RATED: NR
STUDIO: ZONDERKIDS
RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 2012

pread a Little Joy is part of the Come On Over! dvd series. Also included is a bonus episode of Working Together! Produced by and starring Joel Tanis, these episodes show Dr. Fullovit experimenting with bubbles to cure boredom and get everyone smiling again. Joel paints a portrait of elephants, they build things and imagine together. Everyone comes over to fight boreditis and Frustrated Crabbypants Guy. There is singing, dancing and learning.

This show has been compared to Pee-Wee’s Playhouse and Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. Pee-Wee’s Playhouse is silly, with sound effects, dancing and general zaniness, which Spread a Little Joy has plenty of. Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood had visitors from all over, with puppets and songs, which this dvd has as well. However, the similarities stop there. Many of the jokes are for the adults, hence the naming of a pompous character “Fullovit”. Some of the adult actors played directionless children, which I’m not a huge fan of. One has a cartoonish voice that I’m sure was supposed to make kids laugh, but I didn’t smile once. This dvd is marketed to children ages 4-8. If I saw a child behaving like her, I would assume something was wrong.

The art that Joel made was beautiful. I would pay money for the portrait of the elephants that he was working on. If there was more him painting and speaking like an adult, I would have responded much better to the show.

There was no real educational value. Many of the to-do parts were lost in made-up words that confused more than instructed. Some of the adults were portrayed as idiots, which I do not care for. Also, each section of the dvd had to be selected individually. You could not simply select “Play” and watch the show. This was an annoying feature that definitely should have been better thought out. My husband sat down to watch a few minutes of the show, and within one minute, his face looked like he’d eaten something sour. True sign that we will not be watching this DVD again.