Dora the Explorer is an animated television series that was created by Chris Gifford, Eric Weiner and Valerie Walsh. This television series is aired on the Nickelodeon network and become a regularly aired series on 2000. This television series is both loved by children and parents alike. It is best described as an entertaining show but also facilitates interactive learning. Children love this show since it entertains and teaches various topics through the characters as they embark on adventures and explorations together with Dora’s friends. The Dora the Explorer television series allows children to learn the many important lessons, such as being patient, acceptance of others and telling right from wrong.

If you are wondering why Dora the Explorer is popular among children, it is the interactive learning. With interactive learning, it is an ideal tool in learning that is well appreciated by children. You have to take note that in Dora the Explorer, Dora addresses her viewers in a face-to-face manner; this attracts the children and making them more involved while watching the show. This makes learning as well as having fun both easy and possible.

With this kind of learning format, it makes the entire show more exciting as well as informative for the viewers since the teaching is done with the incorporation of animated characters that embark on various adventures that are fun-filled. The moment Dora presents situations to her friends; they initiate the problem solving skills of the viewers. It also allows viewers to make generalizations in a logical manner. Aside from that, children can also learn some of the words and phrases in Spanish, which is a foreign language. With the multicultural nature of this television series, it allows children to learn that the world is composed of various people of different races as well as cultures, giving them an idea that there are various languages and cultures present.

In Dora the Explorer show, there are various characters. There are the main characters that children are very fond of while watching the show. The first main character is no other than Dora herself. Dora is a little girl who is always on a trip or adventure, either to help someone in need or to find something that is missing. During the show, Dora involves the viewers by asking them to help her out with the use of a map. She also speaks some of the words in Spanish, so this allows children to learn these simple Spanish words and phrases.

Next character in the show is Boots, who is Dora’s best friend. Boots is an eager and good natured monkey. He is called Boots since he always dons his red boots all throughout the show. Another character that viewers always see on the show is Swiper. This cunning and sly fox is considered as Dora’s enemy. Swiper is wearing a blue mask and dons gloves. He is responsible for stealing the items that can help Dora in her trips and adventures. In order to thwart Swiper from stealing the items that Dora has, Dora must state the phrase, “Swiper, no swiping!” thrice to make it work. Most of the time Dora is successful while Swiper backs away. Another character always making an appearance on the show is Backpack. This is the purple bag always carried by Dora during her adventures. Backpack contains everything that she needs in order to reach her goal. In order to open up Backpack, Dora requests the viewers to say “Backpack”. The Backpack will then sing and asks the viewers to choose the item that Dora needs. Map is also one of the main characters in the show. Map is usually placed on the side pocket of Backpack. During the show, Map shows Dora where to go next during her trips and adventures.

The Fiesta Trio appears every time Dora and Boots are successful in one part of their adventure, which is usually divided into three parts during the show. The Fiesta Trio suddenly appears to congratulate Dora with a brief musical display. The Fiesta Trio is composed of three small animals, a grasshopper, a frog and a snail.

Isa the Iguana is considered as a close friend of Dora. Isa is a highly skilled gardener and has the passion to grow and cultivate various flowers. She also helps out with her problem solving skills that is very useful to Dora and her other friends. Isa also has the ability to blend into the surroundings whenever she wants to.

Another character is Tico the Squirrel, who is a friend of Dora. Tico lives in the forest and speaks fluently in Spanish. He sports a colourful striped vest and usually drives around on his yellow car. Aside from that, he also travels using boats and helicopters throughout the show. Tico has purple fur, round body with small triangle shaped stumps for his legs and arms. Tico is responsible for helping Dora teach the viewers on words and phrases in Spanish.

Benny the Bull is also a friend of Dora who resides in a barn. Benny really loves to eat a lot and most of the time rides on a hot air balloon. He is blue in colour with small yellow colored horns, stands by utilizing his hind legs and slightly taller in height than Dora. Benny sports a blue bandana that is dotted with white polka dots all over his neck. During the show, Benny sometimes helps Dora with some of the items that she needs on her adventure.

Dora the Explorer is very popular among children as well as their parents. If you are looking for the ideal education yet fun-filled show for your child, you should let them watch Dora the Explorer. Since Dora the Explorer was first aired on television, there are numerous series available. You can easily purchase CDs from local stores if you want your child to watch it right from the start. From counting numbers, learning the alphabet, learning a foreign language, colors, patterns and many more, your child will surely learn a lot from this television show.

The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is basically a television series specifically for children. It was first aired on the prime time slot on Disney Channel way back in 2006. This television series was intended to be a component of Playhouse Disney that is proposed for the preschoolers. It was back in 2011 when the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was transferred to the Disney Junior block, becoming as the replacement of Playhouse Disney. The production of the show was on a standstill for four months during the spring of 2009, due to the passing away of Wayne Allwine, the voice of Mickey Mouse. He was replaced by Bret Iwan and the production resumed.

The cast of characters included in the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse includes Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Daisy Duck and Pluto. The show basically focuses on the interaction with the viewer in order to stimulate solving of problems among young children. Other characters appeared as guest appearances, it includes, Clarabelle Cow, Pete, Chip n’ Dale, Ludwig Von Drake, Butch, Figaro the Kitten, Willie the Giant, Mortimer Mouse, Humphrey the Bear and Salty the Seal.

The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse by Disney was specially designed so that every episode includes the characters helping out young children as they try to solve a particular age specific problem with the use of basic skills. These basic skills involve the identification of shapes and counting up to ten. The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse series utilizes the Disney Junior’s whole child curriculum of creative, cognitive as well as social learning opportunities that allows them to learn many things. In every episode, the moment the problem has been completely explained; Mickey Mouse invites the viewers to join him at the Mouseadoer. It is best described as a huge Mickey head shaped computer that functions by distributing the day’s Mousekatools. These tools are collection of objects that are required in order to solve the problem of the day. When all of the tools are revealed to Mickey Mouse on the Mousekadoer monitor, they are immediately downloaded into Toodles, which is a small Mickey head formed airborne expansion of the Mousekadoer. Once you will say “Oh Toodles!” Mickey Mouse calls him to appear from wherever he is hiding and go straight up to the screen so that the viewers can select any tool that is needed by Mickey Mouse in the current episode. One of the tools is called a “Mystery Mouskatool”, which is supposedly a surprise tool indicated by a question mark symbol.

With the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, it introduces preschool children as well as the parents the characters that they love. With Mickey Mouse, Donald, Minnie, Daisy, Goofy and many more, they will surely entertain and at the same time educate young children together with the guest appearance of other beloved characters.

Every episode of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse starts at the clubhouse where the children are introduced to the story being presented along with problems that they must solve with the help of the characters. Depending on the story, it can take children anywhere, from the clubhouse, a faraway place, space, fairy tale location or any place their imagination can take them.

As for the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse curriculum, the television series basically centers on solving certain problems as well as the basic math skills that includes counting, sequencing, sorting, classification, complex patterns, size and distance association, spatial relations and many more. Throughout the show, Mickey Mouse will be responsible for guiding the young children in an interactive manner, by allowing response time when asking questions and entertaining the children as they help the characters in their quests.

Aside from the television series, you can also find Mickey Mouse Clubhouse games that are available in two categories, the classical board games and the computer games. There are also online games that are very entertaining as well as age appropriate. The popular games right now includes the Magic Doodle Game, Minnie Party and Dream Spacecraft that showcases all the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters. Other games such as Spot the Difference are all educational and very entertaining. The classical board games are also entertaining; the best part is that they do not tire your children’s eyes while playing. These Mickey Mouse Clubhouse games are also ideal for the adults as well.

You can also see your favourite Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters on your child’s birthday. With the availability of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse themes for your child’s birthday, you can give your child a great Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme party. As for the invitations, you can print them from the Disney’s Mickey Mouse Clubhouse website. You have a wide selection to choose from that your child will surely adore. For the decorations, if you want to have a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme, it is best to use red, blue and yellow balloons and streamers. You should also have a large Mickey Mouse head made from black poster board that has a welcome sign. You should also add stuffed toys, photos of the characters and learning charts. As for the accessories, you can make Mickey Mouse ears out of black foam paper. All you have to do is to attach them on black headbands. For the girls, provide pink bows for them.

With the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse television series, young children will surely learn a lot of educational topics as well as having fun at the same time. If you want your child to learn and have fun, you should let them watch the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. You are assured that your child will learn something new each day. With the lessons that they will acquire by watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, they will surely be prepared and guided along the way in solving everyday problems as well as making decisions for themselves. With the basic math problems presented, it is the ideal preparation for your children once they start going to school. It is best to watch the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse along with your child; it is entertaining and educational at the same time.

Xi Yang Yang or also known as the Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf or Happy Lamb and Grey Wolf are a well known animated Chinese TV show. Xi Yang Yang is basically an animated TV series that focuses on a goat party that are residing on the Green Pasture or the Qing Qing Grasslands. The story circulates on an inept wolf who is trying very hard in his quest to capture and eat the goats. This television series was aired on over 40 local TV stations in China.

Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf have over 530 episodes during its premier. Once it gained popularity and became successful, there were 480 episodes added that also includes 60 exclusive Olympics episodes.  Later on, in January 2009, the very first Happy Lamb and Grey Wolf movie – The Super Snail Adventure was released in China. The storyline of this movie showcases how the goats and their enemy, the Big Big Wolf teamed up in order to defeat their common enemy, the bacteria. This was followed by another movie, Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf – The Tiger Prowess. This was released to the public on January 2010.  This was followed by the latest movie, Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf – Moon Castle: The Space Adventure that was released on 2011.

As an overview on this animated television show, the story starts during the time of the Lamb 3131 where the lambs inhabit the Green-Green Pasture contentedly and in peace. The chief characters are embodied as school-aged lambs that attend school with the supervision of Man Yang Yang (Steady Lamb), the village senior. Grey Wolf and Red Wolf, his wife inhabit a castle that is located far away from the village; the two are always trying to hunt down the lambs for food. On the other hand, the goats at that time are very smart and equipped with technology that they use in order to avoid getting captured. Once Grey Wolf appears at the Lamb village, he devises a plan in order to catch one of the goats. One of the goat students, known as Pleasant always finds a way to ruin the plan of Grey Wolf. With the help of Pleasant and his friends, Grey Wolf is never successful in capturing a single goat. In the end of every episode, Grey Wolf promises to return again.

The conflict between Pleasant and Grey Wolf seems unending. Despite being a failure during every attempt to steal a goat, Grey Wolf is determined never to give up. Grey Wolf is nice and timid to Red Wolf, despite being mean to the goats. Red Wolf is quite impatient and makes her husband do all the work for her. She never attempts to catch the goats herself, and always yells at Grey Wolf. As for Pleasant and his friends, they are portrayed as youthful primary school children, with their own distinct feature. Beauty is described as a pretty goat girl who is always concerned about her appearance and looks. Fit is a boy goat who loves to work out and is deeply in love with Beauty. Lazy is described as a cute boy goat who loves to relax. There are also other child goats throughout the series and also their teacher, who is referred to as the Village Elder. He is a scientist and always trying out his luck in developing machines in order to protect the school. He uses a walking stick and walks in a very slow manner, even slower than a snail.

We will know focus on the characters in Xi Yang Yang and their descriptions. Let us start with the Lamb Clan. First character is no other than, Happy Lamb or Pleasant Goat.  He is the main character in the series. He sports a blue ribbon around his neck that has a bell. Pleasant is best described with a positive attitude, smart and supportive of his friends. He is observant and always the first to sense danger and thwart the plans of Grey Wolf in capturing them. Steady Lamb or Slowy or also called the Village Elder is the only adult in the series. He usually utilizes trickery in teaching his students lessons about life and sends them on assignments. He is also fond of creating wacky inventions and questionable experiments with funny results. Sleepy or Lazy Lamb is a small, insatiable goat that dons a yellow bib. He does not like to work and would rather sleep, as a result his is often the first to be caught by Grey Wolf. He also has the tendency to fall asleep every time Grey Wolf captures the goats. Beauty Lamb is a female goat who loves to wear pink ribbons on her horns and matching it with pink shoes. She is best described as very apathetic, bossy, and rude and loves to apply make-up and crying. Fit Lamb or Sparky is the only dark-skinned lamb in the series. He is more of a jock character and loves sports and showing off his strength to others.

Now we will focus on the wolves. The first is Grey Wolf, the main antagonist in the series. He dons an orange colored cap together with a yellow patch; he also has a distinct scar located under his eye. He devises plans in order to capture the lambs but end up being outwitted by the lambs. Red Wolf is described as the egotistic wife of Grey Wolf. She sports a red coat adorned with white and black trimmings. She is demanding and rude towards Grey Wolf.

The mentioned characters are the key characters. Throughout the series, there are also other characters that appear. You will surely enjoy watching the series until the end. With the movies available, you should never miss out watching them as well. You would surely have fun while watching the entire series as well as the movies.

As one of the well known animated television series, Xi Yang Yang is watched by millions of viewers and very popular among children as well as the adults.

Rio is considered as the ideal movie that showcases about the magnificent things that we have, it is a great mixture of love, music, beauty and the emotions all wrapped in one movie. It is indeed a light hearted and pleasurable movie with eye-catching visuals that will surely give you a great ride. Rio is a 3D computer animated film that was directed by Carlos Saldanha. It refers to Rio de Janeiro, a Brazilian city where the film was set. The story focuses on Blu, a male blue macaw who is taken to Rio de Janeiro to mate with a female macaw. On his journey, he falls in love with Jewel, an autonomous and free spirited blue macaw. Both of them need to work mutually along with the help of other birds in order to escape from Nigel, a cockatoo who is working together with a bird smuggler named Marcel.

The movie begins with a spectacular and multi-coloured display of wildlife in the jungle. It is a well known fact that many exotic birds are captured in Brazil and sold in various markets all over the world. A male blue baby macaw fortuitously falls out of a shipping truck and lands on the snow in Moose Lake, Minnesota. Linda Gunderson finds the box and eventually adopts the baby macaw as her own pet, and calling him Blu. On the other hand, Blu is powerless to fly being in captivity and was constantly ridiculed by the Canadian geese that stay outside Linda’s bookstore.

One day, Tulio Monteiro, an ornithologist invites Linda to take Blu to Rio de Janeiro. With a condition that Blu will mate with a female macaw before they will return to Moose Lake since he is the last male of his species. Linda accepts and they fly off to Rio de Janeiro. Blu meets Pedro, a red-crested cardinal and Nico, a yellow canary during his stay in Rio. Later on, he was taken to the aviary of Tulio where he meets and fell in love with Jewel, an independent blue macaw with the yearning to flee back into the wild.

The macaws in the aviary were captured by Fernando. He is an impoverished boy together with Nigel, a sulphur-crested cockatoo, are working for a group of smugglers who is led by Marcel. Nigel tells the macaws that he is intent in smuggling exotic birds when was replaced on a television program. As a result, Blu and Jewel escapes into the jungle.

After the two macaws escaped, Fernando told Linda and Tulio, telling them that Marcel forced him to take the birds, before helping the two. The two macaws meet Rafael, a Toco toucan who offers help by taking them to Luiz, his bulldog who can help by removing the chain on their legs. Rafael tries to instruct Blu how to fly before meeting Nico and Pedro. At the same time, Nigel enlists the help of marmosets being led by Mauro in order to incarcerate Jewel and Blu. The two macaws were taken to a party by Pedro and Nico. The two macaws performed a duet but were attacked by the marmosets, they were defended by their bird friends and the five of them flee.

Luiz released the chain binding Blu and Jewel with the use of his drool. The macaws eventually decided to go split ways. When Blu and Rafael discovered that Nigel has taken Jewel, the four birds rushed to the carnival in order to rescue her. At the same time, Linda and Tulio organize a rescue attempt on the birds. Linda and Tulio dress as dancers sporting blue macaw costumes, Marcel with the help of Nigel captures the birds.

Aboard Marcel’s plane, the macaws released the captured birds out of the plane. On the other hand, Nigel was able to injure Jewel while fighting with Blu. With the use of a fire extinguisher, Blu sent Nigel out of the plane and into the propeller of the plane while the smugglers escape. Jewel, who is unable to fly, falls out of the plane. Blu jumps out to rescue Jewel, he later on realizes that he is able to fly.

After the rescue, Linda, Tulio and Fernando healed Jewel and built a sanctuary in order to provide shelter to the birds from smugglers. Blu and Jewel had three chicks and celebrated with their bird friends. Nigel, as a result of his deeds, was now ridiculed for losing a lot of feathers while the smugglers were all sent to jail.

The voice cast for the animals is a star studded cast. Blu, the main character in Rio is voiced by Jessie Eisenberg while Anne Hathaway as Jewel, the independent blue macaw longing for freedom. Rafael, the Toco toucan was voiced by George Lopez. Nico, the yellow canary friend of Pedro was voiced by Jamie Foxx. Pedro, the red crested cardinal was voiced by will.i.am. The bulldog that has a drooling condition, Luiz was voiced by Tracy Morgan. Nigel, the devious and rotten sulphur crested cockatoo and the main antagonist in the film was voiced by Jemaine Clement. As for the voice cast for the humans, Linda Gunderson, the owner of Blu was voiced by Leslie Mann. Fernando, the impoverished boy and Marcel’s assistant in capturing birds was voiced by Jake T. Austin. Tulio, the ornithologist and the one who brought Linda and Blu to Rio de Janeiro was voiced by Rodrigo Santoro. Marcel, the leader of the smugglers was voiced by Carlos Ponce.

With the stunning and bold colors along with the brilliant animation effects, great sounds and breathtaking visuals, Rio is the perfect animated film that is great for children and for families to watch. You would definitely enjoy watching Rio with your children. It has an array of great characters that your children will surely adore. If you haven’t watched Rio, it is time to watch the film. If you want a one of kind adventure that takes you deep into the jungle along with the wonderful birds and creatures, Rio can take you for a wonderful ride of your life.

Astroboy or also called as Atom in Japan is a computer animated action film that was based on the long time Japanese series sporting the same name by Osamu Tezuka. The action packed animated film was directed by David Bowers and was produced by Imagi Animation Studios. The Astroboy film was first premiered in Hong Kong, next in Japan and was next released in the United States.

The Astroboy film was set in Metro City, a ultramodern metropolis that floats in the sky above the polluted “Surface”. The Metro City’s population utilizes various robots in numerous tasks; these robots, once broken or neglected were eventually dumped on the Surface and were abandoned.

Toby, son of the renowned Dr. Tenma of the Ministry of Science, learns that his father is going to present a show to President Stone, the military leader of Metro City. Dr. Tenma is going to present a guardian robot, called as the Peacekeeper. In the course of film, Dr. Elefun, a colleague of Dr. Tenma introduces President Stone to the Blue and Red Cores that they developed. The two energy stones were taken from a comet. These two stones are capable of producing energy that can be used to power robots through the negative and positive energy. President Stone places the Red Core in the Peacekeeper; as a result, it goes out of control. The Peacekeeper attempts to attack the humans, but Dr. Tenma quickly placed a barrier wall between them. Meanwhile, Toby intentionally skipped school so that he can watch the presentation of his father. Wanting to have closer look on the Peacekeeper, Toby enters the room where the Peacekeeper is located. As the Peacekeeper attempts to break the barrier, it backfired with Toby being obliterated. This broke the heart of Dr. Tenma, so he created an identical robotic clone that is exactly Toby. Dr. Tenma utilized the DNA from the strand of hair on his hat in order to obtain all his memories, which will make the robot think that he is Toby. The robot instantly came to life and Dr. Tenma brings him home.

Dr. Tenma soon realizes that while the robot possesses all of Toby’s memories, it is still not exactly his original son due to the robot’s superior mental and physical powers. Dr. Tenma included the robot’s power so that it can help prevent his son from being destroyed once again. Toby, unaware that he is a robot tries hard to figure out why he can understand the robots and later on discovers that he can fly with the use of rocket boosters under his shoes and other amazing abilities that he is capable of doing. He eventually discovers other abilities and heads home to tell his father, he only found out that Dr. Tenma and Dr. Elefun are planning to deactivate him. This is where Dr. Tenma reveals to Toby that he is a robot. President Stone’s men pursue Toby since they detected the Blue Core’s energy, in the pursuit, Stone called in a massive, heavily armed battleship and rendered Toby unconscious as he fell down to the Surface.

In the Surface, Toby meets several children. Cora, a girl who left Metro City since her parents neglected her and a robotic dog named Trashcan. Toby also meets the Robot Revolution Front, namely Sparx, Mike the Fridge and Robotsky who identified Toby as a robot and called him Astro. Toby now uses his new name Astro and lives together with the children and Hamegg, their fatherly figure. He appears to take care of broken robots but he is the one who runs the Robot Games, a destructive match where robots are fighting to the death.

Astro and his friends find ZOG and he secretly revived him. Hamegg forced Astro to fight with other robots in the Robot Games. Astro destroyed all the robots one by one until he is faced with ZOG, both refused to fight until President Stone’s men arrived and arrested Astro. He is taken back to the Ministry of Science, Dr. Tenma was forced by President Stone to remove the Blue Core, but instead, he allowed Astro to escape. President Stone place the Red Core into the Peacekeeper again, thus he was absorbed into the Peacekeeper and took his consciousness. Astro and Stone fought across the city, creating destruction wherever they go, Stone would not stop until he finds Astro. Astro later on learns from Dr. Tenma that once the Blue Core and the Red Core come together, both of them will die. Astro realizes that this is the reason why he was created and flew straight to Stone, the Peacekeeper was destroyed and Stone was released. Astro was deactivated since the Blue Core was drained of energy, with the help of ZOG; Astro was revived and healed automatically. The film ends with the appearance of an alien creature over the city, Astro flies towards it.

As for the cast of Astroboy, Toby Tenma or Astro was voiced by Freddie Highmore. In the manga version, Astro is run by a technology known as “kokoro”, Japanese for heart. Dr. Tenma, Toby’s father was voiced by Nicholas Cage. Dr. Elefun, a colleague and close friend of Dr. Tenma was voiced by Bill Nighy. Cora, the girl who lived on the Surface was voiced by Kirsten Bell. As for President Stone, the antagonist in the film was voiced by Donald Sutherland. ZOG, the old construction robot brought back to life by Astro was voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. We will only focus on the main characters on the film.

If you want a robotic adventure for your children and your family, you should watch Astroboy. With similarity to the original Japanese series, you will be amazed with the stunning visual effects and colours, as well as the action-packed scenes that you and your children will surely enjoy. If you haven’t watched Astroboy before, it is time to settle yourself together with your family in front of the TV and watch Astroboy. Your children will surely enjoy watching the robots and the action scenes throughout the movie.