I remember being too afraid to watch this when I was little, but as the years went by I got used to it. The soundtrack along with some of its dark visuals can give you the creeps, but it still can be enjoyed by all ages. But once it has reached the ending, it's like a breath of fresh air. Baby Beethoven is similar in tone with this, but I like them both - including Baby Bach - in spite of their quaint flaws.

I think the naming of this series of videos is a misnomer...a certain kind of parent is made to think that these videos will make their kids smarter or something. I have a 1yr old and a 3yr old who both enjoy watching them, but I don't expect it to make them smarter. That said, they know when certain sequences are coming up and start repeating them before they appear, (both of the kids do this). The DVD also includes the "language lab" where there are flashcards in more than a dozen languages. These *are* educational and also work well. (also good for drilling kids in Spanish or German or whatever).The video production is on the cheap, for sure...and the DVD mastering is poorly done, in that there are no chapters, the menus have "Dead ends" in them--but they're still good for pre-school children. Don't expect this to make your kids smarter, that's just part of their obviously effective marketing campaign, but on the other hand, the kids *can* enjoy these videos and *can* learn something from the language lab.

There's a much better DVD that just came out. It's "Baby Bridges: Space and Sea". It's the first of several videos that they plan to release. "Bridges" has real kids talking about real-world stuff with awesome footage that I don't mind my kids watching... instead of mind-numbing puppets and low quality production. Baby Bridges I hope will be a strong contender to Baby Einstein... I just feel ripped off with the Baby Einstein series. I really feel like they could've done better than closeups of toys and bad sock puppets. Again, Baby Bridges has a deep respect for kids and has real peer-to peer interaction, where the kids talk about real-world things in the ocean and in space while also showing some amazing footage... Check it out.