The Hi-5 gang is back with a new bright DVD full of songs, stories, games and dances, all centring on a holiday theme. The ever-enthusiastic team of talented entertainers haven’t lost their sparkle with time or success. The DVD follows the usual award-winning formula of Nathan’s segments on visual and spatial awareness, Kathleen’s segments on logical thinking and mathematics with the mischievous puppet Jup Jup, Tim’s segments on making music, Kellie’s word play with puppet Chatterbox, and Charli’s body movement, along with full group acted out stories, and big group songs. The DVD is broken up into different holiday venues, from the Gold Coast styled theme parks, playing at the beach, playing billy carts, scuba diving, walking around London, sky diving, visiting a zoo, and lots more. In between the segments are clips of the gang playing with real children, and small scale animations. Nathan practices for an iron man triathalon with blankets and paddles. Kellie puts on a scuba suit and pretends to visit an underwater world with Chatterbox.

Boys and girls as young as one will enjoy this (my 18 month is a big fan and won‘t watch anything else), while even big school aged seven or eight year olds will still get up and sing along, identifying with the youthful presenters with their cool clothing and sparkly hairdos as well as the slapstick routine (my seven year old laughed himself silly over Nathan the English guard ).. The DVD contains a remake of the very popular “living in a rainbow,” but all of the other songs are new, including “Holiday,” “Underwater Discovery,” and “Give Five,” all of which are destined to join the Hi-5 hit list.

What really sets Hi-5 apart from other children’s performers is the clever and subtle way that writers Helena Harris and Posie Graeme-Evans incorporate carefully designed educational principles into the play. Kids won’t have a clue how much they are learning because it is all so sparkly and fun. The team can all dance and sing very well, and their almost over-the-top enthusiasm never comes across as phoney. They always seem to be having a great time (especially Charli, who never stops laughing). If your children are already Hi-5 fans (very likely if they are Australians), they’ll love this new DVD and will instantly learn the new songs. If they’ve never heard of Hi-5, this is a good DVD to introduce them. This is actually adult friendly too, unlike say, Barney, which is strictly for kids only. The role models are very positive, the music is infectious, and the educational principles underlying the fun are sound. The DVD also provides subtitles which are designed for the hard of hearing but are also good for children learning to speak English or older children who like to know the exact words to songs. Additional features include three karaoke songs, two special stories, previews of other videos and music highlights. Very highly recommended.

This review first appeared at PreschoolEntertainment. It is reprinted here with permission.