Nickelodeon Favorites: Summer Vacation (a J!-ENT Children’s DVD Review)

The last day of school is approaching and what will your children do for the summer?  For any parent or grandparent with young children who are looking for an educational but fun DVD to keep the children occupied at home or long commutes, you can’t go wrong with Nickelodeon’s “Summer Favorites”.  Six of Nickelodeon’s top children’s series and six episodes on one DVD are featured in this compilation.  Recommended for the kids!

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© 2011 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved. NICKELODEON, NICK JR., DORA THE EXPLORER, GO, DIEGO, GO!, WONDER PETS, NI HAO KAI-LAN!, BLUE’S CLUES, YO GABBA GABBA and all related titles, logos and characters are trademarks of Viacom International Inc. TM, ® & Copyright © 2011 by Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

DVD TITLE: Nickelodeon Favorites: Summer Vacation

DURATION: 6 Episodes (147 Minutes)

DVD INFORMATION: Full Screen, Dolby Digital

COMPANY: Nickelodeon/Paramount

RATED: NOT RATED

RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2011

Dora the Explorer

Created by Chris Gifford, Valerie Walsh and Eric Weiner

“Big Sister” written by Valerie Walsh

Executive Producer: Chris Gifford

Co-Executive Producer: Valerie Walsh

Executive Story Editor/Producer: Eric Weiner

Supervising Producer: Jeff DeGrandis

Go, Diego, Go!

Created by Chris Gifford, Valerie Walsh Valdes

Executive Producer: Chris Gifford, Valerie Walsh Valdes

Head Writer: Rosemary Contreras

Producer: Miken Wong

Directed by George Chialtas

Blue’s Clues

Created by Traci Paige Johnson, Todd Kessler, Angela C. Santomero

Written by Angela C. Santomero

Directed by Lucy Walker

Executive Producer: Todd Kessler

Executive Producer & Head Writer: Angela C. Santomero

Executve Producer & Design Director: Traci Paige Johnson

Wonder Pets!

Executive Producer: Josh Selig

Creative Director: Jennifer Oxley

Music Director and Producer: Jeffrey Lesser

Directors: Jennifer Oxley, Josh Selig

Supervising Producer: Mason Rather

Producer: Melanie Pal

Writers: Billy Lopez, Jennifer Oxley, Josh Selig

Yo Gabba Gabba!

Created by Christian Jacobs, Scott Schultz

Written by Scott Schultz, Christian Jacobs and Dan Clark

Executive Producer: Charles Rivkin, Nathan Berrett, Christian Demke, Jon Berrett

Producer: Justin Lyon

Ni Hao, Kai-Lan

Created by Karen Chau

Original Development: Mary Harrington, Karen Chau, Judy Rothman

“Hoho’s Big Flight” is written by Adam Peltzman

Executive Producer: Mary Harrington

Producer/Head Writer: Sascha Paladino

Directed by Dave Marshall

Featuring the voices of:

Dora the Explorer

Kathleen Herles as Dora

Harrison Chad as Boots

Marc Weiner as Map/Swiper/Fiesta Trio

Sasha Toro as Backpack

Go, Diego, Go!

Jake T. Austin as Diego

Serena Kerrigan as Alicia/Trees/Townspeople

Jose Zelaya as Bobo Brothers

Manuel Alfaro as Abuelito/Townspeople

Jessica Conde as Green Iguana

Wonder Pets!

Sofie Zamchick as Linny

Teala Dunn as Tuck

Danica Lee as Ming-Ming

Blue’s Clues

Starring Steven Burns

Yo Gabba Gabba!

Biz Markie as himself

Lance Robertson as DJ Lance Rock

Erin Pearce as Brobee

Amos Watene as Brobee

David Crespin as Muno

Adam Diebert as Muno

Josh Baily as Muno

Christian Jacobs as Plex

Emma Jacobs as Foofa

Lindsey Kraus as Plex

Charme Morales as Toodee

Melissa Rossiter as Toodee

Mark Mothersbaugh as Himself

Ni Hao, Kai-Lan

Jade-Lianna Petrs as Kai-Lan

Clem Cheung as Yeye (English)

Ben Wang as Yeye (Mandarin)

Jack Samson as Rintoo

Khamani Griffin as tolee

Angie Wu as Hoho

Jeremy Herzig as Mr. Fluffy

It’s time for a summer vacation with your Nickelodeon friends! Hit the beach (and save the day) with Dora the Explorer and the Wonder Pets! Visit Rescue Ranch with Diego and Alicia! Celebrate at summer parties with the Yo Gabba Gabba gang and Kai lan, and pack up for a car trip with Blue and friends! Now that’s a summer full of super play dates!

The kids are out of school and just in time for the summer holiday comes Nickelodeon’s “Summer Vacation”.

In this new DVD, you get a total of six of the popular Nickelodeon children’s educational shows (Dora the Explorer”, “Go, Diego, Go!”, “Blue’s Clues”, “Wonder Pets!”, “Yo Gabba Gabba!” and “Ni Hao, Kai-Lan”), all on this special DVD.

With this latest DVD, the theme is all about vacation and outdoor activities.  Also, children can learn Spanish and Chinese language skills, math skills, problem-solving skills, the importance of team work and more!

Included on this DVD are:

  • Dora the Explorer – In “Baby Crab”, Dora, Boots and friends hit the beach to help baby crab bring his shell necklace back to his mommy on Crab Island.
  • Go, Diego, Go! – In “Panchita the Prairie Dog”, Diego and Alicia are visiting Rescue Ranch when they meet Panchita, a prairie dog who needs a nice grassy prairie for her family.
  • Wonder Pets! – In “Save the Hermit Crab”, the Wonder Pets take a break from their vacation in Cancun to help a Hermit Crab who has outgrown his shell.  In the second episode “Save the Dolphin”, the Wonder Pets are in Hawaii and must save a baby dolphin trapped in a net.
  • Blue’s Clues – In “Blue’s Big Car Trip”, Blue is ona car trip but where are they going?  Help Joe play Blue’s Clues to find out how to stay safe in the car.
  • Yo Gabba Gabba!– In “Summer”, Everyine in Gabba Land is singing and dancing to the theme of summertime.
  • Ni Hao, Kai-Lan – In “The Hula Duck Dance Party”, everyone is invited to Hula Ducks’ Island beach house for music and dancing games!

VIDEO & AUDIO:

The episodes featured in “Nickelodeon Favorites: Summer Vacation” are presented in full screen and in Dolby Digital stereo. Animation features vibrant colors and dialogue is clear and understandable. Picture quality is dependent on the series as “Dora the Explorer”, “Go, Diego, Go!” and “Ni Hao, Kai-Lan” are animation-based, “Blue’s Clues” and “Wonder Pets!” tend to combine CG, while “Yo Gabba Gabba” is live with some skits that are animated.

But overall, this is for the children and the picture and audio quality should be satisfactory.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Nickelodeon Favorites: Summer Vacation” comes with no special features.

It’s summer time and if you have a toddler who gets easily restless during the break and also gets a little feisty about not learning from mom and dad when he/she was so used to learning from teachers, all of us parents have been in that position and sometimes you need positive educational programming for children for those three months.

And what best time than now for children to learn about summer vacation, having fun, getting involve with decision making and also learn about team work and safety than checking out the latest Nickelodeon DVD “Summer Vacation”.

And probably the most exciting aspect of this DVD is the fact that you do get six TV shows and with school about to end very soon, your probably going to want to have some children’s DVDs around that are educational and fun.

Included on this DVD is “Dora the Explorer”, “Go, Diego, Go!”, “Blue’s Clues”, “Wonder Pets!”, “Yo Gabba Gabba” and “Ni Hao, Kai-Lan” and for the most part, this is a pretty cool DVD for a children sold for a very low price and as there are different episodes of different shows on one DVD and not only does it work great as an educational DVD to keep children’s busy but also for those long commutes, these shows are very helpful in the development for children.

My child was raised from these educational children’s shows and I do believe that it helped in his development as he is doing exceptionally well at school, especially when it comes to decision making and also an appreciation for other cultures and languages.

Many Nickelodeon DVD’s tend to not have special features and unfortunately, this is the case for “Summer Vacation” but you do get a total of six episodes (well, seven if you count the two mini-episodes of “Wonder Pets”).

For the most part, your young children should be entertained by this release. All episodes are safe for children and parents will also be happy to know that they can learn from each of these episodes and also it will definitely help keep the children occupied at home or during those long vacation commutes.

While it’s easy to recommend Nickelodeon’s “Summer Vacation”, if you want more DVD’s, you can get “Summer Vacation along with two other Nickelodeon compilation DVD’s in “Big Box of Play Dates 2”.

Overall, Nickelodeon’s “Nickelodeon Favorites: Summer Vacation” is a wonderful, educational children’s DVD for the summer!