Round and Round With Barney

Barney - Round and Round We Go is a 45 minute long show that discusses various forms of transportation, many times through song. There is a little bit of a storyline, but not so much as to overwhelm young children who just want to see that big purple dinosaur sing and dance.

In addition to Barney, Baby Bop and BJ, this video stars four children from the Barney television series: Keesha, Emily, Danny and Robert. It begins when the four children are in the treehouse getting ready to fix an old bicycle that Robert was given. As they work, they sing "This Is The Way" while a stuffed Barney doll watches. As they finish the song, the "live" full sized walking and talking Barney appears much to their delight.

Robert is very excited about his bicycle and eagerly tries to adjust one of its wheels, but it falls off and gets bent. Barney suggests visiting his friend Pop Wheely, who has a wheel factory, to see if he can replace or fix it.

Through the magic of television, the next scene shows them at Pop Wheely's door. He explains that a wheel must be round to work properly and they sing "A Circle's Shape Is Round." They all go into the factory and Pop and Barney explain to the children what the word "transportation" means. They then sing "Wheely's Got A Way To Go."

Pop takes Robert's broken bicycle wheel and puts it into his machine. Now they have to wait while a replacement is made, so they investigate Pop's newest invention: boots that squeak when you walk. Robert, Emily, Keesha and Danny each get a pair to dance in while they join Pop and Barney in singing "Oh, When We March."

As they finish, Baby Bop rides in on her tricycle, which has a squeaky wheel, so Pop oils and remedies that problem. The big wheel and little wheels on the tricycle prompts the song "Big And Little."

Pop Wheely then shows everybody how his wheel-making machine works, and it creates a bus wheel for them. Since Pop loves wheels, he also loves the vehicles they belong to, so he has quite a collection. Barney and the children board Pop's school bus and sing "The Wheels On The Bus." After the ride, Barney begins to discuss traffic safety rules and sings "Look Both Ways" about crossing the street.

BJ zooms into the wheel factory on his scooter yelling "Yee Hah" since he was pretending it was a horse. Keeping with the transportation theme, Pop shows them a picture of a horse-drawn carriage and they sing "She'll Be Comin' Round The Mountain."

Wheels can be found just about anywhere, and when Pop turns on his machine again, it gives them a ship's wheel. Of course, Pop has a boat just for testing out such wheels, so Barney and the kids climb aboard and sing "I'd Love To Sail" while BJ and Baby Bop stay behind to help get a surprise ready. When the sailing adventure is over, the children find their surprise: bicycles with helmets. They ride the bicycles inside the wheel factory and everybody joins in singing "Riding On A Bike."

The next form of transportation discussed is a train, and Pop has one of those as well, so they all go for a ride and sing "Down By The Station." Lastly, airplanes as a form of transportation with wheels are discussed. While singing "Hey Look At Me, I Can Fly" they sit in two-seater propeller airplanes, that appear to be flying (at least to a four year old!).

Finally, Robert's wheel is fixed and they can return home. After thanking Pop Wheely, they leave to successfully put the wheel on the bicycle. As they get it ready to ride, they sing "This Is The Way" once again. Of course, a Barney video just would not be the same without the ending theme song, so they Barney and the children sing "I Love You." As Robert, Keesha, Danny and Emily go off to take turns riding the bicycle, Barney returns to his stuffed state.

At the very end of the video is a short "Barney Says" segment where Barney talks to three children on bicycles. They tell us that the three safety rules for riding a bike are: staying on the sidewalk, obeying traffic rules and always wearing a helmet.

I, and my children, like the Barney - Round and Round We Go video because it is fast moving and informative. My son (age 5) is generally not interested in Barney any longer, but he did pay a bit of attention to this show because of the various vehicles that were shown and discussed. There is very little dialogue between songs, which helps keep the pace, but the conversations between the actors were intelligent and informative about wheels, transportation and vehicles.

The problem that we encountered at the beginning of the show (Robert's broken wheel) was easily solved by the end, which made my daughter very happy. The colors throughout the video are vibrant, and the songs are fun so that any Barney lover would enjoy Barney - Round and Round We Go.