Product: Sesame Street - Kids' Favorite Songs 2 [VHS] (2001)
Rating: 4.0
Glad I gave this a second chance...
The first few times I watched this with my two year old, I was really annoyed by it. As in, I wanted to give it away to someone I didn't like much so we wouldn't have to deal with it anymore. There was way too much randomness compared to the first Kid's Favorite Songs - it cuts back and forth from Elmo to kids, to Elmo, to kids, to a skit, to kids, to this meatball storyline, etc. It felt very disjointed. And if you're expecting a Elmo-heavy video, you'll be disappointed - it's more random children talking about songs than anything else. What Elmo does the most is walk around for a few seconds, say something, laugh, and point his video camera at you.That being said.... When I left it alone for a while and then came back to it, I had a much better opinion... I do like:...that there are kids talking and singing the songs in their own way, however off-key they might be. It's not as disjointed as I first thought it was, it just seemed that way because I was expecting something similar to the first Kid's Favorite Songs dvd....it felt almost like a tv episode v/s a miniature movie - it would have "commercials" that came up during breaks in the overall storyline (Snuffy loses his meatball.)...there is enough kid-action in this one to involve the viewer (marching, hand movements, etc.)...various themes were touched on - nursery rhymes, songs about animals, etc....it's not Elmo-heavy, and uses Rosita, and Baby Bear, and other characters to sing the songs....you get the entire On Top of Spaghetti song from Snuffy. (That may not seem like a big deal, but I enjoyed it - when's the last time you heard the *whole* song?)...a variety of song animations and skits (except the nursery rhyme one, that's still a little odd to me, but that's okay). My two year old really enjoys the Bug Lady songs and the singing turtles. (I like Little Bo Peep.)...that there were songs I was unfamiliar with (Captain Brown, Follow Me), as well as the classics (Rubber Ducky, On Top of Spaghetti)....That it ends with a (rather long) rousing rendition of Elmo's Song, which has led to my daughter singing "La la la la (her name's) song" at random times.All in all, we've come to enjoy this dvd, and I've even ordered it as a gift for people (who I do like :)