Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Animation
Likes: The Wonder Pets, Noggin
Dislikes: Most kids shows
Hates:

The Story So Far...
The Wonder Pets, made up of Linny the guinea pig, Tuck the turtle and Ming Ming the duckling, are a trio of classroom pets who respond to baby animals' distress calls, using teamwork to save the day. The animated Nickelodeon series, aired on Nick Jr. and Noggin, has had several DVD releases, and DVDTalk has reviews of three of them: Save the Wonder Pets | Save the Beetles! | Save The Nursery Rhyme!

The Show
As my daughter gets older, even just month to month, her interests change, and the TV shows that entertain her change as well. One constant though is "The Wonder Pets," as she bursts into song when the cheery theme begins and watches transfixed throughout the show. The colorful, photorealistic animation is just pure eye-candy, and the fact that so much of the show is sung talks to her love of music. That the message of the show is so positive, focusing on the benefits of teamwork (yay socialism!) and helping others, makes it easy for me to let her get lost in the fun.

Despite watching so many of these episodes, it often feels like I've seen maybe 10 different shows, as it seems Nickelodeon keeps cycling the same episodes, throwing in a special when holidays arrive. More often than not, I don't see a new episode of the Wonder Pets until they hit DVD, and then, I never see them on TV after that. That's again the case with this collection, as "Save the Nutcracker," a double-length (24 min) adventure, fills the Christmas niche with the story of the Wonder Pets' nutcracker, which is stolen by a storybook character. The 'Pets chase the thief into his book and attempt to retrieve their gift. Done with craft-style images and ballet-based songs and music, it's a cute story and yet another chance to show off Ming Ming's bad attitude. It's not a show you'll feel compelled to break out each December, but watching it fits well with the season.

The Nutcracker show is joined by a few other unique episodes, for the Wonder Pets, starting with their attempts to save the Pangaroo, a finicky fictional animal (part parrot, part kangaroo) who falls in the trash. Rescuing him is the easiest part of the mission, as finding him a comfortable home is much harder. In "Save the Old White Mouse," we get to meet one of the 'Pets' family members, as Linny needs help at his grandma's nursing home. Their universe gets even bigger in "The Adventures of Bee and Slug," which doesn't even focus on the title trio, instead following a pair of insects who accidentally hijack the 'Pets' flyboat. Only "Save the Cricket" could be considered your usual Wonder Pets episode, as they head to Chicago to save a cricket trapped in a bubble, in a blues-flavored show.

The final episode, paired with the odd "Save the Cow," which sees a calf stuck in a tree thanks to a twister, is "Save the Skunk," the episode that introduced "the fourth Wonder Pet," Ollie the bunny. The anti-Wonder Pet, Ollie is all about going it alone, with no forethought, and has an attitude even bigger than Ming Ming's. When he tags along on a rescue attempt to help a skunk stuck in a briar patch, he ends up taking on the mission by himself, to unfortunate effect. While the lesson for kids is valuable, Ollie is the most aggravating character to appear on the series, and the less of him appearing, the better.

The DVD
Packed in a standard keepcase, the disc has a static full-frame main menu, with options to watch all the episodes, select shows and check out the special features. There are no subtitles or audio options, but there is closed captioning.

The Quality
The full-frame transfers on the majority of the episodes look great, with an image that's sharp and vivid, with a high level of detail and no obvious issues with digital artifacts or dirt and damage. Only "Save the Cow/Save the Skunk" looks a bit weak, though that's one of the show's oldest episodes, unlike the other very recent stories.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio is solid, presenting clear dialogue and strong music, but absolutely nothing in terms of dynamic sound (not that you'd expect it from a kids TV series.) Everything is clean and right down the middle.

The Extras
We actually got a few extras this time (perhaps inspired by the Christmas theme of the one episode) but it's still pretty meager. First up is a "music video," clips from the Nutcracker episode set to the instrumental Tchaikovsky classic "Waltz of the Flowers." It's cute and quick. The other extra is the so-called game "Decorate the Christmas Tree!" I say so-called because other than hitting the enter button, placing an ornament on the tree, you can't do anything. My daughter wanted to put a different ornament on the tree than the next one available, but she couldn't, which frustrated her. As such, it's a weak exercise in button pushing.

There are also the usual reel of "previews" (read: commercials) for other Nickelodeon products.

The Bottom Line
Once again, Nickelodeon puts together a collection of episodes with no discernible theme, but selling the disc based on one marketable show, in this case a Christmas episode. The shows are good, and are not the same old, as there are some different stories here, but honestly, you can take a handful of any four Wonder Pets episodes and it'll be similarly entertaining. The DVD looks and sounds good, and there are a few minor extras, which is nice, but it's really just another short collection of fun adventures, so it all depends on your needs for more Wonder Pets.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.