Featured TV on DVD Review: Go, Diego, Go!: The Great Panda Adventure
May 2, 2010
Go, Diego, Go!: The Great Panda Adventure - Buy from Amazon
Go, Diego, Go! is a pre-school show that first started in 2005 and features the animal adventures of Deigo, an 8-year-old boy who travels the world helping animals in need. In the nearly five years since the show was first spun-off from Dora the Explorer, it has been released on DVD more than a dozen times. The Great Panda Adventure is the latest such release. I've reviewed more than a handful of these and I've long since run out of things to say about the show as a whole, so let's just get right to the episodes.
Go, Diego, Go! is typical of the "Ask and Pause" genre of pre-school shows, which is to say it is quite repetitive, with a number of songs repeated over and over. For instance, we hear Camera's song practically every episode, but that's no different from Dora the Explorer and Map's song, or Toodles' song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. If your kids like learning about animals, and most kids will, The Great Panda Adventure is worth checking out. However, I've noticed that a number of kids shows are starting to increase the amount of content on each DVD they release. The standard used to be four episodes, but that's going up. In this respect, Go, Diego, Go! is falling behind the curve. If you've picked up the previous DVDs, then this is also worth adding to your collection, but the studio should think about adding more. Instead of just a couple music videos, have a bonus episode from The Fresh Beat Band, or other upcoming shows.
There are two music videos from The Fresh Beat Band, which is a new show that's on Nick. I assume I will be getting a DVD of theirs to review before too long.
Diego and Baby Jaguar travel to the mountains of China in search of Giant Pandas. They are in trouble because there is not enough bamboo for them to eat. After rescuing one that nearly fell off the mountain trying to reach some bamboo, Diego needs your help rescuing more pandas.
On a side note, when the first panda said, "Ni hao" I got excited because I actually knew that word. So I guess these shows are educational, even for jaded critics like myself. Of course, I learned that from a different show (Ni Hao, Kai Lan).
Diego is in Australia to visit with the Koalas. He starts by showing us a tunnel built to help the Koalas cross the road, but one Koala was distracted by a butterfly and took the dangerous route. After rescuing him, it turns out it's his birthday and it's up to us to get him back.
We go to Madagascar to return some animals to their home: a Lion, a Zebra, a Giraffe, and a Hippo. No wait, that's totally wrong. In the episode there's plenty of other animals, including a lemur that can't remember where here home is and is worried she will never see her family again.
Diego travels to the far away and mysterious land of ... Canada. "Take off, you hoser." as the locals would say. Here, he has to save the beavers. ... Must not make crude jokes. The snowcap is melting very fast and this is causing the river to flood, so Diego and his beaver friend, Billy, must help the animals whose home are in danger of flooding. The Verdict
- Submitted by: C.S.Strowbridge
Filed under: Video Review