Cheap Baby Galileo (with CD) (Video) Price

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Customer Reviews of Baby Galileo (with CD)

We like it!
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.

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A bit disappointed
I was rather disappointed with this DVD. I'm a mother of a two year old, and we have a number of the Baby Einstein products (DVDs & videos, puppets, books). (Favorite DVDs are Baby Van Gogh, Speakspeare, and Newton.) While the earlier videos were made with a great deal of artistic and creative flair, this seems like a pale imitation. (To me, it feels like this video was conceived of and designed by a bunch of executive-types in suits, sitting around a board room table and borrowing bits and pieces of earlier videos.) Specifically:
(1) Baby Galileo is NOT cute. He's small and sort of creepy, and always looks surprised - whereas in past videos, the hand puppets could show a range of emotion. The sunglass-wearing duck in Baby Newton, for instance, was cool and suave; whereas the other duck was excitable and frustrated. Same actual puppets, yet detectably different personalities/ emotions. They were fun to watch; Baby Galileo kangaroo is not.
(2) Past puppet hosts of the videos had a logical link - a goat as the host of Baby Van Gogh, who is named Vincent Van Goat. (Ha, ha, inside joke for parents.) But - a kangaroo (and his mommy) as an astronomer?... Yeah, the connection is SO obvious. (Not.) Also, my daughter keeps calling him "cat" (i.e., doesn't really look like a kangaroo).
(3) Whoever was the puppeteer this time isn't very good. This puppeteer tries to imitate past videos' puppets' movements - such as Bard the Dragon's funny mouth movements in Baby Mozart (I think). Lousy job. The puppets move too fast, lack nuanced expressions. Also, they're not always completely fitted to the puppeteer's hand - in particular, in the 'Evening Stroll' sequence.
(4) The last 10 minutes or so of the video focus on the 9 planets, and galaxies. Since these videos are aimed at children under three years old, I would question the wisdom of including things that pre- and newly verbal children can't see, touch, or really comprehend at this point. Fine for a five year old. But for my daughter, Mars, Venus, and Pluto are really just different colored circles.
I plan on returning this to the bookstore this weekend.

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my little ones favorite
Unlike the other people who had negative feelings about this DVD, I think it is wonderful. I purchased this in the Volume 3 four pack, and it quickly became my daughter's favorite. She squeals with glee at the Kangaroo puppets, and is mesmerized throughout the video. She is only 4 months old, and now I dream of the day my little scientist grows up. I enjoy watching it with her also, the pictures are beautiful, and I can bounce her on my knee with the familiar tunes and she just giggles. It has definitely created a bonding time for us to savor every day.