Tasha Balloon

Have you ever watched balloon artists put together something amazing with just a few twists? I'll admit, I'm impressed beyond measure, mostly because I don't think I could ever figure out how to do it! But this balloon sculpture of Tasha at Balloon HQ makes giraffes and weiner dogs look like nothing at all! You'll have to look closely, because she's mostly obscured by shadow, but seriously, this is very impressive.

Look through the other pictures on this site, for more wonderful sculptures. The creativity shown is absolutely wonderful!

New Backyardigans Episode - "Special Delivery"

We are finally going to see the new norteno Backyardigans episode! This Valentine's Day, Nick Jr. will be airing new holiday-themed episodes for three of their children's shows, The Backyardigans, Go, Diego, Go!, and Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!

The new Backyardigans episode, "Special Delivery", features Tyrone as a mailman who loses his mailbag, which contains the Valentine cards the kids have sent each other. Tasha, Pablo and Uniqua are good to the bone bikers, who help Tyrone get the bag back so that the cards can be delivered. It will air Feb. 14 at 10:30 a.m. ET/PT.

Here's the information on the new Diego and Wubbzy episodes:

Wednesday, February 14, 9:30 a.m. - Go, Diego, Go! "Sammy's Valentine"

It's Valentine's Day and all the animals are celebrating by giving Valentine flowers and fruit to their loved ones. Little Sammy the Sloth wants to deliver a special V-day present to his friend Lulu the Sloth, but he must get to her before the sun sets. Diego and Sammy hang glide from the tall cliff, swim quickly past the caimans to finally reach Lulu at the Trumpet Tree. While Diego sings the "mas arriba" song, Sammy uses his three-toed feet to climb up to the top of the tree and give his friend a beautiful bouquet of leaves.

1:30 p.m. - Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! "Mr. Valentine"

It's Valentine's Day but no cards have been delivered because the mailman is sick and Wubbzy, Widget and Walden offer to help. Widget tries to build an efficient mail-delivery machine, and Walden attempts to devise the perfect scientific delivery route. While his friends work on their inventions, Wubbzy decides to take the mailbag and deliver the Valentine cards himself. But Wubbzy is crushed when there is no mail for him! Suddenly, all of his friends arrive with cards, candy, and flowers for the little guy who saved Valentine's Day.

Backyardigans in Blogland

Some interesting blog entries talking about the Backyardigans:

They Need To Pretend That The Backyard Is A Pharmacy And Prescribe Pablo Some Lithium
A very funny take on Pablo as bipolar.

Finally, Dora's Not the Only Child of Color In Her Classroom Anymore
This mother looks at black characters in modern animated children's television.

Backyardigans
A smart little girl notices something very interesting about "The Secret of Snow".

European Backyardigans

Backyardigan fans in Europe will now have a chance to enjoy Backyardigans-themed attractions when a new Nickelodeon area opens at a German theme park this summer!

Nickelodeon and Movie Park Germany have gotten together to create a Nickland at Movie Park Bottrop-Kirchhellen in April, 2007. Besides The Backyardigans, Nickland will feature SpongeBob SquarePants, Jimmy Neutron, Dora The Explorer, My Life As A Teenage Robot, and Danny Phantom. It will be the first Nickelodeon themed park in Europe.

It doesn't look like the Backyardigans themselves will be there, unfortunately. The only on-site Nickelodeon costumed-characters will SpongeBob, Patrick, Dora the Explorer and Jimmy Neutron, according to the press release.

Fans will also have to wait to actually go on a Backyardigans ride. The first two attractions to premiere will be Jimmy Neutron's 'Atomic Flyer,' a suspended coaster and 'Splash Bash,' a romp through the undersea world of SpongeBob SquarePants. The rest of the rides and areas will be introduced later. No word yet on just how long from now is "later."

(By the way: the press release used the phrase "The Backyard Dwarves" at one point. Does anyone know what that is? Is that a show, or is that an English translation of the German title for The Backyardigans? "Many new formats such as the educationally valuable pre-school series, Dora the Explorer and Backyardigans -- The Backyard Dwarves, superhero cartoon Danny Phantom, the science magazine Research Express as well as comedy series' such as Drake & Josh, and Zoey 101 will be available exclusively on NICK.")

Uniqua - Not So Unique

In one form or another, there seems to be a lot of controversy around Uniqua, which is pretty odd considering she's a cartoon character. Aside from the constant debate over just what she is, there's also now a charge that her name is taken from the Cherokee word for the Great Spirit.

Personally, the name isn't that uncommon, as I've written about before. I doubt Uniqua's creators had even heard of the Cherokee use of the word. I think they were just trying to reflect her unique nature in her name.