Play With Me Sesame – Imagine With Me + Let’s Playtime Games (DVD + CD-ROM Sets/Genius Entertainment)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: B     Episodes: B

 

 

The Play With Me Sesame DVD series featuring the classic Sesame Street characters continues from Genius Entertainment and Sesame Street Workshop, except the DVD-Video/CD-ROM sets are no longer being offered in the nice yellow cases with handles that children can even wrap their hands around.  This time, we get Let’s Play Games where children get to play hide and seek with Grover (a Sesame Street tradition) and Imagine With Me even including new character Zoe.  These sets are certainly the equal of the last sets we covered and there is no doubt that this could be a very successful and long running series, if they do not run out of ideas.

 

To recap, the difference between these hour-long shows and a usual broadcast is that the broadcast shows try to teach several lessons at once, usually about letter and numbers.  In these shows, each focuses on activities to be more active or on how to conclude after said activities.  It is a nice change of pace and unlike most children’s programming that tries to be entertaining and even sell toys, these are very well thought out and constructive.  Most importantly, they give the young viewer all the room they need to think, roam and learn.  Wish more programming for this youngest and most sensitive of audiences was this good.

 

The 1.33 x 1 image on both programs are clean, clear NTSC analog video with the usual variety of live action and animated shorts the series made famous.  Very little softness and hardly any aliasing is a plus.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is just fine for children, the kind of sound that carries over to the CD-ROM game discs included in both sets.  Those bonus discs have nice child-friendly digital graphics and helps them learn the basics of web operation and PC control.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo