Search - All About Fire Engines/All About Construction on DVD

Heidi H. (mom)
Reviewed on 1/7/2008...

Well done. I could do without the "magic" genie but other than that these are excellent! My kids like them and learn from them.

From an adult's perspective: low-budget and kind of strange

For the Lolz | Michigan | 09/19/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is the first of this "All About" series that I have encountered. It was given to us by my in-laws, for our 2-year-old (who does love all sorts of trucks and construction). I have a suspicion they gave us this video partly because they couldn't stand watching it themselves!



This is basically two videos: one about fire engines, and one on construction vehicles. The sound quality was pretty bad throughout, hence I found some of the dialogue between characters hard to understand - particularly during the construction section of the video, which was filmed outside (with somebody's camcorder bought on clearance from a discount store?) During one conversation between "Construction Genie" Hard Hat Harry and the dumb-looking kids who are hanging out with him, I could have sworn one of the kids called the other one "stupid" for getting the name of a construction vehicle wrong or something. I was sort of taken aback by that. I couldn't believe they'd have kids calling each other derogatory names on a childrens' video. I don't want my 2-year-old to get the idea that it's cool to toss around "stupid" every time someone mispronounces a word, etc, and I sure wouldn't want him to FEEL "stupid" for making a mistake.



When construction machines such as the road paver or a bulldozer were supposed to be talking, it was always in some really bizarre voice and accent. "Why does the paver sound like a child molester?" wondered my husband. I couldn't come up with any good answer to that. I guess they were trying to make the voices "interesting" and varied, to hold the attention of young viewers, but this device seemed over the top and unnecessary.



On the whole, we found most of the writing, dialogue and acting pretty grating (my husband got up and left the room; he just couldn't sit through it). The only reason I hung in there and watched it is because as a parent I feel a responsibility to know and evaluate what my kid's watching. Since the fire engine portion of this video was slightly better than the construction part, I'll allow it two stars overall rather than the total thumbs-down which was my initial gut reaction after the construction segment.



This one got hidden up on a high shelf right away, its fate yet to be decided, but it will likely end up in a Goodwill bin if not the trash (do I really want to subject other peoples' children to this if I deem it unworthy for my own, or should I just have a modern-day book-burning with this as the tinder?). I'm keeping an eye out for something similar, of higher quality and better production values."

Not a sophisticated production, but kids love it

D. Smith | 07/20/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While the sound quality and actors (or maybe they are real firefighters trying to act?) leave a lot to be desired, this video is fantastic. My kids were glued to it. It describes the purpose of the firefighting equipment and includes demonstrations of their use.



This is a primitive video, so you cannot skip scenes. You can only fast-forward.



The construction video is nice too-- definitely entertaining and educational for the little ones."

All about fire engines/ all about construction

Heidi Colberg | Stuttgart, Germany | 11/10/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"My 2 year old loves this dvd. It is a little cheesy but, the content is simple to understand and very engagining for my son. My husband said he even learned a few things about construction equipment."