JayJay the Jet Plane is a high-flying kids' show, clearly drawing inspiration from the 17-year-old Thomas the Tank Engine series. Instead of trains and buses, JayJay delivers its instruction with airplanes and helicopters. But like it's predecessor, each vehicle comes alive with an animated face that expresses their emotions and thoughts.
Unlike Thomas, though, JayJay uses computer animation instead of physical models. This allows a wide range of very colorful characters and backgrounds, with live-action people and objects mixed in using bluescreen technology. The principal human character is Brenda Blue, the mechanic who keeps JayJay and his friends going. Eve Whittle, who brilliantly acts against what must be a mostly empty set, to be composited in later, marvelously plays Brenda.
The rest of the main cast includes JayJay himself, lady jet Tracy, Snuffy the Skywriter, Herky the Helicopter, Old Oscar the biplane, Big Jake the propeller cargo plane, Savannah the supersonic jet, Revvin' Evan the fire engine, and Tuffy the tiny tow truck.
Adventures take place in and around Tarrytown, mainly at the Tarrytown airport, but also in the various colorful and scenic locals provided by the animators and their computers. From snowy forests to sunny oceans, from stormy clouds to tropical locals, and from gravel quarries to starry mountains.the vicinity of Tarrytown is varied and wondrous enough to keep any kid's interest for a long time.
The DVD: "Learning Life's Little Lessons"
Columbia has released a pair of DVDs, much like the first JayJay release "Adventures In Learning" (and strongly resembling the design of their Dragon Tales DVDs), with 5 episodes each, plus sing-along songs. Also included are "Think About" moments, which spotlight some things for kids to absorb and perhaps discuss with their parents.
The Volume 3 disc, "Learning Life's Little Lessons", contains these stories:
#01
Upsy Downosis
When Herky gets sick, he doesn't want to rest up like he ought to.
#02
Tracy's Sonic Boom
Tracy is anxious to make some noise.can Savannah help?
#03
Herky & the Opposites Game
Herky, JayJay, & Snuffy play a new game!
#04
Snuffy's Snowman
Snuffy makes a snowman...is it his new best friend?
#05
Tracy's Shooting Star
Tracy misses out on a rare, beautiful sight. Will she give up?
Columbia presents these episodes in random order, with no real unifying theme, despite the titles on the boxes. EVERY episode of JayJay I've seen represents Friendship and Learning, so the generic names of the DVD volumes do little to demonstrate a pattern. Given this, it is a real shame that Columbia choose to present these shows out-of-broadcast-order. Sequels to different episodes appear on other discs: The introduction episode for Tuffy on Vol. 2 is placed on DVD after Tuffy's two adventures on Pangabula Island, mercifully shown back-to-back on Vol. 1. Snuffy's friend Jack Frosty is seen on Vol. 2 as well, but Jack's origin isn't shown until Vol. 3. And the first story on Vol. 2 is clearly a sequel to a story that I don't believe is on any of the DVDs yet! Since the goal is education, showing stories out-of-sequence should not confuse the children watching. Please Columbia: stick to TV-on-DVD that is presented in broadcast order!
The Packaging:
These discs come in white keepcases, similar to what Disney uses for most single-disc releases.
Menu Design & Navigation:
The navigation is easy to steer and rather vivid-looking. Each disc's menu closely resembles the other. They allow you to play through all episodes, or steer to the sing-along songs or think-about moments. Anyone of any age who can use a DVD remote can master these menus easily.
Video
Video is 4x3 "Full Screen", preserving the Original Aspect Ratio of this show's PBS broadcasts. It is sharp.perhaps even too sharp. Can a DVD make a television show look too good? There could be such a case made here for JayJay: the PBS broadcasts are "coarse" enough that the various characters and backgrounds blend in cleaner over the air, as to not call too much attention to the digital nature of the show's manufacture. However, on DVD the picture is crystal-clear, allowing you to see the "edges" where the people and the CGI characters and the backgrounds all come together. My four-year-old son probably doesn't notice it, but I do. But who's the audience here, anyway?
The colors are bright and beautiful, clearly showing off the meticulous creations of the show's animators. Even if the occasional human's shadow goes off in the slight wrong direction compared to that of the airplanes, your kids will be charmed and delighted by the brilliance of the show's visuals. I can nit-pick it all day long, but the bottom line is that the kids will love it! High marks are deserved here.
Audio
The "Dolby Surround" English track presented on these discs is not "surround" at all. It is a rather unspectacular use of the left and right channels as an almost-mono representation, with no activity in the sound field at all. They are no more or less lively than the television broadcasts, and as such get high enough marks for bringing that home in a high-quality format, along with a Spanish track as well. However, it doesn't behoove the studio to represent this as better than it really is.
Besides Columbia's obligatory "we call it a trailer but it's really an advertisement for our other videos" area, the two JayJay discs I am reviewing come with a few neat feature items. First there are the songs and think-about moments that I described above, as well as "fun facts about Tarrytown". But the best extra, for those that can utilize it, are the DVD-ROM links to "Games, Activities, and More". That's where you put the disc in your PC, and if you tell Windows it's okay, it will go to www.pbskids.org/jayjay for you! Ooh, be still my heart! Move along, nothing to see here.
Summary
JayJay the Jet Plane is a fun television series for kids, with good values it will impart for friendship and learning. It shows the value of trying hard, and makes a stab at teaching somewhat advanced concepts. An example of the latter is the episode "Tracy's Shooting Star", where the final scenes demonstrate that the fallen shooting star is called a meteorite, and is essentially a rock from outer space. The DVDs are bright, colorful, and cheerfully entertaining for the kiddies. For kids who are already fans of the show, it's a no-brainer to get these discs. For parents who aren't sure if their children will like this, I will recommend it. My son, age 4, enjoys to watch these often enough, learns the names of the characters and locations, and that tells me he's learning other things along the way. It's certainly no Sesame Street, but clearly has more to offer than the usual TV fare. As part of the PBSKids programming lineup, the series is taking off (forgive the pun). In the fall of this year you will see much, much more of JayJay and friends in your stores: toys, books, party decorations.the works. Why not let your kids get in on the fun right now?
