Good morning everyone. I've been promising some previews of upcoming Valentines Day themed episodes of Word Girl and Clifford the Big Red Dog. Well, this mornign we start off those previews. We start off with a preview of the upcoming Valentines Day episode of Word Girl. Tomorrow and Thursday, we'll take a look at Clifford's Valentines Day episodes. So all you moms and dads out there, you can check those out with your kids, including today's preview. So how about we get right into it? Word Girl celebrates valentines Day with the episode, "CHerish is the Word" today in this editio of Reel Reviews.
Word Girl is one of PBS' most beloved kids' programs. Like so many of the network's children's shows, it focuses largely on childhood literacy. What really makes the show so great--aside from its original hand drawn animation style--is that it doesn't talk down to its audiences. Rather, it entertains them, all while educating them. Even when it brings in bigger words such as the final vocabulary word in the show's Valentines Day episode, it makes it easily understandable thanks to Captain Huggyface. That word, by the way is "contemplative". To be contemplative means to be thinking very deeply about something.
Speaking of the Valentines Day episode of Word Girl, that episode is one that audiences of all ages will love. The key words for the episode are "cherish" and "flee". As the episode opens, Becky Botsford's class is having a Valentines Day party at her school. When the class's teacher tells the students to pass out their valentines, Becky gets really nervous, because she has a crush on her classmate, Scoops. Just as she's about to give Scoops his valentine, Victoria Best--who's the best at everything--comes over and starts stealing all the class' valentines. When she's told that she's not the most "cherished" person in school, she gets mad, plays a tune on her recorder, and hypnotizes everyone so taht she can steal all the valentines not just from her class, but the entire school.
In the process, one of Word Girl's arch enemy, Toby, thinks that Scoops has stolen Toby's valentine for Word Girl. So he challenges Scoops to a duel, and brings his robots. But when Word Girl gets involved, Toby turns his robots on Word Girl. But then Victoria, wanting to prove she's even the best superhero, gets involved, and "flees" from the robots. Of course, both Toby and Victoria get whats coming to them, and all turns out okay for everyone. And once again, Word Girl proves that Valentines or no, she's everyone's most "cherished" superhero.
"May I Have a Word" is there too this time. In the episode of "May I Have a Word", the contestants have to define the word, "perspire", and show which example shows the meaning. And as usual Captain Huggyface brings in all the laughs.
The second half of this episode of Word Girl sees everyone's most "cherished" superhero facing off against Granny May. Granny May plans to steal Cleopatra's candy dish, and starts pretending to be a crime fighter, and framing people to make people believe she's trustworthy. As a result of her "crime fighting", she "volunteers" to protect the candy dish when it arrives in town, only to steal it, proving Word Girl's "intuition" right. In the end, Word Girl gets the candy dish back safely, and Granny May gets her just "desserts" (ba-dump-bump-bump).
The two halves of this episode combined make for a fun watch for parents and kids alike. Whether it's for Valentines Day or any day, both halves offer entertainment and education. It's just more proof of why exactly PBS remains the last bastion of truly kid and family friendly programming.
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Philip Sayblack can be contacted at psayblack@wnct.com
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