Little Einsteins

Little Einsteins
Little Einsteins Logo
Format	Animated series
Created by	Eric Weiner Olexa Hewryk
Voices of	Jesse Schwartz Natalia Wojcik Aiden Pompey Erica Huang
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	67 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Susan Holden Steve Oakes Richard Winkler
Producer(s)	Eric Weiner Olexa Hewryk
Running time	23 minutes
Production company(s)	The Baby Einstein Company Curious Pictures
Broadcast
Original channel	Playhouse Disney
Original run	October 9, 2005 (2005-10-09) – December 22, 2009 (2009-12-22)

Little Einsteins is an animated television series on Disney Junior. The educational preschool/teenager 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 knees, gesturing, or singing along to help the characters succeed on their "mission"). And at the end of the mission, Leo says Mission Completion!. The Little Einsteins then do the Curtain Call. At the end of the Curtain Call, Leo says, See you on a next mission!, then the curtains close and a That's Silly segment is shown.

The series was based on the direct-to-video film of the same name, subtitled "Our Big Huge Adventure".

Like other Baby Einstein productions, the production company pays a royalty to Corbis, which acts on behalf of the estate of physicist Albert Einstein, for the use of the Einstein name ("Einstein" being a licensed trademark of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem). Despite the usage of Einstein's name, there is no discussion of anything physics-related in the series.

Main characters

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

• Annie, born on the 16th November, is a 4 year old blonde girl who loves to sing. She is Leo's beloved little sister and also the only character who has piloted Rocket 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. In the second season the color of her shirt was changed from green to white and her jean dress was changed from blue into pink. She was named after famous jazz singer Anni Rossi. When she wishes to urgently point something out to the team, her usual phrase is "Look-look-look!" She is voiced by Natalia Wojcik.

• Leo, born on the 19th February, is a 6 year old boy, the Little Einsteins leader, and the one who pilots Rocket. He is Annie's big brother. 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). Leo has red hair and green eyes, and he is the only character on Little Einsteins to wear glasses. He was named after famous conductor Leopold Stokowski. It is hinted that he might have a crush on June. He is voiced by Jesse Schwartz.

• June, born on the 15th July, is a relatively mature-looking 6 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) and is a slight tomboy. She loves art and is thought by some to be portrayed as East Asian. She might have a slight crush on Leo. It's likely she was named after famous choreographer June Taylor. She is voiced by Erica Huang.
• Quincy, born on the 18th November, is a 5 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 was named after famous musician/composer/arranger Quincy Jones. When surprised or amazed, his usual response is "I cannot believe it!" (This is almost always pronounced "I ... can ... not ... be ...LIEVE ...it!") He is voiced by Aiden Pompey.

• Rocket is the Little Einsteins' main transportation, but he is also their friend. Rocket has an array of tools and accessories (stored in somewhere similar to hammerspace and Max from Flight of the Navigator) that help the team complete their missions. Rocket also has the ability to transform into any other transportation he wants, like a submarine or a train. Rocket is given power through patting. The explanation given (in the Pilot episode) is that patting helps Rocket "feel the rhythm of the beat". No external fuel source is identified, so Rocket could be considered to be a Perpetual Motion Machine, although in season 2 is discovered that Rocket uses "Music Gas".

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 plane that is identical to the Russian 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

Main article: List of Little Einsteins episodes

VHS and DVD (2005) DVD Collections

Our Huge Adventure	Our Huge Adventure (later separated into the episodes "A Brand New Outfit" and "The Missing Invitation")	August 23, 2005
Team Up for Adventure	"How We Became the Little Einsteins: The True Story", "I Love To Conduct", "Rocket Safari"	April 25, 2006
Mission Celebration!	"The Birthday Machine", "Go West, Young Train", "The Birthday Balloons"	August 22, 2006
Legend of The Golden Pyramid	"The Legend of the Golden Pyramid", "Dragon Kite", "Annie and the Little Toy Plane"	February 27, 2007
Rocket's Firebird Rescue	"Rocket's Firebird Rescue", "Rocket Soup"	August 21, 2007
Race for Space	"Great Sky Race Rematch", "Super Fast", "The Treasure Behind the Little Red Door"	February 19, 2008
Flight of the Instrument Fairies	"Glass Slipper Ball", "The Puppet Princess", "Little Red Rockethood", "Flight of the Instrument Fairies"	August 5, 2008
Christmas Wish	"Christmas Wish", "The Wind-up Toy Prince", "Show & Tell", "The Northern Night-Light"	October 14, 2008
Go to Europe (AU release)	"Hello, Cello", "Silly Sock Saves The Circus", "Go Team"	August 31, 2009
Go to Africa (AU release)	"He Speaks Music", "Animal Snack Time", "Knock On Wood"	November 11, 2009
Fire Truck Rocket's Blastoff	"Fire Truck Rocket", "Melody the Music Pet", "Carmine's Big Race", "Mr. Penguin's Ice-Cream Adventure"	September 8, 2009
Animal Expedition	"Whale Tale", "Duck, Duck, June", "Jump For Joey", "Little Elephant's Big Parade"	February 9, 2010

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), Piers Stubbs (Leo), Kirsty Hickey (Annie), and Mitchell Zhangazha (Quincy). In the UK version many American names are changed to British ones for example changing 'Candy Canes' to 'Sweetie Sticks'. Also "Yeah" is 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.

In popular culture

• An Ad Council PSA featured the Little Einsteins.

External links

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