Little Einsteins: How a Mozart Misconception Lead to Children Getting Bullied by Soviet Fighter Jets

5:59 PM · Feb 22, 2021 "i feel fucking aged"

 

 

 

 

In the last post, we talked about what likely lead to The Buzz on Maggie being created, and it essentially being a product of the times. Talking about what lead to Little Einsteins being created has a bit more solid grounding, and this time, I actually know what I'm talking about.

A long time ago, before you and I were born, unless you happen to be born in or before 1993, a psychologist named Frances Rauscher published a paper in Nature. In the paper, he described an experiment in which he tested the spatial ability of babies when listening to Mozart vs. when not listening to anything. The babies who listened to Mozart had improved spatial ability in a task.

The media had an absolute fucking field day with this. This new finding got deemed "The Mozart Effect" and mainstream media posited that classical music can increase your baby's intelligence. People were out trying to get classical music tape cassettes for their kids to make them smarter.

Here's the thing though: No. Rauscher only tested spatial ability in babies after listening to Mozart. None of this was long term. And Mozart was only compared to silence.

There were a lot of studies that tried to identify if "The Mozart Effect" was a real thing. I think one of my favorites was McKelvie & Low (2002), where they tried to determine if Mozart improved spatial ability compared to Aqua, and found no significant differences between the two conditions.

Unfortunately, we do not live in "The Aqua Effect Also Is A Thing" timeline, and studies like this one didn't get as much press as the Rasucher paper. Not to mention, by 2002, damage had been done.

(By the way, if you want to read either of these papers and can't access them, let me know! I should have pdfs for both these somewhere. I actually did a school project on this a few years ago.)

In 1998, at the time Georgia Governor Zell Miller (who some Georgians who had good grades in high school may know as "the reason you went to college in state") spent over $100,000 providing babies with classical music tape cassettes.

And of course, when people get in such a frenzy about science, there's someone who is gonna make money from it. In 1996, also in Georgia, Julie Aigner-Clark founded Baby Einstein, which was a series of videos and CDs featuring classical music for babies. And naturally, this idea was such a moneymaker, that in 2001, Disney purchased Baby Einstein. Disney ended up releasing more videos, with progress going as normal. At some point, Disney, alongside Curious Pictures developed Little Einsteins for Playhouse Disney.

9:19 PM · Feb 21, 2021 "this one is gonna be fun because it's a curious pictures series. which produced a few shows on cartoon network that were... you know they were fine........ shows i like a normal amount. totally never took over my life at any point"

Basically the moral of this story is that if you ever see a news article referencing scientific findings, do your part and make sure to read the article as well. And if someone else refuses to do this, you can kill them. I give you full permission. 

(Fun fact, you can also see some pushing of the Mozart Effect in The Incredibles DVD feature Jack Jack Attack, which came out the same year as Little Einsteins. Disney didn't own Pixar at that point but like. We still knew that was Disney and Pixar collaborating lol.)

Little Einsteins on its own is a pretty solid show. It's not going to make your baby a genius or anything, but it teaches kids about classical music and art, which I think is it's own reward.

9:39 PM · Feb 21, 2021 "i think it's really clever though that like. the way they bring classical music and art into the series and cheer for it because it helped on their mission"

It's integrated into the show in a surreal but still really pretty way, and I actually really enjoyed how much the kids cheered for the composers and artists that helped them along the way at the end of the episode. Sadly, it wasn't always credited.

3:19 PM · Feb 23, 2021 ""aboriginal art" do we know who it is by?"

I'm no art historian so I genuinely don't know if this is art where we don't know the artists or art that wasn't credited, but that's still kind of sad either way I think.

And as I'm not really one for classical music or art, Little Einsteins didn't really stick out to me as much as it did others. Sorry pals I can't enjoy music unless there's screaming and clown horns in it.

9:30 PM · Feb 21, 2021 "i feel the same way about little einsteins that i feel about fantasia so.... i guess i'm gonna be controversial this time."
9:34 PM · Feb 21, 2021 "like fantasia it's such a series to look at but also like fantasia i can't say i'm a fan of it."
6:05 PM · Feb 22, 2021 "i feel like i'd enjoy little einsteins a lot more if i was high"

It's still pretty though. Wonderful music and animation. Just not entirely my thing.

3:33 PM · Feb 23, 2021 "i love the way laughing is animated in this show like. they move the whole body it feels genuine."

 As for the characters, they're pretty easy to describe, since there's only a handful of them. 

5:56 PM · Feb 22, 2021 "are there only four characters in this show"
2:30 PM · Feb 23, 2021 "annie has been naughty this year"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quincy is a musician (Quincy Jones). Annie is a singer (Annie Rossi). June is a dancer (June Taylor). And Leo... Well...

5:43 PM · Feb 22, 2021 "leo is a fucking demon"

Okay, he's a composer (Leopold Stokowski), but man that kid unnerves me. Look at baby Leo.

There's also their rocket, aptly named Rocket. Rocket doesn't speak but does make noises and move in a way that suggests he has his own personality.

And of course, what's a cartoon without someone to bully these kids and their rocket?

1:00 PM · Feb 23, 2021 "you would think that the recurring antagonist in little einsteins is like. an older playground bully or something but no. it's a soviet airplane."

That's probably the funniest thing about the show honestly. Big Jet has Got to be my favorite character.

Also there's this thing

6:39 PM · Feb 25, 2021 "HELP HIM HELP HIM HELP HIM HELP HIM SOMEONE FUCKING HELP HIM"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course while the show is pretty, it's still a baby show, and has standard baby show fare.

9:43 PM · Feb 21, 2021 "i think the american equivalent of the overly long magical girl transformation sequence is the overly long Full Length Song when once an episode thing happens in baby show."

One of these is an interactive component, but I honestly think Little Einsteins does its interactive component the best of any Disney baby show. Maybe it's due to the small cast. Like this is you and your four best friends and your rocket. In addition it also teaches you things and asks more open ended questions than just how to solve a problem.

9:22 PM · Feb 21, 2021 june: i'm looking at the stars. do you like looking at the stars?
me: yeah but i don't think i really can because i live in the city...
june: WONDERFUL!"
9:23 PM · Feb 21, 2021 "my intellect has been bested by a seven year old."

 

Maybe it isn't the most effective when the person watching it is in their 20s, but I'm certain I'm something of an outlier. I was too old for this show when it came out, and I've only gotten older since!

Overall Rating for Little Einsteins: B Tier