Mama Says…

I think me and my kids are the last people on the face of the planet to hear about The Zula Patrol series, but that could be because we live in the Great White North – I’m not sure if this is something that’s shown here in Canada or not. I’d never heard of it until this campaign came up for review, so I decided to check it out.

The first thing I noticed about The Zula Patrol: Explore Weather! DVD was that it showcased four episodes (Chilly Cook-off, Treasure in the Clouds, Wish You Were Here and Weather Vain) and clocked in at 57 minutes. Since Julia can barely sit through a half-hour television show I thought 57 minutes was a bit of a stretch, but I put it on for her one afternoon while her brother was sleeping and sat down to watch it with her.

My first impression was that it was very busy. There were a lot of characters, lots of movement and the colours were quite brash. The first episode, Chilly Cook-off, was so packed with information – what temperature water freezes at, the difference between Centigrade and Fahrenheit, turning water into ice, etc. – I wondered if it was too much for Julia, but she was completely enraptured and really enjoyed it, especially the little jingle about remembering what temperature water freezes at.

And then the next episode, Treasure in the Clouds, came on, and that’s when things fell apart. Julia really liked the DVD and was fine until this guy made his grand entrance:

Dark Truder, the show’s villain, whom I gather the members of Zula Patrol are always looking out for. (Apologies for the teensy weensy image; it’s the only one I could find.)

This guy scared the crap out of Julia. She pressed herself against me when he first popped up on the screen and about three minutes later she turned to me, lower lip quivering, and said, “Mummy, I don’t want to watch this anymore. He scares me.”

And that was it. She flat-out REFUSED to watch any more of it. I offered to fast-forward through the parts with Dark Truder in it, to no avail – she’d been good and spooked and since she was literally on the verge of tears, I didn’t press it.

Mama Says: I ended up watching almost all of Explore Weather! and although I did think at times it was a bit information/sensory heavy, the concept is neat and there is a lot to be learned from it. In Julia’s defense, Dark Truder is a bit scary looking, but I can see Oliver loving this series in another couple of years.

The Zula Patrol DVD’s are available at Borders.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 6:51 am and is filed under DVD's, Kids.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.