Who says great preschool entertainment has to be heteronormative? (There’s a new word for Scrabble for ya.) Not Dottie’s Magic Pockets, the self-proclaimed “greatest kid’s show not yet on TV” for alternative families. And lest you think it might be all about alternative families, well, it is and it isn’t.
What it is is what would happen if someone put Mr. Rogers and Captain Kangaroo in a blender, and then topped it with a few sprinklings of Bear in the Big Blue House: There’s puppets and singing and animation clips and real life issues discussed in silly ways and solved in about twenty minutes.
What it isn’t is a show “about” gay families. Dottie may be one of Ollie’s two moms, and the cartoon caterpillar Princess has two dads, but that’s not the focus of the show. Baby Seth drops by with his two moms, but never does the show become “and now let’s talk about having gay parents.”
My kids, beyond the target audience age for the show mind you, couldn’t stop cracking up at the antics of Uncanny, the singing can. The DVD and online episodes are all just plain fun. If you can have that fun with a side of diversity and acceptance, I say so much the better. -Mir
