The video graveyard is littered with the bones of endless, failed experiments trying to document the animal world for a young viewers. Though a few of the deceased were quite good, they succumbed to an inability to compete in the dog-eat-dog marketplace. Most of the rest, however, were poorly done, exploitative or misrepresentative, seemingly created only to rob the pocketbooks of unsuspecting parents.
The brand-new series “Kratts’ Creatures,” however, showed great promise. Introduced in this space a few months ago, these first videos were more good than bad, more informative than exploitative and, with a caveat or two, above-average viewing for kids 8 and older. Whether the series could live up to these expectations, of course, rested on the releases to come.
Well, the time has come to revisit “Kratt’s Creatures,” and I would say that the Kratt brothers, Chris and Martin, have a hit on their hands, both on the PBS network and on home video. Gone are the silly subplots and most of the pratfalls that plagued their earlier efforts. With the release of the two new shows, I think the Kratts are making the finest natural history video series for children available today.
The first is “Kratts’ Creatures: Sharks!” (PolyGram Video, 1997, live action/animation, color, 30 minutes, $12.95) and maintains the one thing above all else that recommends these videos: animals shown unsentimentally in the wild. The Kratts employ a youngster — along with an animated creature — as co-host. Allison, played with sparkling enthusiasm by Sharon Duff, ties together much of the information and bridges different scenes with additional facts and lore.
As befits its title, “Sharks!” was shot mostly underwater, near South Bimini Island, which is off the southern tip of Florida in the Caribbean. The photography is spectacular, as are the facts and information about sharks presented.
Says Chris: “Sharks have been given a pretty bad rap over the years, but not all sharks are dangerous. And even the ones that are dangerous are doing what comes naturally.”
When the Kratts say years, they aren’t kidding. As Allison explains, sharks have been around, pretty much unchanged, for 400 million years, or 200 million years before dinosaurs appeared. How this amount of time is measured is amply demonstrated using a football field. It is instantly comprehensible, and unforgettable.
The second new video is “Kratts’ Creatures: Checkin’ Out Chimps” (PolyGram Video, 1997, live action/animation, 30 minutes, $12.95).
Rather startlingly, “Chimps” opens with family home footage of the young Kratts at a zoo, and a shot of an animated TV chimp in a silly uniform. The explanation for this is that while they basically understood other animals, the brothers were always wondering what chimps were really like, “not what man has made of them.”
Fast-forward to Africa, and the Kratts teaching three orphan chimps how to survive.
As Chris explains, “Young chimps first learn how to find food from Mom. . . . Chimps are dependent on Mom for five or six years, and in that time, Mom will teach her young everything they need to know.”
Among the many things that distinguish chimps from other animals is that they are tool users. There is a compelling sequence here of the Kratts teaching the youngsters how to use sticks to remove insects — along with fruit and small animals, a major food source — from trees and logs. The young chimps learn quickly and are soon noshing on insects.
Again, there is a good deal of history offered, as well as other information that is well-written and well-presented. The Kratts are also good at using graphics, maps and animation to make sure viewers understand what it is they are watching. There are also intelligent and easily grasped discussions of the opposable thumb, plus tidbits about the extraordinary animals and their habitat.
Viewers who previously regarded these creatures primarily as comic relief, from their appearance over the decades in movies and books, no longer will think “Tarzan” when thinking about chimps.
Previous Kratt videos include:
– “Kratts’ Creatures: Maximum Cheetah Velocity” (PolyGram Video, 1997, live action/animation, color, 30 minutes, $12.95) includes some incredible footage of a mother cheetah training her young to hunt.
– “Kratts’ Creatures: African Creature Quest” (same data as above) contains good facts and mild scatological silliness that appeals to the younger set, such as (for the first time anywhere) an African “snowball fight” using elephant dung.
