The Mother Goose Video Treasury

My late grandmother used to rent this video from the library for me up until I was around four years old. I loved watching it, and I even loved that giant animatronic goose Bertram.

Recently I ordered a copy of this from Amazon, to dig up some deep-rooted memories. It worked, but I never realized at such a young age how many gaps there were in the production. It never irked me, though, because said gaps were pretty hilarious to look at. For instance, a camera change might have come a couple seconds too quickly, a really cheap (though perhaps acceptable 19 years ago) effect might have been employed, and the puppets--they generally all looked horribly malformed, to put it kindly, and their mouths were opened in questionable sync with their dialogue.

To their credit, though, most of the actors displayed an earnest talent, considering what it was for which they were being paid to perform. Some of them were actually okay dancers.

I get the feeling that the production was too complex for its own good, but that really never even crossed my mind as a child. Heck, I liked the constant set and costume changes; children have short attention spans anyway.

But to anybody over the age of, say, six, this is laughably convoluted and worth a watch just to go MST3K on it.

My children, and now grandchildren, enjoyed watching this video. The 11-year-old now rolls her eyes, although she loved it "way back when." The two four-year-old granddaughters are thrilled to watch.

Adults will notice things like dual roles, chroma key compositing, and fishing lines helping Contrary Mary's garden "grow." But the kids don't care.

The performers don't make fun of the material or mug. They play at a good sincerity level for the grade-school-or-younger audience. The singing and musical accompaniments are competent. Costuming is in bright colors and suitable for the subject.

One of the best things about these programs is the lack of talking down to the kids the way some grown-ups can do. They appear to be enjoying being silly, for kids' sake. And that's fine.

You can probably buy this for less than five dollars online, and it should make your kids happy many times over.

My sister picked up the whole 4 VHS set (possibly at a dollar store?) when my children were young. Each video has a hint of a storyline to it, but the target audience is preschoolers, so don't expect anything too "deep". That said, the music was pleasant and not obnoxious and the acting reminded me of watching a televised stage production. The sets were also reminiscent of minimalist set design concept sometimes used in live theatre. We didn't have cable/satellite when the kids were young, and so many days were spent with kids' videos on repeat ad Infinitum ... and this set was actually pleasant for me to listen to.

The original VHS was recorded in the SLP mode, or whatever the slowest tape speed was, thus the quality would probably not look that great on todays large HD screens, even so, I would love to find a DVD or digital version to share with my grandchildren. I think their moms would enjoy the trip down memory lane.

This is one of the only films that I vividly remember watching OVER and OVER when I was a child. The VHS got so worn out on Volumes I and II and I still watched it despite the static and jumpy picture. Yes as an adult it is corny and I'm not sure how my mother put up with it, but I'm glad she did!

I haven't seen this movie in many many years, but from what I remember it follows a goose named Birtrim around a small town. He runs into many mother goose characters such as Humpty Dumpty and Jack be Nimble, and Mother Goose always loses her glasses. It is a mix of puppets and actors that put a colorful spin on classic Mother Goose rhymes.

I remember watching the Mother Goose Treasury (all four parts) with my younger sister when we were both still children. The nursery rhymes and stories are well selected, the characters are neat and wonderfully costumed, and the music was well orchestrated. This is not one of those videos where one would expect to hear tinker toy styled music. Another video series whose shows have well orchestrated music is the Wee Sing series, which is what I also recommend. This is also one of those video collections that may have been out of print. Try looking for Mother Goose's treasury on YouTube.

Oh, I also love Bertram. Honk! Honk!