Jay Jay The Jet Plane - Lessons for all Seasons Review

"There's Never Been Another Little Guy Like This, So Much In Love With The Sky Like This..."

JayJay the Jet Plane and all of his friends are back again, for their fourth DVD outing. Brenda Blue, 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 are all here once more. The sun is rising high above Tarrytown again, but this time over a cold winter's day.

The DVD: "Lessons For All Seasons"

The planes and 'copters and trucks at Tarrytown Airport are teaming up with JayJay and Brenda Blue again to learn all about the most prominent North American winter holidays, and about the seasons in general. Five stories are included once more:

#01 "Snuffy's Thanksgiving" - Big Jake is caught in a storm, & Snuffy is thankful for friends

#02 "JayJay's Christmas Adventure #1" - Everyone tries to assemble the makings of a perfect Christmas

#03 "JayJay's Christmas Adventure #2" - The entire gang must help Santa Clause deliver the presents!

#04 "JayJay's Winter Parade" - A blizzard puts JayJay's plans for a parade of lights on hold

#05 "Snuffy's Seasons" - The gang helps Snuffy to learn about all four seasons

I should mention that the last episode is mainly a "clip show", which recaps scenes in other stories as examples of the different seasons. Many of those scenes have been seen in the DVD series...including on this one!

The easy-to-use navigation is back, along with the "Play All" feature for uninterrupted stories. "Play All" can be set to either "once" or "loop", which is great for long car trips if you have a mobile DVD player in your vehicle.

Video

In my reviews of the second and third JayJay DVD releases, I discussed how great the graphic presentation was, with its mostly computer-generated characters and backgrounds, neatly integrated with real-world items and stars like Eve Whittle's Brenda Blue character.

Nothing has changed here: the video is still the above-average presentation, presented in the same 4:3 format you can find it in on PBS, but digitally presented on the crisp DVD media we all appreciate so well. Last time I mentioned that this show might be TOO good on the visuals for DVD, and went into the reasons. You still can get that impression at times, but all-in-all your kids will be delighted at the brilliant colors and dazzling light show, especially given the subject matter of these five episodes. All the color of the holiday season shines through here. Very nice.

Audio

The sound is again marketed as "English (Dolby Surround)", when it is really a 2.0 Mono presentation. Sounds are pretty much centered, with no left/right activity to speak of. You hear everything you need to hear, and a Spanish track is provided as an alternative. Otherwise, it is an average-sounding track presented the same way it was for over-the-air broadcast.

Extras - How we rate extras

The supplements on this disc are the usual "Think About" moments, "Fun Facts", and four "Sing-Along Songs" that kids enjoy. There is also a DVD-ROM link to "games, activities, and more"...but not exclusive content to the DVD; just a not-as-quick way of getting to existing online content. Also the customary advertisements for other home videos, which Columbia's marketers this time out wisely didn't proclaim on the box as "Bonus Trailers" in the "Special Features" listings.

Summary

I think that this DVD proves that the JayJay home video franchise is on "cruise control". The 4th disc in the series doesn't lose anything over the previous releases, nor does it add anything either. It is the same disc, with the same level of video, audio, and supplements as all the others, simply with 5 different stories subbed in place of the previous ones. Oh, and while I'm talking about this particular collection of stories...

I usually just speak in these reviews to the DVD quality, and try not to judge about the programming itself. After all, you probably already know if you like the show or not. However, I feel it is logical for me to speak a bit here about the content of this release. Any family that does not have a philosophical bent in favor of Santa Clause will obviously be left out in the cold with this episode collection, which is heavily into the Christmas side of things. Kids who want this DVD because they love JayJay will be at odds with parents who don't believe in the theme's subject matter. Other franchises in the KidVid category, even back in the prime days of VHS (such as Power Rangers and Rugrats), have successfully handled the idea of different winter holidays that appeal to different philosophies. Here, the JayJay folks haven't provided the same level of diversity in dealing with the various holidays. For a vast section of the purchasing audience, this will be okay. But not everyone will be pleased.

I do give kudos to the writers and producers for the well-done attempt to use the story ideas to teach, about what order the seasons are in, why most of us celebrate the way we do, and about how to enjoy the winter season despite the harsh weather (a big blizzard is well-depicted in one of the episodes). This has always been JayJay's strong suit: its educational bent. Here they succeed as they always have.

If you are looking for a decently-priced, fine-looking/sounding disc, and you don't have any philosophical reasons to keep this out of your children's hands, and JayJay's friends are also your kids' friends, then this DVD will quickly find its way into your collection.