Little Einsteins

Little Einsteins
Genre	Children's television series Educational Adventure Musical Science fiction Comedy
Created by	Douglas Wood
Developed by	Douglas Wood[a]
Written by	Eric Weiner[a]
Directed by	Andy Thom (supervising, season 2)[a]
Creative director	Olexa Hewryk (season 1)
Voices of	Jesse Schwartz Natalia Wojcik Aiden Pompey Erica Huang Harrison Chad
Theme music composer	Billy Straus
Composers	Billy Straus Matthias Gohl Teese Gohl[a]
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2 (excluding 2 specials)
No. of episodes	67 (including the aforementioned two specials) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Eric Weiner Susan Holden Steve Oakes Richard Winkler
Producer	Kris Greengrove[a]
Running time	24 minutes
Production companies	The Baby Einstein Company Curious Pictures
Release
Original network	Playhouse Disney
Picture format	NTSC
Original release	August 23, 2005 (2005-08-23) – June 19, 2010 (2010-06-19)
External links
Official website

Little Einsteins is an American interactive animated children's television series produced for The Baby Einstein Company (which, at the time, was owned by Disney). It was created by Douglas Wood and Eric Weiner. The series started out with a direct-to-video movie, Our Huge Adventure, that was released on August 23, 2005. The full series premiered on Playhouse Disney on October 9, 2005, and the final episode aired on December 22, 2009.

Sixty-seven episodes were produced. The educational children series was developed for television by Douglas Wood who created the concept and characters, and a subsequent team headed by Emmy Award-winning director Olexa Hewryk and JoJo's Circus co-creator Eric Weiner, and co-produced by Curious Pictures and The Baby Einstein Company (then Disney-owned).

The first regular episode of Little Einsteins premiered in the UK on October 3, 2005 and in the US on October 9, 2005. The final regular episode was originally broadcast (in the US) on December 22, 2009, and a standalone special entitled “Rocket’s Firebird Rescue” was released on June 19, 2010, marking the series’ official end. The series continued to air in reruns afterward, including after Playhouse Disney was rebranded as Disney Junior on February 14, 2011 through March 25, 2019. Later, this show was added to Disney+.^[1]

Overview

Little Einsteins was designed to teach the target demographic art and music appreciation by integrating famous or culturally significant art works (usually, but not exclusively, paintings) and classical music (most typically from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras) into the scenery, plot and soundtrack of each episode.

The show is also designed to encourage viewer interaction (such as encouraging the audience to pat their knees, gesture or sing along to help the characters succeed on their "mission").

Episodes

Characters

(From top to bottom) Leo, June, Quincy, Annie, Rocket

Main

• Leo is Annie's older brother who is the leader of the Little Einsteins and pilots Rocket. His main talent is conducting, and his most prized possession is his conductor's baton. He has tan skin, red hair and green eyes. He wears green glasses, a black shirt with an orange stripe, orange cargo shorts, white socks, and orange, black and white shoes. He is voiced by Jesse Schwartz (Piers Stubbs in the UK). His singing is provided by Harrison Chad. He is six years old.
• June is a young Chinese-American ballerina who loves to dance. She has pale skin, short dark brown hair and brown eyes. She wears a pink headband, a purple dress with a pink belt, light blue pearl earrings and crimson ballet slippers but within white socks in the Season 2 episode "Show and Tell". She is voiced by Erica Huang (Poppy Friar in the UK). She is six years old.
• Quincy is a young African-American musician who plays a variety of musical instruments, including the violin, flute, and trumpet. At some point in most episodes, Quincy exclaims, "I can-NOT believe it!" when surprised or amazed. He has brown skin, dark brown curly hair and brown eyes and wears a red and blue baseball cap, a yellow shirt with green long sleeves, blue pants, and red and white shoes. He is voiced by Aiden Pompey (Mitchell Zhangazha in the UK). He is five years old.
• Annie is Leo's younger sister who is the smallest member of the team group, a young singer who loves to sing and the only character who has piloted Rocket alone. She likes singing and animals, including dolphins and horses, but has arachnophobia. In Season 1, Annie's singing posture is with one hand up in the air and the other hand on her chest, then she comes to own a silver microphone white a purple speaker and orange musical notes after winning it in a singing contest in the season 2 episode "Annie, Get Your Microphone!" When she wishes to urgently point something out to the team or when she is surprised or amazed, her usual phrase is "Look-look-look!". She has fair skin, blonde hair tied into two pigtails with held by her pink hair bows and blue eyes. She wears a green shirt, a blue overall dress, and magenta and white shoes in Season 1 and a light blue shirt, a pink overall dress, white socks, and blue and white shoes in Season 2. She is voiced by Natalia Wójcik (Kirsty Hickey in the UK). She is four years old.
• Rocket is the Little Einsteins' main mode of transportation, as well as their friend. He has an array of tools and accessories that help the team complete their missions. He also has the ability to transform into any other form of transportation, like a submarine or a train. He communicates by making marimba noises. He is capable of going to outer space.

Recurring

• Big Jet is a blue fighter plane which appears to resemble a Soviet MiG-29. Big Jet has been known to ruin parties and steal things to keep for himself. Big Jet hates springtime, owing to his being allergic to flowers, as seen in the episode "Oh Yes, Oh Yes, it's Springtime". He also hates losing, as seen in "The Great Sky Race Rematch". In the episode, "Show and Tell", Big Jet gets revenge on Rocket and the Little Einsteins for defeating him in all of his appearances by stealing their favorite things. He befriends them later, however.
• Little Mouse, The Good Knight, and Joey the Kangaroo appeared individually in their own episodes, "The Mouse and the Moon", "The Good Knight and The Bad Knight", and "Jump For Joey", respectively, and collectively in the three episodes' crossover-sequel, "Rocket Soup".
• The Three Little Pigs appeared in three episodes: "Farmer Annie", "Super Fast", and "Build It Rocket".
• Melody the Music Pet is a musical pet that Leo helped find her ticket for the pet train in "Melody the Music Pet". After boarding the train, Melody is brought to live with Leo. She reappeared in "Melody and Me", where Leo must save her after her hot-air balloon flies away.
• The Bad Knight is the knight who imprisoned the Good Knight. In the episode "The Good Knight and The Bad Knight" he rides a cello that acts like a horse. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that he was under a magic spell that made him a bad knight. after rescuing the Good Knight, he himself transforms back into a good knight. In the episode "Rocket Soup," he helps the Little Einsteins get peas to make Rocket Soup for Rocket to eat.
• The Little Red Train is a good friend of Annie, and despite his small size, he is very determined and very strong. He appeared in the episodes "Go West, Young Train" and "Annie, Get Your Microphone!".

Others

• Ring appeared in the episode "Ring Around the Planet" when it fell off Saturn and landed near June's garden. Ring is also a great dancer just like June which makes them and the rest of the Little Einsteins friends, with the team bringing it back home to Saturn.
• Grandma Rocket appeared in the episode "Little Red Rockethood" and is the grandmother of Rocket. She shares a similar appearance to Rocket but is purple and has glasses and gray hair. Just as Rocket, she communicates by marimba sounds.

Production

In the UK version, the Little Einsteins are voiced by Poppy Lee Friar (June), Piers Stubbs (Leo), Kirsty Hickey (Annie), and Mitchell Zhangazha (Quincy), and certain American terms are converted to the British vernacular: for example, changing mentions of "Candy Canes" to mentions of "Sweetie Sticks."

Additional home and streaming media

The series also had two VHS Releases one being a VHS version of Our Huge Adventure and the second being "Climb Aboard and Get Ready to Explore" which included the episodes "The Birthday Balloons", "Dragon Kite" and "Ring Around the Planet". The Halloween special is a bonus feature on the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD Mickey's Treat.

Reception

The series was given a 5-star rating by Common Sense Media.^[2]

In other media

A video game based on the show was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2006.

Notes

References

External links

• Official website
• Little Einsteins at IMDb