Sesame Street international CD and DVD

My 2.5-year-old son, like so many toddlers before him, is enthralled by Sesame Street. In fact, I think he'd prefer we lived there. A few months ago, I received a copy of Putumayo's Sesame Street Playground CD/DVD. It's a fantastic collection of songs and videos from local versions of the show from around the world: South Africa, Indonesia, India, The Netherlands, China, Israel, Tanzania, and other places. Some of the tunes, themes, and muppets are happily familiar, but each country also brings their own characters, cultures, and themes to the shows. (For example, Kami, a muppet on Takalani Sesame in South Africa is HIV positive and helps with AIDS education.) My wife, son, and I listen to the Sesame Street Playground CD every day. (Sometimes several times a day.) It's one of a small number of children's albums that the whole family genuinely digs. Putamayo created a great press Web site that has the liner notes and videos from the DVD. Don't miss the "Gali Gali Sim Sim Theme" (Sesame Street Theme) sung in Hindi. Sesame Street Playground (Amazon) Putamayo Kids presents Sesame Street Playground (Putamayo.com)

• [travelina]

  I like the “Rubber Duckie” sung in Chinese.

  There’s a Smithsonian traveling exhibit called “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World” that’s at the Atlanta History Center at the moment, then moving on to Orlando, Seattle, Doylestown PA, Jackson MS, Lexington MA, Fresno and Chicago by 2011. It’s a great show:
  http://intelligenttravel.typepad.com/it/2008/09/jim-hensons-wor.html

• [MichaelRN]

  Here’s a really good documentary about the production of Sesame Street in several different countries.

  http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/worldaccordingtosesamestreet/film.html

• [porkchop]

  Translated lyrics from the ‘Ricas Frutas’ song/video:

  “If you want to be a big and strong boy/
  And for the girls, a princess must be intelligent…”

  What, girls can’t be big and strong? Boys can’t be intelligent?

  I’m a little disappointed that Sesame Street is enforcing gender stereotyping in Mexico.

• [Kieran O’Neill]

  w00t! I see Takalani Sesame (the South African version) is right on the front cover.

  It’s been a very interesting vehicle for transformation within the country. It’s also not been shy about tackling some pretty heavy issues – they’ve even had an HIV positive muppet.

• [peruvianllama]

  Boys can’t be big and strong? Girls can’t be intelligent and princess-like?

  It’s a kids’ song. They’re hardly going to delve into the myriad of possible roles that each child may or may not play in their future society. Keep things simple – and rhyming – and the kids are usually smart enough to fill in the gaps of logic on their own.

• [Crubellier]

  Bonus awesome – did you know that Ian McDonald writes scripts for the Northern Irish offshoot, Sesame Tree?

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesame_Tree

• [Bego]

  I love Putumayo records and this one. My 3 year old daughter has just loved the videos and wants to see them again and again. Definitely, one of the presents we’ll buy this year.
  A side note: being a (picky) native Spanish proofreader, I would just love if you changed “Putamayo” (wrong spelling, and meaning “may prostitute” in Spanish) to Putumayo. this company’s real name. :-)

• [JMillerBoston]

  I’m gonna pick this up. My 2-year old is learning words like crazy, and she’ll love this. Should be a great way to introduce the idea of music in other languages…they get a little of that going on Sprout, but I’m always looking for new stuff to listen to with the TV off.

  So far, she’s more concerned about rockin good beats than gender bias and politically correct rhymes. Eventually, her priorities will change, but for now it’s all in the rhythm baby!

• [pollyannacowgirl]

  Putumayo makes terrific CDs for children. And adults. If I ever stumble onto enough money, I will buy every CD they make.

• [Giraffe]

  AWESOME! thanks for posting.

  heres a cool rock and roll version of sesame street song (dont mind the name): http://www.myspace.com/bigolhairypussy

  cheers