Let's Play
Season 1, Episode 13: "Farmer" (20 minutes)
UK: The Foundation
CBeebies, Wednesday 25 October, 14:40
Last time, we saw an animated character in a live-action environment with Tiny Tumble. Now in Let's Play, it's the other way round.
This programme for under-threes features two obnoxiously cheerful adults, Sid and Rebecca, who live in a green-screen world. I suspect that they are imprisoned somewhere and forced to perform for some Jigsaw-like serial killer: a siren randomly sounds and interrupts their day to announce that it's time for one of them to play "let's pretend". This time, it's Sid who is chosen by the unknown captor.
Sid goes into a room where he is dressed as a farmer, and a computer tells him, via a very simple diagram-like animation, three facts about farm animals (hens have a pecking order and will follow the leader, dogs are used to round up sheep, and pigs will only move in a straight line if you wall off their route).
Sid is then taken to a farm, where he has to help a farmer's niece (Rebecca in disguise) whose animals have escaped. This goes through a repetitive pattern: first with hens, then with sheep, then with pigs. First Sid is presented with the problem that the animal is running loose; then he tries unsuccessfully to round them up; then he remembers the relevant fact from the computer (which is shown in the corner of the screen); and finally he puts the fact into practice. This is a good structure for small children, who enjoy repetition as it allows them to anticipate what will happen next, and when they guess right it makes them feel confident.
All of the environments, animals, and most of the props are digital 2D drawings / animations; the only real elements are the two actors and a few props that they have to physically hold or sit on. I am left wondering why: I mean, I suppose it does fit in with the "let's pretend" theme, but I think the real reason is probably money: it's cheaper to shoot on green-screen and comp in a few 2D backgrounds and Flash animations than to shoot on location, source trained animals, etc. In my opinion the majority of the animation doesn't add anything, and is visually unappealing, cluttered, and distracting. The only use of animation I did like was the "computer" segments, as the very simplified shapes and movements do help to illustrate the facts in an appealing and understandable way.
In terms of social content, I did notice a rather antiquated use of gender roles. At the start of the episode, Sid has just got out of bed and complains that he is tired, while Rebecca is cheerfully performing her housewifely duties: she has already been to the shop, and is ready to start cooking pancakes. When Rebecca realizes that she forgot to buy eggs, Sid doesn't offer to go out and get them, he just complains that he wants pancakes. (After his adventure on the farm, he does bring some eggs back with him). On the farm, the farmer's niece character snootily declares that she's "not a farmer," motioning towards her smart clothing and Cath Kidston floral wellies, and therefore does nothing to sort out the problems on the farm: she just stands around while Sid, a complete stranger, sorts out all of her problems (bearing in mind that she is white and he is black, it did put images of slavery into my mind, but maybe I'm just over-analyzing there!) I thought this was interesting considering that CBeebies / CBBC tend to be very liberal and careful in terms of social representation.
All in all, I can see some good educational content in there, but the show itself is bloody awful, and I pity the parents who have to watch that audio-visual overload every day.
Available to watch online until 23 November 2017.
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