Official Link: http://www.shoutfactory.com
Average Cost: $12.99 per DVD
Age Range: Great for the preschool crowd!
Rating:

Maggie and the Ferocious Beast is a sweet children’s cartoon featuring the adventures of an unlikely trio of a little red-haired girl named Maggie and her two friends, the Ferocious Beast (who’s not so ferocious as to be scary) and Hamilton Hocks, the “steadfast” pig. The characters are very lovable and down-to-earth.It can be difficult to find television shows for young children to watch as most shows seem to have unhealthy amounts of violence or themes of questionable value. Maggie is undoubtedly a show that almost any parent should feel comfortable with.

In each episode of this series, Maggie engages in imaginary play with her two buddies in a way that young children can immediately relate to, as these are styles of play that they frequently engage in themselves. The episodes contain thoughtful and easy to absorb messages on topics such as diversity, thoughtfulness and problem solving.

This review will cover two discs of Maggie and the Ferocious Beast, “Recipes for Trouble” and “Rain Showers and Spring Flowers”. These are available for purchase separately.

DISC 1: RECIPES FOR TROUBLE

Episodes included on this disc are:

Recipe for Trouble: Hamilton is making one of his famous recipes and needs certain special ingredients to complete it, one being an extra-large pumpkin. When the Beast and Maggie arrive with the other ingredients, they find that Hamilton has dug so deep into the giant pumpkin that he can’t get out by himself.

The Jelly Bean Express: Hamilton, Beast and Maggie lay out tracks for a new train in Nowhere Land. The Jelly Bean Team become the passengers and want to really “go” somewhere so they send the train to Sand Castle Beach.

Louder! Louder!: Maggie, Beast and Hamilton have a contest to see who can shout the loudest and echo from the mountaintop. Beast shouts so loudly that he loses his voice.

Hamilton and the Bee: Maggie, Hamilton and Beast realize they need honey to have a tea party. Hamilton pretends to be a bee to get some honey from a nearby hive.

My One and Only Box: Maggie, Beast and Hamilton play in the snow. Hamilton’s box is damaged because he uses it as a sled. Beast and Maggie help him fix it.

Spot the Spot: Maggie gets stuck in a tree and her friends help her get down. Beast knocks some fruit out of a tree and uses his red polka dot spots to replace them.

Let’s Play Croquet: Maggie and her friends learn to play croquet but the grass is too tall and they lose their croquet balls. They ask some friendly sheep to eat the grass out of the way and then the sheep join the game.

Little Ducky: The Jelly Bean Team take a giant egg, mistaking it for a jellybean. Hamilton, Beast and Maggie try to return the egg to its nest, but it hatches on the way. They care for the baby duck until they return it to its mother.

Once Upon a Time: Maggie, Hamilton and Beast act out the story of 3 baby bunnies from their storybook. They change the story to make it more fun.

Maggie the Mommy: Maggie borrows some of her mother’s things and pretends to be a mommy. Hamilton pretends to be “Baby Hammy” and Beast pretends to be a dog.

Maggie’s Song: Maggie is late for playtime because she’s getting new shoes in town. While they wait for her, Hamilton and Beast decide to write her a song. They are joined by Rudy the mouse and B.B. the cat who help them perform Maggie’s special song after a surprise picnic.

The Buffleheaded Booby: The gang goes bird watching in search of the Buffleheaded Booby Bird. They try to be quiet and inconspicuous but Beast keeps scaring away the birds by being loud. They finally meet the bird and at his request, help him choose a more “dignified” name.

STAND-OUT EPISODES

Some of these episodes are more entertaining than others. My daughter laughed out loud during “My One and Only Box” because she thought sliding in the snow looked like so much fun. She also thinks the name “Buffleheaded Booby” is hysterical. I like the episode “Maggie’s Song”. I think the song her friends write for her is really cute and the idea behind their “surprise” is very thoughtful.

DISC 2: RAIN SHOWERS & SPRING FLOWERS

Episodes included on this disc are:

What’s in the Bag?: Maggie, Beast and Hamilton have a picnic. The jellybeans Maggie brings for dessert won’t stop arguing over which color is best. Maggie teaches them a lesson by getting them to go swimming, which washes off their colors so they all look the same. When Hamilton helps them get their colors back, they’ve learned that being different is good.

Rainy Day: A sudden rainstorm causes a flood and Hamilton’s box floats away. Maggie, Beast and the Jelly Bean Team help Hamilton get his box back.

Chasing a Rainbow: After a rainstorm, Maggie, Hamilton and Beast go in search of the end of a beautiful rainbow. They end up near Mud Creek where they visit with their friend B.B. Cats.

The Bunny Slippers: Maggie, Beast and Hamilton have a slumber party with Rudy the mouse in Cheesetown. Beast wishes he had bunny slippers like everyone else so Maggie and Hamilton make his slippers look like bunnies and they come to life.

Beastly Picture: Maggie paints a portrait of Beast in a ferocious pose, and then takes a ride on a cloud with the dream sheep. While she’s gone, Beast accidentally ruins the picture. He tries to make a replica but can’t get it just right so Maggie learns what happened and makes a new one.

The Push-Me Popper: Hamilton’s pumpkin muffin recipe wins first prize in a baking contest. His prize is a Push-Me Popper toy, just what he always wanted. Beast accidentally breaks it while Maggie and Hamilton are picking blueberries, but Maggie fixes it.

Don’t Dump That Junk: Maggie and friends play a game where they each pretend something with whatever they pull out of Maggie’s bag of “junk”.

Soup Bowls and Roller Coasters: Maggie, Beast, Hamilton and Rudy visit an amusement park and ride the Soup Bowls and Roller Coaster.

Hamilton’s Magic: Hamilton practices his magic act while Beast takes a nap. When Beast awakens, there is a frog in Hamilton’s top hat. Beast thinks Hamilton turned himself into a frog until Hamilton comes back and shows him he’s wrong.

Nedley’s Circus: Nedley the rabbit is running away from Nowhere Land to join the circus. Maggie, Beast, Hamilton, Rudy and the Jelly Bean Team put on their own “Circus of Fun” and convince Nedley to stay.

The Windy Day: Hamilton and Beast try to fly a kite but it’s too windy and the kite flies away. Maggie’s map also blows away in the wind and the trio goes looking for it.

Nedley’s Glasses: Nedley the rabbit has a new set of glasses because he thinks they make him look smart. The problem is, he can’t see with them on. Maggie, Beast, Hamilton and Rudy help Nedley realize he’s better off without the glasses and he takes them off.

STAND-OUT EPISODES

My daughter seems to get more entertainment out of the sillier episodes. She was highly entertained by the pretend play in “Don’t Dump That Junk” as the characters made silly rhymes and laughed a lot. She also seemed to love “Soup Bowls and Roller Coasters” because of all the excitement at the amusement park. My personal favorite on this disc is “What’s in the Bag” because I think it has a great message on diversity. After the jellybeans lose their colors and all look the same, Maggie says “You looked beautiful when you were all different colors”. I felt like this episode has a deeper message that color is just skin deep and diversity is beautiful. Pretty classy for a kids’ cartoon in my opinion.

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE

My 3 year old seems to be very entertained by the show. She did take a 15-minute “play break” in the middle but seemed to still be glancing at the TV every now and then. Overall, she laughed several times and seemed to enjoy herself. I will have to say that it does not hold my attention very well but most kids’ shows don’t. This probably won’t be a series I will sit down and watch with my daughter on a regular basis but I will feel safe in leaving her to watch it alone because of the quality of the content.

EDUCATIONAL VALUE

There is some counting and talk about colors but the main educational aspect I see is in teamwork and problem solving. In each episode there is some type of dilemma, usually not too serious and Maggie and her friends brainstorm and work together to solve it. Each character takes part in figuring it out and they value the opinions of the others. I think this is a unique way to use pretend play to teach basic problem solving skills to kids.

SPECIAL FEATURES

The DVD is pretty basic without any special features other than an extra language track which allows the DVD to be played in English and Spanish. This DVD is not subtitled or captioned for the hearing impaired.

MENUS & NAVIGATION

When you put the disc in, it automatically begins to play previews for other shows but you can hit the Menu button and get to the main menu right away.

There are only 3 options on the main menu: Play All, Episodes and Audio (that has your language options). The Episodes are divided into 4 groups, each of which contains 3 individual 7-8 minute episodes. The total playing time is right around 90 minutes from start to finish. I personally like that it has a “Play All” option that basically gives you the freedom to turn on a feature-length version of the show. You can also choose “Episodes” and play about 22 minutes at a time, or skip ahead to the individual 7-8 minute mini episodes. This gives the DVD a lot of flexibility for different attention spans.

AGE APPROPRIATE CONTENT

The content and characters of this show will appeal to the preschool, kindergarten markets the most as older children will likely graduate to more sophisticated cartoons.

The content of this show is very age-appropriate without violence, objectionable behavior or questionable language. The most “violent” scene was the snowball fight in “My One and Only Box” and it was pretty gentle in my opinion. Beast does refuse to play by the rules in “Let’s Play Croquet” but is not defiant about it, just very silly. Beast’s favorite exclamation is “Great Googly Moogly!”, which I personally think is adorable. Overall, I see no reason not to let a child of any age watch this program.

GENDER APPEAL

The main character in this cartoon is a little girl, but the content and style of the cartoon is not gender specific and will appeal to any child.

PACKAGING

The DVD wrap is illustrated with cute and colorful scenes from the show. One interesting feature is that the backside of the cover comes out and has what looks to be a coloring sheet on it. A child could color the page and re-insert it into the movie box, keeping their artwork with the DVD and even turning it outwards so that it becomes the artwork for the DVD. This is a fun child-friendly alternative to typical DVD wraps which are simply blank on the flip-side.

These DVDs are in white DVD cases that seem to be made of plastic that is more flimsy than usual and that cracks easily. Both boxes were already broken when I opened them, just from being banged around during shipping. The middle spindle that holds the disc in place was broken off on one of them, so the DVD is free-floating in the case. Plan on either treating these cases with caution or buying a more rugged replacement case at your local office supply store.

QUALITY OF PRODUCTION

The production quality is acceptable. On one of the discs, the volume changes between some of the episodes. This isn’t a deal breaker but does require some adjustments to keep it from being too loud. The animation is average in my opinion. Definitely not high definition, but the colors are bright and crisp and the style seems more “simplified for children” than “low quality”.

BOTTOM LINE

I find Maggie and the Ferocious Beast to be a safe and fairly unique program for toddler and pre-school age children. It holds the attention of its intended audience very well and teaches children to solve problems while working with others. While I see some very minor problems with production and packaging quality, overall I would give this show a healthy thumbs-up.