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Baby Galileo

Baby Galileo

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $14.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: What a a great video!
Review: This is our first Baby Einstein video and even when it's recommended for 9 months+, I have a 7 months old baby who just LOVES this video. He can't keep his eyes out of the screen, he laughts and smiles when the Kangaroo puppet and the blue mouse are on the screen. The music is beautiful and it truly reflects the mood of what it's being described. I gave this review 4 stars instead of 5 because the last two segments of the video about "galaxies" and "space" are not to attractive and a little bit dizzy. Also, I wish there were more parts with the puppets. But overall this video is great and I can't wait to explore other baby einstein videos.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: We like it!
Review: I have only recently begun allowing my 24-month old daughter to watch TV/videos, and Galileo is the first Baby Einstein video that either of us has seen (though we have read many of the books). I feel that it was a great video for us to watch *together*. My daughter enjoys naming and talking with me about the clouds, sun, moon, stars, planets, and galaxies. Like most of the videos she has seen thus far, she "dips" in and out of it, watching for the most part, but also pausing to share the experience with me, or just to take a break and look at something else for a few minutes. It does have varying age-content, which makes it a good video to view together, but probably not one that will keep your child passively mesmerized for 30 minutes, if that's what you're looking for.

We have now seen earlier Baby Einstein videos, and I agree that the music matches the content *differently* in Baby Galileo. In earlier videos, the rhythm of the music was matched to the movement of the toys; in Baby Galileo, the *mood* of the music is chosen to match the visual content (e.g., Mozart's "A Little Night Music" is played during the section about stars). I think the ending sequence, which parodies 2001: A Space Odyssey with a helmeted puppet floating in space to The Blue Danube Waltz, is humorous.

Although *different* in this way from previous Baby Einstein videos, my daughter enjoys it just as much, plus this one seems to stimulate a lot of conversation between us.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not as great as Baby Newton
Review: My 13 month old loves her Baby Newton video (from the Volume I four-pack) so I asked her grandma to get her Baby Galileo for her first birthday. Something in this one disappoints. It seems more Disney-ized than the others. I have tried to watch it a few times but always pop it out and go back to the old stand-bys.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: awesome
Review: My 2 year old daughter loves this video! She can name all of the planets. I think that is exceptional - if you have a 2 year old you know they cant sit still long enough for you to teach them all of that things- their too busy with playdough- what better way to teach than with music and pictures! As with all of the Baby Einstein videos they are fun for the babies and toddlers to watch but as a parent it is important to keep TV educational. It is hard to find educational toys that keep their interest and teach them something at the same time- this video does just that.This one is espically great because it has the sun, moon, stars, planets, space, etc.so she can use it for many years. We put in a Baby Einstein video every night before bed and this one seems to be very relaxing for her, (it helps that the baby kangaroo goes to sleep in the end of the video too). This is a must have for any child.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: We keep buying them, but . . . .
Review: Once again, we've purchased a Baby Eintstein series DVD--the new release, Baby Galileo! Our 10 month old daughter is still fairly captivated by the format in general, although she seems to prefer the videos with talking (Baby Einstein, Baby Shakespeare) or more puppet action (Baby Newton). Baby Galileo follows the same formula as most of the others, with a mix of interesting toys, filmed scenery, etc. all set to synthesized music and interspersed with little puppet vignettes. We will rotate this DVD with the others we own: we only play one a day, max.

Even though we've spent some decent money buying all these videos, partly (and yes, perhaps, selfishly) because for just a few minutes sometimes we parents need to take a breath and regroup, we still can't believe that this series features synthesized (vs. acoustic) renditions of the great masterpieces of classical music. What is this "designed for little ears" business? I am a profession musician and teacher and understand that royalties, etc. are involved when using classical recordings, and also understand the financial complexity of assembling an orchestra in order to record an accompaniment soundtrack for this type of project. Nevertheless, I know that the Baby Einstein folks are probably raking in the big bucks (some of them mine!) at this point. I'm curious about the company's current rationale for using artificial sounding versions of these pieces, especially when one of the videos (Baby Einstein) specifically focuses on exposing children to the varied nuances of different languages. Wouldn't exposing them to the varied nuances of real orchestral instruments be just as beneficial? (Regardless of the stylized music on the Baby Einstein videos, my child regularly hears me practice on my instrument--whether her "little ears" like it or not--so she's certainly getting a good dose of aural development in any case)! Once again, we still have found the videos to be helpful and quite entertaining for our baby gal in these early months, and most likely Baby Galileo will be no exception.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Too boring for very little ones
Review: I know this one is supposed to be for nine months and up, but we tried it for our 6 month old son. Hated it! He liked when the puppet would come on the screen, but that was a total of like 10 seconds the whole time. It's mostly footage of the sun, clouds, etc. I can't imagine a 9 month old would like it any better, but we'll see.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Weak
Review: Weak

We have every Baby Einstein DVD up though Baby MacDonald. The first 10 DVDs directly involved Julie Clark, the creative force behind Baby Einstein. The next three, Galileo, Neptune and MacDonald, reduce her involvement as she concentrates more on the stewardship of the growing company.

This is evidenced by some experimental tinkering with the magic Baby Einstein formula. In the case of Galileo, this tinkering was definitely in a negative direction.

The look of the video is very different, going for a more film-like appearance as apposed to the hard digital video look found in previous editions (except when stock footage is used) I guess this is so the transition from original segments to the stock footage would be less jarring. The children who appear in the video seem to have obvious make up applied which sort of ruins the illusion of innocence. The music production is consistent with other Baby Einstein releases, even better in some areas, but song selection is uninspired.

Production issues aside, my real complaint with Galileo is that is tragically boring. It hits a severe low with the moon segment, which may be ok if you want to put your child to sleep. However, the 'released balloon' transition idea was inspired.

This is definitely one of our least favorites, along with Language Nursery. I'd recommend almost any of the others including Baby Neptune.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: the unfortunate future of Baby Einstein
Review: I was very worried when Disney bought out Baby Einstein. This DVD has a completely different feel than then the others and is the first one my son didn't really respond to. It's funny, the number of people and production companies listed in the credits is many times greater than on the 'real' Baby Einstein's but the quality is much worse. Too bad Pixar didn't buy them! A sad turn of events.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: AWFUL!! BORING!! (...)
Review: (...) But this one is awful!! DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY. It's so incredibly boring and uninspiring. I thought I would try it again on my 12 month old today (he's addicted to the other (...) videos). Well, he turned his back on it (literally) and began paging through a book instead. It's poorly done, it's not nearly as good as the other ones (...). The only positive thing I can say is that maybe it will lull some babies to sleep--they certainly won't be entertained.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BABY KALEI LOVES BABY GALILEO
Review: MY 4 MONTH OLD LOVES TO WATCH THE BABY KANGAROO ON THIS BABY EINSTEIN DVD. THIS ONE IS FAR AND AWAY HER FAVORITE CHARACTOR. SHE CAN BE LOOKING AWAY FROM THE TV AND WHEN HE COMES ON SHE TURNS RIGHT TO THE TV AND SMILES THE BIGGEST MOST BEAUTIFUL SMILE. I LOVE THE BABY EINSTEIN PRODUCTS BECAUSE IT MAKES TV FUN AND EDUCATIONAL AND SHE IS OCCUPIED FOR 30 MINTUES AND I HAVE ACHANCE TO GET CAUGHT UP ON SOME HOUSE WORK. I WOLUD RECCOMEND BABY GALILEO TO ANY NEW MOM. WE HAVE ALSO PURCHASED BABY NEPTUNE, BABY BACH, AND BABY NEWTON. BUT GALILEO IS HER FAVORITE.


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