In a fun blend of education, colorful animation and talking cartoon animals, HBO Family and HBO Latino bring their audiences together with "El Perro y el Gato." Whether you're an English speaker learning Spanish or a Spanish speaker learning English, you'll find this show satisfactory and smart.
On each DVD of the show, you'll find 25 minutes of content, separated into four 6-minute episodes centering around a set of vocabulary words. Taking us through a pastel-animated world is El Perro (voiced by Moises Palacios), an energetic young dog, and his roommate El Gato (voiced by Miguel Guerrero), a laid-back, purple feline with the voice almost as smooth as Barry White's. The two animals talk mostly to each other, (El Perro does most of the talking), and as they do, each is sure to make constant repetitions of English words and their Spanish counterparts, and vice versa.
The format lends itself perfectly to giving visual cues to words that El Perro and El Gato say, words that pop up on the screen, often along with its physical object counterpart. It's the kind of method you see in text books and language-learning software like Rosetta Stone, and it the visual cues are there for a reason: without even needing to use flash cards, just from watching the show, I boosted my Spanish vocabulary probably ten fold. Because next time I see a bar of soap, I will remember El Perro talking about it in Spanish, and saying el jabón. Then, when I go out at night, instead of attending dinner, I'll tell my friends I'm attending la cena, and instead of simply eating a burrito, I'll eat a burrito.
All the repetition drives the vocabulary into the audience's mind quite effectively. The chirpy animation probably helps, as El Perro spastically jumps around like a construction paper cut-out, and El Gato meanders his way smoothly and lazily from one side of the screen to the other. If it's half as fun and easy to watch as a grown adult, I can only imagine how much of a kick pre-school children are getting from it.
The show's website makes mention that the program was intended for pre-schoolers. The show definitely shouldn't be limited to pre-schoolers, and honestly might be too quick for someone as young as 3 or 4 years of age to comprehend. And there's not a whole lot of interaction between the show's characters and its intended young audience -- in shows like "Blue's Clues" and "Dora the Explorer," it's commonplace for the characters to ask the audience questions in order to keep attention and allow them to participate. Though the show encourages the audiences to speak the words along, there's nothing extremely participatory in "El Perro y El Gato," which is great, because that means there are no weird, silent pauses in the room when the character on TV asks a question to an inattentive child watching. And the TV character just stares at you.
You can't go wrong trying to teach your children a second language, and English and Spanish being two dominant languages in the world, this DVD could be applicable to a whole lot of young people, not to mention any adult who wants to buff up on simple vocabulary. The minds behind "El Perro y El Gato" definitely knew what they were doing -- it's entertaining to watch, and frankly, one can't ask for more than talking dogs and cats. Sure, it's not a real-life cat putting on a cowboy hat and pretending he's a vaquero, but it's still a charming sight.
DVD Bonus Features
The DVDs do not provide any extras, which is sad considering how easy it would be to expand the educating factor of the DVDs with simple bonus stuff.
"El Perro y El Gato" is on sale August 9, 2011 and is not rated. Animation, Children & Family, Education. Directed by Alberto Ferreras, Chrissie Hines, Elaine M Brown. Written by Paco Correa, Chrissie Hines. Starring Miguel Guerrero, Moises Palacios.
