In The Treasure Behind the Little Red Door, the kids are off on a treasure hunt and you might have guessed that the treasure is firmly lodged behind... wait for it - a little, red door!! The tricky part is that Big Jet, which is to Little Einsteins what Swiper is to Dora the Explorer, wants to grab the treasure and will play plenty of sneaky tricks along the way to slow them down on their treasure hunt. The kids travel everywhere in their Rocket, a regular Swiss Army knife of a rocket-ship that can turn into a train, a sub, a car, a bus, anything... Has Rocket met its match with Big Jet? Can the kids use musical terms correctly in order to grab the treasure? Music from Charles Francois Gounod is featured in this episode along with Hawaiian Tiki Statue art. The music comes into play at times when one of the kids will make up some words to the song or when pieces of the song play a part in the story. Rocket gets to go another round with Big Jet in the third episode, The Great Sky Race Rematch. Just as Rocket is lining up for the race, Big Jet disables the one button that allows Rocket to transform. The kids need to use Rocket's other forms to swim, bounce, and "chugga-chugga" their way to the finish line of this race. This episode features the piece Whirlpool and Waves by Hiroshige Utagawa along with William Tell Overture by Giaochino Rossini. The final episode, Super Fast!, also features Rossini and Chinese cut-paper art. The story in Super Fast! has three little pigs (no relation to those wolf-blown pigs...) that like to fly around in little airplanes. After the pigs get blown off course, it is up to the Little Einsteins to get them back on track using more musical knowledge.
The take-away from Little Einsteins: Race For Space is a mix of musical appreciation, artistic appreciation, and an introduction to some neat places around the world. Another bonus feature is the "Rocket Around the World" activity that uses musical tempo concepts to give your kids an education about world places that the kids visit including the Alps, Sahara Desert, and Machu Picchu. Lou and Lou: Safety Patrol are fun and entertaining but actually have good messages for kids about safety while riding bikes and traveling in cars. Kids will get into the special features and love the episodes but it would have been nice to see at least one more episode included. It would also have been nice to see a more in-depth feature on the music and art for parents to give them some material to teach their toddlers. If the show is intended to be educational, we might as well get more out of it. There's always Wikipedia, but some additional information on the DVD would be nice next time. No parent can possibly be turned off by Little Einsteins and it goes over well with the kiddies; if you aren't Tivo'ing the show at this point, you can do worse than to grab this DVD collection.
