From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Little Einsteins
Logo
Format	Animated series
Starring	Jesse Schwartz Natalia Wojcik Aiden Pompey Erica Huang
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	57 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	23 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Playhouse Disney
Original airing	October 9, 2005

Little Einsteins is an animated television series on Playhouse Disney which began as a direct-to-video movie, Our Big Huge Adventure, released on August 23, 2005. The educational preschool series was developed for television by Douglas Wood who created the concept and characters, and a subsequent team headed by Emmy Award-winning director Olexa Hewryk and Dora the Explorer co-creator Eric Weiner, and produced by Curious Pictures and The Baby Einstein Company. The first episode of the Little Einsteins TV series premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo on October 5, 2005 and in the United States on the Disney Channel on October 9, 2005. In Europe, the second season of the show premiered on the Disney Channel around Christmas time, and in Japan, it aired on October 8, 2007, on Playhouse Disney Japan.

Little Einsteins was designed to teach the target demographic art and music appreciation by integrating famous or culturally significant art works (usually, but not exclusively, paintings) and classical music (most typically from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods) into the scenery, plot, and soundtrack of each episode. The show is also designed to encourage viewer interaction (such as patting their legs, gesturing, or singing along to help the characters succeed on their "mission").

Synopsis

Little Einsteins features four children (two boys and two girls) — Leo, June, Quincy and Annie — along with their intelligent and transformable space/air/water-craft, "Rocket". In each episode they embark on an adventure (or "mission") to solve some problem or help a new friend. These missions take them to far-flung locations including foreign countries and "extreme" environments such as Antarctica, underwater or outer space. In some episodes, Rocket's nemesis "Big Jet" tries to steal something from them or beat them to a goal. The characters' respective talents and participation of the audience are required to surmount various obstacles to completing the mission. Each episode concludes with a "curtain call" crediting the team members, auxiliary characters and reviewing the featured art and music selections. The curtain call became a song in Season 2.

Main characters

(From Top to Bottom) Leo, June, Quincy, Annie, Rocket

• Leo is a six-year-old boy, the Little Einsteins leader, and the one who pilots Rocket. His main talent is conducting and his most precious object is his baton; he never leaves home without it. His skills with the baton include the ability to conduct cows (seen in the Our Big Huge Adventure). He is voiced by Jesse Schwartz.
• June is a glamorous six-year-old girl who loves to dance. She also loves to look at the stars at night with her telescope, and is friends with one of Saturn's rings (as seen in the episode Ring Around The Planet). She loves art and is thought by some to be portrayed as Asian. She is voiced by Erica Huang.
• Quincy is a five-year-old boy who loves to play every type of musical instrument, the violin, the guitar and the trumpet being his favorites. He is the only member of the team who is afraid of the dark (as seen in the episode The Northern Night Light and in Our Big Huge Adventure). He is voiced by Aiden Pompey.
• Annie is a four-year-old girl who loves to sing. She is Leo's little sister and also the only character who has piloted Rocket for her solo. She loves animals, but she's afraid of spiders, just like the rest of the team (as seen in Our Big Huge Adventure). She loves dolphins as proven in Pirates Treasure, but her favorite animal of all is a horse as seen in "The Great Schubert's Guessing Game". She owns a silver microphone with orange music notes that she won in a song contest after Big Jet ripped her music. The color of her clothing is also changed for season 2, but the style remains the same. She is voiced by Natalia Wojcik.
• Rocket is the Little Einsteins' main transportation, but it is also their friend. Rocket has an array of tools and accessories (stored in somewhere similar to hammerspace) that help the team complete their missions.

Recurring minor characters

• Big Jet is the airborne nemesis of Rocket and the Little Einsteins. It is not known whether anyone pilots him, or if he has his own free will. Big Jet has been known to ruin parties, and steal things to keep for himself. Big Jet doesn't like springtime, owing to his being allergic to flowers, as seen in the episode "Oh Yes, Oh Yes, it's Springtime". He also hates losing. Big Jet is a blue Mig-29 fighter plane.
• Little Mouse, The Good Knight and Joey the Kangaroo appeared individually in their own episodes ("The Mouse and the Moon", "The Good Knight and The Bad Knight" and "Jump For Joey", respectively) and collectively in "Rocket Soup".
• The Three Little Pigs appear several times in episodes including "Farmer Annie", "Super Fast", and "Build It Rocket".
• Melody, the Music Pet is a music pet that Leo helped find her ticket for the pet train in "Melody the Music Pet." After boarding the train, Melody is brought to live with Leo. She reappears in "Melody and Me", where Leo must save her after her hot-air balloon flies away.
• The Bad Knight is the knight that imprisoned the good knight.
• The Little Red Train is a good friend of Annie, and although he's very small, is very determined and very strong. He appeared on the episodes "Go West, Young Train" and "Annie, Get Your Microphone".

Episode guide

DVD Collections

Books

• Farmer Annie's Garden (ISBN 0-7868-4970-3)
• Birthday Machine (ISBN 0-7868-4971-1)
• Australian Adventure (ISBN 0-7868-4972-X)
• Galactic Goodnight (ISBN 0-7868-4973-8)
• Music of the Meadow (ISBN 0-7868-5537-1)
• Butterfly Suits (ISBN 0-7868-5538-X)
• Disney's Little Einstein (ISBN 0-7868-5539-8)
• Disney's Little Einsteins (ISBN 0-7868-5540-1)
• Disney's Little Einsteins Storybook and Viewer (ISBN 0-7944-1307-2)
• Halloween Surprise (ISBN 1-4231-0208-8)
• The Firebird (ISBN 1-4231-0209-6)
• Christmas Wish (ISBN 1-4231-0210-X)
• Pirate's Treasure (ISBN 1-4231-0211-8)
• June's New Shoes (ISBN 1-4231-0213-4)
• Annie's Solo Mission (ISBN 1-4231-0214-2)
• Leo's Baton (ISBN 1-4231-0215-0)
• Quincy's Dream (ISBN 1-4231-0216-9)
• Oh Yes, Oh Yes, It's Springtime (ISBN 1-4231-1002-1)
• Explore with the Little Einsteins (ISBN 1-59069-563-1)
• Watch Me Draw Disney's Little Einsteins Amazing Missions (ISBN 1-60058-033-5)

UK version

In the UK, the Little Einsteins are voiced by these actors and actresses: Poppy Friar (June), Pier Stubbs (Leo), Kirsty Hickey (Annie), and Mitchell Zhangazha (Quincy). In the UK version, "Yeah" has been changed to "Yes" and 'Mission Completion' is changed to 'Mission Completed'.

Early preview version

On several of the Baby Einstein series of DVDs, a preview of Little Einstein (singular) appears in the form of a quick snippet before the main content and a 30-second commercial at the end. Screenshots (see External Links) show the early versions of the characters and Rocket.

External links

• Official website
• Little Einsteins at the Internet Movie Database
• Little Einsteins at TV.com