Marshall Publishing is a media company that produces DVDs, books, CDs, CD-ROMS and other programs that are meant to be both educational and fun. Their programs come in a variety of topics, from monster and fire trucks, to jets, planes, animals and everything in between! For this review, we got to watch their Lots and Lots of Penguins DVDs.
These DVDs aren’t your typical documentary of animals in the wild. There isn’t a lot of voice-over animation, just videos of penguins doing what they do. In between videos of different types of penguins (Emperors, Rock Hoppers etc.) a cute animated penguin comes on the screen giving you facts and info about that animal, it’s habitat etc. etc. Some of the videos are set to music, and some just include the natural sounds of the wild. The scenery is gorgeous, and I liked listening to the sounds of the birds and the sounds the penguins made!!
If you keep your eyes open, some other Antarctic creatures make an appearance as well! This particular set includes two DVD’s, Lots and Lots of Penguins in the Wild (which features penguins from Antarctica, Australia etc.) and Lots and Lots of Penguins and their Toe-Tapping Happy Feet. The second DVD features the penguins and their actions set to music. Both DVDs offer playful views of the penguins and what they do in the wild. There is also a bonus DVD that features animated penguins singing and dancing along to the song “Party Like a Penguin” (which my 11 year old son could not get out of his head!!).
The DVDs are fun, but my boys could only watch them in short spurts. What can I say? They still have short attention spans, and while they thought the penguins were cute, they didn’t hold their interest for an hour at a time. However, the format of the videos interspersed with information did work in teaching my younger son some facts about penguins. He remembered things about them and their habitats that he hadn’t learned before (and like I said, he loved the song 🙂 ).
If you are studying penguins in general, or are doing a study of animals from this region, these DVDs would make a great addition to your curriculum. Also, if you are a parent of a Happy Feet fan, or a child who loves penguins, then these DVDs will be a huge hit. My older son (14) thinks they are definitely intended for younger kids and he did get a little bored while watching, but he’s a boy and a teenager interested in stuff like cars and music, and LOTS of things bore him! However, I do agree that the DVD’s are more geared toward kids 12 and under. That doesn’t mean that if you have an older child they won’t enjoy them, but they will probably like them more if they have a serious interest in animals, penguins in particular!
The cost of this DVD set is $19.95, which I think is very reasonable! You can check out these DVD’s and the others Marshall Publishing has to offer at their website here:
http://www.marshallpublishinginc.com/
To see what other members of the crew had to say about this product, and some of the others from Marshall Publishing, click here:
**Disclaimer: I received this product free of charge for the purpose of writing this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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