Gather 'round, kids. It's The Elephant DVD, with Eric Herman at the mic delivering almost a dozen songs, mostly animated, and entirely devoted to children. In the mind of a five-year-old child, there's a lot of promise to this DVD -- it packs in ten music videos as well as some bonus footage that will likely have small children dancing in their living rooms. Was I dancing in my living room when I watched it? Absolutely not. And whatever the guy who lives across from me with the window that faces my living room says is a total lie.
The ten music videos make up the bulk of the DVD's content, all appropriate for ages ranging probably from 3 to 12. All the videos are full of happy colors and sounds, and could probably put smiles on any young person's face. The quality of the videos' animation is a little inconsistent, though. Even Eric's apparently most famous song, "The Elephant Song," is set to an animation that was likely done in a day's work using very rudimentary computer programs. There's definitely a pattern as far as the low-quality animations go, seeming to be in the songs aimed at the youngest children, but it's difficult to say if that would be a problem for them.
Something else that was hard not to notice was the inclusion of some adult-themed jokes. I don't mean sexual ones, but jokes that a 4-year-old will likely not understand. Lots of TV and movies aimed at kids do this, but in the case of The Elephant DVD, it was out of place. For example, at the very end of the music video "Blackbeard, Bluebeard, and Redbeard," which is a fun song about pirates unable to agree on the color of their pirate ship, the animators thought best to include a Dharma Initiative (from the show LOST) joke. It wasn't funny, and worse, it was kind of weird.
The only real downer of this DVD is the lack of content, because any other complaints start to fade and become forgivable when you take a look at the extras, which is where you get to know a little more about Eric Herman. Kids seem to adore him and he seems to enjoy his job. The animated videos were okay to watch, but the live concert footage was just as if not more entertaining. Eric Herman has a lot of talent and guts to get up on stage in front of children and dance around like different animals, so a lot of credit goes to him for that.
At the end of the day, the proof is in the pudding: within the bonus content you can watch some live performance of Eric Herman on stage, and even though the camera doesn't glimpse how many children are actually in attendance, they seem to be having a ball. Some of his other young fans were involved in an interview bit he does in the extras, too. So even with the lack of clean animations and oddly-placed adult-themed jokes, his songs are a hit with their intended audience. At the DVD's modest price, it's safe to say it's a good buy for kids.
DVD Bonus Features
There's a sort of mock-interview with Eric Herman and some kids, and they sort of play it off as a sketch, and he pokes a bit of fun at himself. There's also some footage of a concert he put on in front of happy children, a picture gallery of fan-art inspired by his songs, a jukebox feature which plays all the songs (without animation) and lastly, the strangest thing: a video compilation of submitted home videos from fans (young and old) dancing to the "Ants in your Pants #99" song. The number of people who are familiar with Eric's body of work made me feel like I've been living under a rock for my whole life.
"The Elephant DVD with Eric Herman" is on sale July 19, 2011 and is not rated. Children & Family. Directed by Roseann Endres. Written by Eric Herman. Starring Eric Herman.
