DVD Review: Potty Adventure
Soaring Star's Pocket Snails Teach Children Proper Potty Training
Soaring Star Productions' Pocket Snails teach children how to go to the bathroom like a big kid in their Potty Adventure. 7/10.
Potty training can be a difficult and traumatic time for both child and parent. Soaring Star Production's Pocket Snails attempt to make to make learning how to go to the bathroom as stress-free and (dare we say?) fun as possible. In their third DVD, called Pocket Snails' Potty Adventure, the three award-winning bugs teach children how to go potty like a big kid.
Pocket Snails Teach Little Children How to Go Potty
Gordon, Dale, and Bubbles are three British-accented snails who live in the pocket of a boy named Jake. When they discover that Jake's little sister Wendy is undergoing toilet training, they take it upon themselves to teach her how to do it right. Using their handy-dandy potty training map (a copy is enclosed with the DVD), the three snails embark on a journey towards potty training success.
The Review
The are some obvious difficulties in reviewing a DVD like this. An adult male isn't exactly the intended audience for a potty training vid. Not only that, a reviewer isn't about to talk about mise en scene in a DVD for the 2-and-up brigade, but there are some issues with Potty Adventure.
First off, all the characters speak with British accents. They speak clearly enough, but there are some phrases that use British slang, which parents may need to explain to their offspring.
While we're at it, it's clear that the voice talent is doing double – or even triple – duty, which can make it difficult to discern who is saying what. Messing with the tape speed (something which essentially made Ross Bagdsarian's career) helps somewhat, but Jake's voice is surprisingly low for a little boy.
The CGI animation is inexpensively done, and the entire soundtrack sounds like it was recorded using a single keyboard. The bodies of the snails don't move all that much, and there's a synthetic quality to the animation that shows its computer-based genesis.
No one is expecting Pixar levels of animation quality from the Pocket Snails. But it does mean that, for instance, shadows under the characters, and furniture, appear and disappear with disturbing regularity. That's not something that pre-Kindergarten kids are going to concern themselves with, but that's something that may bother parents.
One of the bigger problems with Pocket Snails' Potty Adventure is that, during the songs, the vocals are hard to distinguish from the obviously synthetic backing. A little judicious EQ tweaking (or just boosting the vocals in the mix) would be a good way of making them clearer.
The extras are hit-and-miss. The encouragement and congratulations scenes are good to let Junior know that "accidents will happen but don't let it stop you," but the blooper reel doesn't know what it wants to be. The entire notion of a blooper reel is something more for parents, but the humour is aimed more for the kids. The DVD doesn't need it.
The sing-along songs are relatively inoffensive, but there's always the risk of Junior lustily singing a tune about potty training at the most inconvenient time possible. But parents should be well-used to their kids embarrassing them on a regular basis.
Is Pocket Snails Potty Adventure For You?
If you have a child who is undergoing, or will eventually undergo, potty training then there's definite value in picking up Pocket Snails' Potty Adventure. It's only a half-hour long, so it won't tax children's low attention spans.
Once you're out of that specific market, then Potty Adventure becomes a bit more problematic as a purchase. It's definitely not as lysergic as, say, The Teletubbies and it doesn't have too many moments of unintentional hilarity. The song about saying good-bye to diapers is a particularly vivid exception: the image of swirling, dancing diapers is a difficult one to get out of your head.
So if you're a parent trying to wean your kids off diapers, or know someone who is, then Potty Adventure is worth a purchase. A solid 7/10.
