![The Best Richard Scarry Collection Ever - Volume 1 [VHS]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515ZK3B974L.jpg)
Product Description One 90-minute video contains four episodes from The Busy World of Richard Scarry: "Sergeant Murphy's Day Off," "The Best Birthday Present Ever," "The Best Birthday Party Ever," and "Summer Picnic." .com The subject is Busy Town, a delightful place that looks like a cross between an American small town and a Tyrolean village (the late children's author and illustrator Richard Scarry moved from the U.S. to Switzerland at age 50). A kind of whole-cloth world that becomes fully involving and entertaining for young kids, where numerous characters meet up in different combinations for all sorts of adventures, Busy Town comes alive in a series of books by Scarry for toddlers and preschoolers. The excellent batch of videos spinning off from those stories (and going beyond them) have proven to be popular not only with children but with parents, grandparents, and other significant adults in a little viewer's life. Volume 1 includes the following: "The Best Birthday Party Ever" is about a scheduling conflict for young pals Kenny and Lynnie, who share a birthday. "Martha's First Book," which takes place in the 15th century, finds little Martha, an illiterate German girl, so desperate to read that she helps create the first printing press. "Locked Out" is a classic misadventure involving the catastrophic Mr. Frumble, a pleasant fellow who simply can't go five minutes without creating a disaster. "The Best Birthday Present Ever" is a sweet and comic piece concerning young Huckle's determination to get his mother the finest gift he can think of for her special day. "Patrick Pig Learns to Talk" takes us out of Busy Town and into a small Irish village, where young Patrick worries his parents by not displaying the stereotypically Irish gift of gab. "Grouchy Mr. Gronkle" finds Busy Town's local Scrooge bellowing at Hilda for her charitable work. In "The Best Summer Picnic," a children's gathering suddenly gets washed out by a storm. "Cucumber the African Photographer" focuses on a shutterbug who has problems during a savannah shoot. "The Big Operation" is meant to teach kids about the hospital and how to be less afraid of what goes on there. The title character tries his darnedest to go on vacation in "Sergeant Murphy's Day Off." "Schmudge the German Chimney Sweep" is a comic farce about a hapless chimney sweep who leaves a horrifying trail of soot everywhere he goes. "Sleeping Car Adventure" is another comedy in which Hilda Hippo turns a simple train ride into anything but a relaxing adventure. --Tom Keogh
E**M
this is a sweet little animated video
this is a sweet little animated video! It is such a nice, relaxed pace. I feel comfortable putting my one year-old, and 3 1/2 year-old in front of it, and I don't feel like it is "killing brain cells" or depleting their attention span! LOL. This little video is only about 15 or 20 minutes, so I often let it play twice while I am cooking supper and/or washing up the dishes. The ABC video features Huckle and Lowely going to school, where they learn about the alphabet. Each child in class assigned a letter, and they each make up a short story featuring an object or person that starts with that letter. "H is for house. Hilda hippo's house is on a hill. How will Hilda hippo get home? Call upon a helicopter!!" accompanied by the characters of Busytown acting out each story. My children absolutely love this video, as well as the counting video, Which is also by Richard scary. The people are all sweet and polite to each other. The teacher is very encouraging to each child. Overall, it paints such a sweet, innocent picture of the world and of the classroom! There is no drama, there are no scary elements, there is nothing that I as a parent worry about my children viewing! (well, I suppose there is one bit of drama. Bananas gorilla steals something, and eventually gets caught by the policeman. So in a way, I suppose this little video teaches consequences for poor decisions. But I support this concept, and the events are not frightening in any way, So I don't mind. )I highly recommend this video/DVD.
D**S
Love the songs and learning.
Had this video with my children. Bought for my grandson. He is enjoying the animal characters and the learning songs. He is 2 years old.
L**R
Great introduction to the alphabet
Our two-year old daughter loves this video. I highly recommend it.The animation is basic, but it's not the sort of thing little kids care about. The content and educational value are first-rate. It does a great job of introducing all the 26 letters. To keep kids' interest, it mixes in a lot of interesting characters and stories. Our daughter loves the sweet animal characters. It includes the traditional "ABC" song, which is very helpful.We like that the presentation is low-key, not like some of the loud, frenetically paced stuff you see nowadays. If your kids see a lot of TV, they might have a different reaction than our daughter did to this video. We don't let her watch a lot of video unless it's educational (studies show TV and rapidly changing video images are not healthy for kids' brain development, especially before age 3).In addition to this video, for learning the alphabet I also recommend the video "Leap Frog - Letter Factory (2003)." It's a regular video - you don't need a LeapPad or anything to view it.
M**R
This Town is Busy and Calm!
This is a nice introduction to the ABC's for preschool children. My child likes this video quite a bit. The animation is quite basic - but this might be part of his attraction to this show. "Richard Scarry's Best ABC Video Ever!" is also slow and calm - another bonus for the wee-ones.Each letter - and its corresponding word - is printed on the screen - this is a great technique. But it has been proven that having words written in all capitals isn't as effective as using upper and lower case for literacy learning - and this video uses all caps. But this doesn't erase the advantages to having the words appear on the screen. My child also loves his Read-TV DVD - another video that features words on the screen (in upper and lower case). It's another video that's helping him learn to read. I have to say I recommend "Read-TV" over "Richard Scarry's ABC" hands down.Overall this is a fine video that most preschoolers will love and learn from. It's also a good deal price-wise.
K**S
Enjoyable And Educational
I recently purchased the following videos: Best ABC Video, Best Counting Video, Best Learning Songs, Best Silly Stories & Songs, Best Busy People. These videos are all about 15-20 years old (release date) and I had my reservations as to whether my 3 year old would like them, as he is very stuck on his LeapFrog letter and words videos (which I also love). When I first viewed all of these, I realized that they are made with very simple animation, similar to when I was young. These videos are extremely charming and sweet. My son instantly loved them and has asked to view them repeatedly. It was nice to have a video with the actual alphabet song, as the LeapFrog letter factory does not have it. The counting video is also helpful in that it counts to 20 rather than 10 as other videos do. He enjoys the silly stories and laughs at all the videos. It is nice to know that kids can still enjoy classics such as these. I am very pleased with them. I also paid less than $1 or $2 for each of them (plus shipping). A bargain!
K**F
Great find!
We were happy to find this new copy of one of our son’s favorites. He has significant disabilities and loves his “oldies but goodies”!
L**N
Fabulous! Why don't they put this out on DVD again?
As expected, my 2 year old can't get enough of Richard Scarry. My older four boys watched the Scarry videos when they were younger. When they outgrew them, I sold them in a garage sale. Enter baby #5, a total surprise. When I decided to re-buy these for him, I discovered they were no longer available. VHS copies are easy to come by used, but used DVDs cost a fortune. I'm buying one at a time over a period of a few months so as not to break the bank. Worth every penny, though. We don't watch television around here, but my 2 year old is spellbound every time I turn this on. He's recognizing all of his letters, too, which makes me feel better about turning this video every now and again.
Trustpilot
3 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
