Jay Jay the Jet Plane: Lessons for All Seasons (1999)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Created by David and Deborah Michel
Written by John Semper, Jr. and Megan Brown
Directed by Hugh Martin
Starring Eve Whittle and the voices of Dee Dee Green, Marie Danielle, Julie Renick, C.W. Walken, Mary K. Bergman, Chuck Morgan, Gina Ribisi

Features:

• Four Episodes:
  
  • Snuffy's Thanksgiving
    
  • Jay Jay's Christmas Adventures
    
  • Jay Jay's Winter Parade
    
  • Snuffy's Seasons
    
• Educational "Think About" Moments
  
• Four Sing-Alongs
  
• "Fun Facts" about Tarrytown
  
• DVD-ROM Link to Games and Activities
  
• Play All: Uninterupted, Continuous Play Feature
  

Released by: Columbia-Tristar
Rating: NR
Region: 1
Anamorphic: N/A; episodes appear in their original 1.33:1 formats

My Advice: Own it if you've got kids, otherwise skip it

Jay Jay (voiced by Bergman) and his friends live at the airport in Tarrytown, USA. They are young airplanes that have fun learning all sorts of new things about this wonderful world we live in. Each one of them is eager to help the others learn these lessons, but every now and then, they have a little adventure along the way.

This DVD contains five broadcast half-hour shows that tell various stories; two of them deal with holidays, but the other two deal with the seasons of the year. The Thanksgiving and Christmas episodes teach what the holidays are about and they are pretty common storylines for children's programming. Jay Jay and his friends have to help out a friend (or even Santa Claus) with a problem that coincidentally happens on the holiday and everyone learns a lesson in the process. The "Winter Parade" episode is a little bizarre because it deals with the celebration of the beginning of winter, but our heroes' plans for a big parade are put in jeopardy by a snow storm that knocks the power out. You'd think that since they have a story about the first day of winter, that they would have one about the first day of the other seasons, too. Well, instead, they just cram all four seasons into one episode where one of the characters can't seem to remember a way to differentiate the seasons so they all have to help him figure out a way to do so. The Thanksgiving and Christmas episodes are pretty good; I mean, every good children's show has to have these episodes in their lineup. However, the other two episodes on this DVD seem a little forced. You have to remember, too, that I am a grown-up and that kids always have a much different perspective on these shows. Having said that, the shows are very educational and entertaining for very young children (I would say between 2- and 4-years-old).

The DVD has features that are good both for the kiddos and for the parents. The best feature for the parents is the "Continuously Play All" feature that has become so popular on children's DVDs. It circumvents your children running to you to start Jay Jay over again every time they get to the end of the shows, like they would with a VHS tape. You also avoid how they get antsy about it taking so long to rewind the tape. The "Sing-Alongs" are very popular on kids' DVDs as well. What you have here is the ability to jump to almost any song on the DVD and it displays the words to the song at the bottom of the screen as they are being sung (it's like your own karaoke bar without the smoke and alcohol). The "Fun Facts" can be found on two of the menus on this DVD and they are little audio snippets of little "facts" about the Tarrytown airport and Tarrytown village. They simply give the facts about what's in the picture that's the background of that particular menu screen. Finally, there are two "Think About" moments on the special features menu. Brenda Blue (played by Whittle), the Tarrytown airport mechanic (who, by the way, is the only human character on the show) talks about the sun and the moon and provides the children with just enough information to make sure they ask their parents lots of questions like, "Where does the sun go at night?"

So, if you've got kids, this DVD really should be in your collection. Even though it's not the most "parent friendly" of shows, it is certainly a really "edutaining" show for children.