Torrefaction

Wonder Pets has become a staple TV show in our home, because Charlie looooooves it. And we find it weird and entertaining enough to be able to tolerate watching it with him and singing along. Also, episodes are 15 minutes long, which is about as much TV as we like him to see daily.

The shows involve a team of 3 classroom pets rescuing (usually) baby animals after the class has gone home for the day. They sing a little song about saving the animal. However, the ep we saw yesterday, called "Save the Bullfrog," was about helping an elderly bullfrog who couldn't hop to the water. He wanted to swim with his "grand-poles" but couldn't because his legs wouldn't get him to the water. They modified their little song to say "let's help the bullfrog" instead of "let's save..." and then they went and built him an awesome little wheelchair out of a cut-up log, and then helped him get into it and he wheeled himself to the water and got in to swim, keeping his new wheelchair nearby. THE END. Mobility problem, solved with a mobility device, YAY.

They normally have to solve a problem in the classroom before they fly off in their flyboat (don't ask) to help whoever, and the problem in the classroom has the same solution as the problem of the animal who needs helping. This episode's "classroom problem" was about finding wheels for the flyboat because it needs wheels to go (I said, don't ask!). Also during the credits they show a dog with one of those wheel-carts for his back legs, trotting by the door of the school. Basically the whole episode is "wheels are good!" and the bullfrog's problem isn't presented so much as "his legs don't work" but as "his grandpoles miss him" and "he needs to get to the water." Wheels are the solution.

We did notice that they don't cover how he's going to get out of the water and back into the wheelchair after they leave, but I guess there's only so much they can cover in 15 minutes. :) Anyway it made us happy to see a positive showcase for a mobility device, that treats it as a fun solution to a straightforward problem instead of a very, very sad encumbrance.

For contrast, in the Halloween episode of Ni Hao Kai Lan, Rintoo sprains his ankle and so can't go trick-or-treating (in their apparently crutch-free world) until the kids figure out that they can put wheels on the bed and all go trick-or-treating together on wheels. First they spend 15 minutes going "oh no! you can't go trick-or-treating because you CAN'T WALK! Oh No!" while I yell at the screen.