This Nickelodeon preschool effort comes from the mind of award-winning children's author and illustrator Dan Yaccarino. Strictly for the kid set, Oswald is definitely not the kind of Nickelodeon show (like, say, SpongeBob Squarepants or Jimmy Neutron) that has unique charms for the parents as well. Oswald is an at-times interesting concoction for the kiddie set, but I'm a bit concerned that its very simplistic storytelling and its characters' stroke-victim slow speech has a talking-down element—something I despise in kid's entertainment.

Oswald (voiced somnambulantly by Fred Savage) is a giant, relentlessly cheerful blue octopus who lives in Big City with his dog Weenie, who resembles a hot dog. Big City is a weirdly designed pastel metropolis where you'll find buildings in the shapes of violins, rocket ships, and alarm clocks, and where toaster buses, shoe cars, and giant centipedes roam the streets. Dwelling in Big City with Oswald are his friends Daisy (who is actually a large animated daisy), Henry the penguin (voiced by David "Squiggy" Lander), Madame Butterfly (the waitress at the local café, voiced by Larraine Newman), and Johnny (the snowman who makes snowcones).

Admittedly, Oswald has an artful, easy-on-the-eyes color palette and design. But as I watched more and more episodes of the show, a frustrated boredom began to set in, and I knew that it was not the kind of show that I would want my kid to watch. Oswald is a show that opts for simple, easy moral lessons and obvious setups. I prefer—yes, even in children's entertainment—to challenge the mind. Oswald is not a presentation that challenges the mind. Instead, its characters (particularly Oswald) speak in retarded, monotone drones, and its stories induce yawns. And don't get me started about its forced musical numbers.

Oswald: Welcome to Big City presents the following eight episodes:

Odd One Out—Oswald feels left out when Henry's cousin, Louie (Michael "Lenny" McKean) comes to town.
Goodbye Best Friend—Henry decides to leave Big City but stays because of ridiculous circumstances.
Friends Indeed—Henry and Daisy have an argument, and Oswald tries to patch things up.
Sammy Starfish Live—Oswald realizes a life-long dream of playing piano for his favorite singing starfish.
A Day at the Beach—At the beach, Henry refuses to get wet until he must rescue Daisy from a tiny island.
The Sand Sculpture Contest—Oswald gets to judge a sand-castle contest between his friends.
The Tomato Garden—Oswald plants a tomato garden but has some snail trouble.
Bird Watching—Oswald invites Daisy to go birdwatching with him, but uncharacteristically, she's too noisy and obnoxious to partake.

Paramount presents Oswald: Welcome to Big City in a nice full-frame transfer of the series' original TV presentation. Like most animation presentations on DVD, this disc's video image is nearly flawless. Oswald boasts pleasing pastel colors, but its blacks lean toward gray. This is not a rich color palette. However, detail is exemplary. I did notice stronger-than-usual aliasing on my 65" monitor, but I noticed little to no edge enhancement. The line work generally looks solid, though, and there's not much distracting from this pristine image.

The disc's 2.0 stereo track merely gets the job done. The drawled dialog is clean and natural sounding, if zombie-like, and sound effects are crisp. The music is quiet and unassuming.

You get a "Playtime at Big City" Game that you can use to put your child to sleep.

You also get Previews for other Nickelodeon presentations.

Oswald has some nice art in its backgrounds, but its stories and characters leave much to be desired—even for kids. The DVD presentation is average, with good image quality and very minor supplements.