Micransix Crappy film

ShangLuda Admirable film.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

tedg There seems to be quite a consensus that this doesn't have any educational value. Such a stance presumes that kids need explicit teaching and preaching. Either you need to include an alphabet in your song like Sesame Street or have some obvious moral conclusion. How silly.Kids learn by what they see of how things are abstracted. If they are abstracted by nitwits, then they learn to be nitwits who cannot think critically. I don't have a TeeVee in my house, but I do allow my one and two year olds to watch this, because it has some very clever ideas in it.Oh, the ideas are not in the story at all. Good ideas seldom can be; they are in how you get to the thing in the first place. Consider:The thing is nested in a vignette of a toddler's hand being stroked to sleep. That hand morphs to a boat in another enclosing situation, one that is amazingly rich. A simple being pulls down his sail at the end of a day. The boat becomes his bed and the sail his blanket. in this level of reality, the boat then drifts and we transition to yet another layer under reality. The stars become blossoms that surround and cover the night garden, where most of our time is spent.If you think kids don't get and appreciate this deep folding of reality, you haven't been around bright kids. It isn't what happens in the world of the story so much for them, but what that world is, how it works and how they get there.Once in the garden, we have some events, which one could think of as a day in the life of these characters. Several things go on, only a few of these make complete sense. Many things that happen, just happen without cause or consequence. Again, think like a child and how they see the world.Then finally we have the fourth inner world: the story we have seen in the abstract garden is recounted in drawings. This follows Ted's Law of abstraction: the abstract distance between those drawings and the puppet/animated world is the same as between that world and ours.The crossover character, Igglepiggle once in his dream world has only a few expressive dimensions. he squeaks and he falls down. He alone seems to be able to communicate with the narrator, a sort of higher self.Yes, some of the characters and objects have winning appeal, but it is the way this layered world is built that I think can teach my kids something worthwhile.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

yilluppony My kids (2 and 4) both absolutely love this show. And I've tried, really tried, to see the value of them watching it. I've sat down with them, I've sung the songs, I'm not writing this review not knowing what I'm talking about.But this show has almost no substance. Which sucks because the toys that you can buy with the ITNG characters on them are generally very good quality, open-ended and fostering a child's imagination.Why do we feel the need to talk down to our kids? Why do we feel that we should talk to them the way they talk to us? Our kids are usually a lot more intelligent than we give them credit for. Even if they cannot speak clearly, they surely understand everything we say. So why is there a need for a show that has almost all characters talking in baby talk?If a child had a choice they would eat chips and lollies all day, and they would drink soft-drink with every meal. As adults we are the ones who have to put a limit on these treats and insist they eat quality food that has a positive effect on them. Treats are fine sometimes, but not for every meal, and actually, not even every day would probably be best!The same should go for the shows we allow our children to watch. In The Night Garden has very limited educational value. It doesn't give the child much except for time in front of the TV vegging. Which is fine, but only in small doses. Accept that this is a pretty pointless show and ensure it's kept to a minimum.There are so many better things a child can do with you to get ready for sleep time - read a story, sing a lullaby with you, snuggle up on the lounge and talk about their day. There is no NEED for ITNG as a wind-down time.

guttlesswonder Like any caring family member, I'm concerned about what my niece watches and what lessons she is learning especially at such a young age. I outright refuse to allow my Sister (her mum) to put anything on I consider wasteful and generally trash (cough spongebob cough).I'm going to out right admit that at first I hated the Idea of ITNG until I actually saw the effect the show has on my niece. She is literally Mesemerized by the show, and sitting with her watching it I can see why.The whole point of this show is not to be witty, educational or have some deeper meaning to it; it's simply there so parent/child, family/child can watch the show together for half an hour of calming TV before bedtime. All in all I believe my niece loves it so much because its really the time she gets to relax and enjoy being a kid.I'm sorry, but If you are forcing your child to watch educational shows or learn something every minute of the day, you are awful, awful parents. You can't cram knowledge into your kids and expect them to retain everything. Is that how you learnt as a child? Relentless, unforgiving absorption of knowledge? Like hell you did.The calm, quiet breaks and relaxing nature of ITNG are the periods that lets kids process the information they have learnt without burdening them with more things to try learn and understand. Stop forcing your own social inadequacies on your kids, and just sit back and enjoy some good old magical adventure with some colourful and enjoyable characters to watch. It's fun, you can sing along and generally enjoy being with your family without having to think about anything. And played about an hour before bedtime makes the task so much easier. I'd much rather put my niece to bed after watching half an hour of this peaceful, calming, magical TV show than force another round of learning to count/read/dance/understand the importance of the race-class divide in modern America (aka Sesame Street).I will concede the education aspects are lacking (hence 8 stars). So here's a solution: don't have it be the Only show your kids get to watch. But don't dismiss it either simply on face value, because I can tell you; you'd be missing out otherwise.

sj2571 Who said children need to be educated 100% of the time? This show is just 100% entertainment for children, which is fine. They love it, I love it, it's great. Kids don't need to be taught something every minute of every day. What's wrong with the wonder and fantasy that this brilliant show brings? Let the children be children and enjoy the adventures. On a different note, if there's one thing I don't like about the show, it's the repetition. Too much of the same thing too often (the Ponti-Pines for example). Still, apart from that, the fantasy setting works extremely well, making me wonder where it's shot: must be someplace very beautiful, that's for sure!