7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
Wiggle Bay: Hey Hey We're Too Much Like the Monkeys
Date of Review: May 30, 2003
The Bottom Line: Not the Wiggles best work. A bit more time and thought would have produced a better show. Try Wiggly Safari.
Now I have a ton of Wiggles videos since my 2 year old son LOVES the Wiggles. Most of the tapes involve a nifty storyline with the songs to go along with. Now I have also seen several episodes of the Monkeys and this is what Wiggle Bay resembles.
Wiggles videos are always released in Australia first and so you can get an idea of what it's going to be about on their Website before it hits the USA's stores. Wiggle Bay seemed to be a magical tale of how the Wiggles went to the beach and had to help a mermaid they befriended. Well, not quite.
It starts off with the Wiggles and their friends rowing a boat into the bay. They forget to tie up the boat and it drifts out to sea. Then they go fishing and find a shell with a message to give it to someone who'll enjoy it's beauty. They give it to Dorothy. Then they meet Henry's mermaid friend Magdelana. Then they find a message in a bottle that the Wiggles can only read part of "something about the magic shell". So they go back to Dorothy and the shell starts ringing like a phone. They are told to go find a golden key by digging in the sand. They find the key, the shell phone rings again and they are told someone will come to get the key. They give the key to the mermaid. Tada! That's the storyline. It is very confusing and not very well done.
The songs are supposed to teach the kids about the beach and what fun you can have at the beach. Several of the songs had nothing to do with the beach (Rosey Tea, Ces't Bon, Ces't Wags for examples). And, some of the songs seemed a bit rushed in their writing. The only one I did like was the Barbie on the Beach. I think if a little bit more time and creativity was spent on Wiggle Bay it would have been worth the $12.99 for it's content. Well, it keeps my 2 year old quite for 40 minutes so it might be worth the $12.99 for that. It was a bit short compared to some of the other Wiggles videos.
This is not a video for older children. I think they will get bored quickly. Wiggly Safari was much better and was more educational. The next Wiggle video to hit stores this fall with be an animated feature called Space Dancing (already out in Austrailia). I also understand that they just wrapped up filming of a cowboy style video. I hope it will be better than Wiggle Bay. If you're a Wiggle beginner do not start your video collection with Wiggle Bay as you won't get the true effect of the Wiggles from this one.
