You might get the idea that the Growing Up series is something your kids might like, but it's ultimately going to be a personal decision since people feel differently about exploring an animal's daily life than they do about a person's. For example, there is one episode about a baby polar bear on the Arctic volume. The young bear was on its own after a hunter had killed its mother. This series doesn't tend to show anything gory or particularly shocking on the whole. The hyena episode does show a dead cub, however, just for example. So if your child can't handle Bambi, then you might want to screen these episodes before you let them watch.
This series doesn't take cameras to the savannah and document the details of the wild lives of baby animals. In fact, there isn't an episode that takes place outside the confines of an animal sanctuary or zoo. So this isn't Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom by any stretch. Some episodes do chronicle the attempts to return these animals into the wild, though. The series tends to follow the handlers of these baby animals just as much as the animals themselves. Some of the relationships between them are really touching to watch. On the Growing Up Safari DVD, Kevin roughhouses with his young hyenas just as if they were young kids playing together.
The narration here is done in a friendly, accessible way. The animal facts are handed out a small chunk at a time, so it doesn't feel overwhelming. The series builds some mildly dramatic moments by having the narrator say things like "it could mean the end for this little cat if he doesn't adjust to his new milk substitute." It's not as bad as some series out there, however, that tend to repeat the simplest facts over and over until you're bored to tears. Likewise, the background music isn't overwhelming, but it doesn't devolve into cute baby animal music either.
There are no extras and no subtitle options. You only get just the episodes that were aired on Animal Planet in their original televised format. Still, with 19 episodes, that's a lot of content. Although the show does talk about how these animals might have grown up in the wild, it doesn't actually contain footage of them in the wild. If you're looking for cute, furry animals, you'll find it. But if you're looking for dramatic wild encounters and volumes of information on these baby animals, that's not what you'll get here.
