Handy Manny: Manny's Green Team
Handy Manny and his talking tools pitch in to help the environment in many ways while he builds things in this fun and educational cartoon from Disney.
Film making 22/25
Cinematography 22/25
Audio 24/25
Bonus Features 5/25
Total 73/100
Manny’s Green Team is a five episode environmental Go Green edition of Handy Manny cartoons that educate and inform kids in a fun and imaginative way. I found Handy Manny a fun cartoon and very multilingual with a heavy emphasis on Spanish mixed with English.
This is a great way to not only educate kids but to give them a very diverse cultural experience along with the great environmental messages. The five episodes include Saving the Turtles, Manny Goes Solar, Science Fair, Light Work and Bloomin’ Tools.
The episodes follow along with their title in subject and are great with very educational and environmentally specific messages that kids can have fun and learn a lot. Manny gets jobs from locals and each job includes an important message that revolves around the job like solar energy or construction while watching out for the environment.
The five cartoons are available in English and Spanish in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and lasts for about an hour. The English sound track has several times were Manny and others teach a few words of Spanish here and there for a quick language lesson.
Manny is a Spanish descendant handyman who loves to help others and fix things with plenty of friends in town like Kelly the hardware store owner who has a magical purse that holds gobs of things. In one episode she just happens to have a chandelier canopy in her purse when she happens upon Manny fixing a locals chandelier.
The tools which are a constant of the show all talk with varying accents that add to the charm of the show as well as the nice songs that have a catchy tune. Manny is a kid friendly show that adds a lot of multicultural elements for a great school age and preschool aged show that kids can really understand.
The show adds a lot of helpful things not only with the environment but one aspect of working on things like electricity and safety. One episode deals with Manny fixing the chandelier and he stresses that you cannot work on it while the light is on.
These helpful safety tips are strewn throughout the shows along with the environmental messages and other educational and information tidbits. The shows are chock full of nice messages as well as those good for kid messages like shooing a butterfly out the door instead of trying to kill it.
The Handy Manny DVD includes a couple of extras with a Livin La Vida Verde bonus that lets you explore Manny’s workshop and discover which items in the shop can be reused and recycled. Another additional feature is Manny’s Green Checklist that helps kids and their families Go Green with a helpful checklist.
The Livin La Vida Verde lets you move around Manny’s workshop and click on objects to answer a question about them related to the environment and conservation. The questions are informative but once kids have answered them they probably will not want to return to this game.
Manny’s Green Checklist is a printable page with tips to help the environment that you can print out using a computer. Simply navigate to the DVD-Rom folder and print the checklist for kids to help conserve resources for a better planet.
The bonus content is not all that much but with the five Manny cartoons you have an hour of fun and kid friendly entertainment. Manny is a great kid’s show with plenty of good messages that do not really stress one topic or subject over others.
Handy Manny in Manny’s Green Team is a great way for kids to get the important messages of conservation while enjoying themselves. Manny’s Green Team is well worth the cost and a great message for kids as well as adults to help do their part for the environment.