Kim Gentes

WorshipMusic.com is engaged in the vision of "increasing worship in the earth". Along that track, we have seen tools in many areas that help with musical and worship related resourcing. When the opportunity to watch the Musicland videos came to us, we took it seriously. As a parent, I used that second perspective to view this product through, instead of just my normal music/worship lens. In all respects the Musicland video and concepts exceeded our expectations. Simply put, Musicland is a children's video that uses musical instruments as the characters for putting forth its message. To help breakdown the areas of the video for you, I have listed each category below.

Enjoyment: My whole family (3 boys, my wife and myself) all sat down on Sunday afternoon and watched the video. We all really enjoyed the video. My sons were singing the tunes right away and I can tell that they will be wearing out the VCR with that video. They loved that the characters were instruments, especially since our family is already musically inclined.

Core concepts: I think I liked it especially because the characters were not trying to create a new set of personifications that my kids will want to idolize-- instead the core topics dealt with character issues that engage children at their level. It is very rare that media properly conceptualizes abstractions for children. Musicland has done this. Dealing with honesty, friendships and peer pressure, Touch Studios (the independent producers of this video) has remained spectacularly message-centered, while being great communicators to children. Additionally, the ethos of the video promotes music appreciation for children, again in an enjoyable way.

Video Graphics: The visuals are stunning and more detailed than I have seen in computerized children's ani-graphic art, outside of perhaps Pixar level productions (like ToyStory and Jimmy Neutron). Normal stark 3D renderings seen in things like Veggie tales have been replaced by texture, movement and surfacing- I noticed this especially in the beach scene where the ocean surf was actually detailed wave motion, the sand and drifts had detail and the buildings and vegetation created a complete 3D world, all that in contrast to blank rectangular planes and 2 point perspective objects on our "other" videos.

Music: Musicland plays into its strength by being themed against instruments because the songwriting it top notch children's material. My kids were repeating the tunes immediately (ages 4, 7, 10). The vocals on the songs are very impressive, allowing adults to actually not cringe! Let me say as a parent, there is nothing more annoying than hearing a nice children's song sung by an annoying nasal character voice. And, children actually like good singing and pleasant voices! Musicland did everyone a favor by making the music quality as strong as the graphics and great content. Of course, adding Crystal Lewis to the roster really puts the icing on the cake. In my estimation, the production of music on this video is the best I have heard on any Christian video. Because music is my area of expertise, I would have to listen to the accompaniment CD more times to give more insight on this area. The feather in the cap of the music on this video is theme song, "Stick Together Like Glue", which will join the ranks of "My Cheeseburger", and "Larry-boy theme song" as one of the best written melodies from any children's video. Because of its great music, its encouragement of music appreciation in children, its powerfully communicated themes, and it phenomenal execution on all three levels (graphics, music, and theme) I am giving the Musicland Band video an "Editor's Choice Award". My hope is that the children's publishers take note of this production, and refocus many of their efforts back to great communication of great concepts, as Touch Studios has done with this video.

If you have children or grandchildren who love videos, they will greatly enjoy this video. At this time of this writing my three boys are ages 4, 7, and 10, and they each authentically enjoyed the Musicland Band! It is several months later now, and I am still hearing the video and its songs echoed through rooms of our home.

Product Link http://www.worshipmusic.com/82184730013.html

Reviewed by: Kim Gentes