Loving my imagination

I never thought I would have to wear makeup to watch television, but it has happened. I am five years into children’s programming at this point in my motherhood journey. I have gone through Bob the Builder, Thomas the Tank Engine, and The Wiggles. Especially the Wiggles. My daughter loves those Aussies more than I loved Heath Ledger. We did the whole Greg is sick and Sam has taken his place thing. She actually understood the “goodbye” video. Because I use my free time so wisely, my kids love to watch The Cockroaches videos I found on YouTube. Well, goodbye there mates. There are four new American men in Playhouse Disney town. What’s even better than four American men? Four southern American men!

Disney has launched a new program last fall. The four musicians are also “movers” dressed in mover uniforms: Mover Dave, Mover Scott, Mover Rich, and Mover Smitty. They sing and solve ideas creatively. They look NOTHING like the men who packed and moved my house, I can say that much. The goal of the show is to use your imagination to solve problems creatively, try several different ideas, and not give up. Each week they are faced with a new problem to solve. They work at an imagination warehouse that is inhabited by a cute little mouse. The office next door is owned by Knit-Knots and his niece works for him and visits the movers every show.

What makes them different from the Wiggles aside from their accents? Well, for one thing, their songs are a little bit catchier. It’s like they made a list of “Mommy nags” and wrote nifty songs about them. My particular favorites are “Cleaning My Room” and “Seven Days A Week.” They sing about brushing your teeth and sleeping in your own bed. They have a really cute song called “Brain Storming” and if I were still teaching in a brick and mortar school I would use it to teach writing. The Halloween one about the monster in the closet was good too. They are also able to nail tougher issues. I am going to be bold and say they did this as well as the late, great, Mr. Rogers. On their CD Juice Box Heroes, they have a phenomenal song dealing with Hurricane Katrina. I can't think of a better song dealing with trauma for children. I have seen Rush in concert three times, so I know my music.

The more you watch the show with your children, the more you notice that it is classic camp. John Waters would love it. Uncle Knit-Knots is over the top boring. He and his office are covered in beige. The plants are beige, his orange juice is beige, and the coffee pot is beige. The Movers plan a birthday party for him where they sing a slow song that sounds awful while he staples papers and blows a birthday candle out on a loaf of bread. Nina is kind of like their back-up singer or "pip." Her outfits are quite bright, someone needs to take her shopping. The warehouse itself is a trip. They have a room for whatever they need to solve their problems: a magnet room, an opposite room, and a wind room, to name a few. There are little “bridges” in between scenes of the guys dancing around in front of polka dot backdrops, which is reminiscent of Scooby-Doo and other 70’s shows. All of what I described sounds absolutely ridiculous, but I can’t stop laughing as I watch it.

The longer you watch it, the more little quirks notice. Scott appears to have no common sense. Dave is always inventing things and always misses the high five at the end. Rich is the voice of reason.

I did some googling on these guys. They started their band in 2003. Before that, Scott was an elementary school teacher and Smitty was a firefighter. Rich has five kids. Dave was an architect with no musical or acting training. They are from New Orleans and all but Smitty lost their home during Hurricane Katrina. In America, you really can be or do anything.

Every mommy has her favorite mover. Mine happens to be Scott and his special goggles. Other moms enjoy Dave with the red hat. I am sure some mom somewhere loves Smitty and the sensitivity he shows towards his little buddy mouse. He is also the “reader” with a journal to keep ideas in. As much as I love readers, I can’t get over his cowboy hat. Rich, whose southern accent makes me yearn for NC, uses his drumsticks to draw on the television screen. It reminds me of Uma Thurman telling John Travolta not to be a “square” by drawing it in the air before they enter Jack Rabbit Slim’s. Did I just use Pulp Fiction as an example? What kind of mother am I?

The Movers have definitely left their mark on our household. In the grocery store a week ago, when we got to the check out line, the cashier had a goatee and long hair. Frances started screaming, “Look Mommy look! It’s Mover Scott!” One night at bedtime Kenneth was going over which Mover played which instrument, and when he got to Scott I said the keyboard and Kenneth said, “No Mandolin” and I said, “No keyboard honey” and Kenneth kept saying it was the mandolin. I should have known better than to argue with my little musician. Sure enough, the next day, Scott was strumming a mandolin. Crap that kid gets me every time. I guess you can play more than one instrument. If the kids start crying about something frustrating, and I am not in such a hurry that I do it for them, I use my mover skills (“try again try again try again”-great song) and have them think of another way to solve it. I have to keep myself from laughing when they make faces like the movers do thinking of solutions.

The show is a lot of fun. I like it better than Higgly Town Heroes or The Little Einsteins. Here comes another “secrets of a bad mommy” confession, when my kids are being “high strung” (well, bad) I tell them if they don’t stop it I am going to make them watch Charlie and Lola. They both start crying, “No mommy! No!" There is our opinion on that show. Note I don’t say we will turn the television off. I’m awful.

My friend Claire once mentioned that you need a night out when The Imagination Movers start to look good to you. I say it is perfectly normal to want a mover, or even two. Worry when you are after a Doodle Bop. THEN you have a problem.