called "Wonder Pets".

I'll say here that my knowledge of kids' shows is pretty darn good, despite the fact that I am 38-years old, single, and childless. Due to my close involvement with my nieces and nephews over the course of the last 13 years, I have a pretty thorough knowledge of everything from The Wiggles to Barney, from Dora to Elmo, from Curious George to Scooby-Doo, and just about everything in between.

But "The Wonder Pets" was new to me.

I asked my brother what the show was about. He explained that it was about a group of animals who are pets in an elementary classroom by day, and animal rescuers by night. The premise alone made me chuckle. Classroom pets leading a double life! Ha! Come on! I love it! I began to watch the show, and it wasn't long before I was completely cracking up.

The three characters are are a turtle, a guinea pig, and a duckling, and are named, respectively, Turtle Tuck, Linny Guinea Pig, and Ming-Ming Duckling. They rescue animals who are trapped in trees, chimneys, sea plants, etc. And although they themselves are small animals, they rescue everything from elephants to cows, from dolphins to kangaroos. I read online somewhere that they once saved a chimp who was trapped in outer space! Ha! Dying!

Adding to the hilarity here are several things. First, they receive the calls to come rescue an animal on a tin-can phone that is in the classroom. A tin can with a string attached to it. Second, the characters sing throughout the entire episode in the style of opera. Yes, OPERA. There is a full orchestra in the background throughout the entire show. Third, the duckling pronounces his R's as W's, and frequently proclaims, "This is sewious!"

But what kills me the most here are the outfits these animals wear. The turtle wears blue sneakers (yep), a red cape, and a red and white hat that closely resembles the hat that Mary throws in the air in the opening credits of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The guinea pig wears a blue cape and a baseball cap. The duckling wears a green cape and, most hilariously, a WWI-era bomber's cap. See picture below.

The bomber's cap slays me!

Anyway, I just find the whole thing to be so nutty and so adorable. On a more serious note, there are wonderful messages in each episode, the most consistent of which is the importance of teamwork.

I wonder how many of you out there who are parents, grandparents, or aunts/uncles to little ones have stumbled upon this show? Am I overstating it when I say that this show is altogether riotous and wonderful? Let me hear from you!

2 comments:

Texas Tea said...

ah yes, lil' Ash has introduced me to WonderPets. What's going to work? TEAMWORK! What's going to work????? TEAMWORK!!! It's one of our favorite ones to watch and sing with her-she loves it. Such a great deviation from Tom and Jerry which shows cat and mouse chases that involves knives-it's odd now as an adult to see an old Tom and Jerry cartoon and then wonder how come it took so long for cartoons to become more educational and inspriring for kids!

MamaT said...

We know Wonder Pets, well. A funny aside is that we have a little strawberry blonde 2-year-old friend in Kansas named Katy who watches marathons of Wonder Pets, but she calls it Lazy Pets (oh, the irony). She also watches LazyTown (have you seen that one? - freaky, but has a good message about being active). Anyway, she combines the two names and she sings the TEAMWORK song at the top of her little lungs. Hilarious!