The Busy World of Richard Scarry – Review
Popular Animated Television Series for Kids Based on Busytown Books
Apr 27, 2009
Borrowing popular characters and situations from award-winning children's author Richard Scarry's Busytown books, the fun and educational animated tv show The Busy World of Richard Scarry teaches preschoolers and elementary-age children about subjects such as how things in the world work, what other countries are like, and how people can learn lessons from life and each other.
Episodes of The Busy World of Richard Scarry
Like the original Richard Scarry books, each half-hour episode of this charming animated television show from the 1990s is a grab-bag of stories that use clear details and gentle humor to cover a range of topics and types of factual information.
The segments of a typical episode might include:
- A story about Huckle Cat, Lowly Worm, and their friends in Busytown.
- An Imagine That! song that explains how a machine or a process like mailing a letter works.
- A story that fictionalizes a historical event or tells about an exciting adventure that happens in a place other than Busytown.
- A Play It Safe! song that warns kids against doing something dangerous.
- A second Busytown story.
Animated Television Series Based on Richard Scarry's Books
Although many episodes of The Busy World of Richard Scarry used newly created stories written by the television show's writers, other episode plots were adapted directly from Richard Scarry's books.
For example, the episode The Best Birthday Present Ever contains a story about Huckle Cat and a cuckoo clock adapted from "A Visit to Mr. Fix-It" from Richard Scarry's The Best Mistake Ever! and Other Stories [Random House, 1984], an expanded version of the story "Patrick Pig Learns to Talk" from Richard Scarry's Busy, Busy World [Golden Press, 1965], and a more developed version of the story of grouchy Mr. Gronkle from Richard Scarry's Best Christmas Book Ever [Random House, 1981].
Parents and kids who enjoy learning from The Busy World of Richard Scarry will definitely want to track down the original Richard Scarry books and share some reading time together, too.
Characters in The Busy World of Richard Scarry
Fans of the inhabitants of Richard Scarry Busytown books will enjoy seeing some familiar characters appear in this animated tv show, including Sally Cat, Hilda Hippo, Miss Honey, Bananas Gorilla, Mr. Frumble, and Sergeant Murphy. Furthermore, the cartoon's character designs and backgrounds are very true to the original black-line and watercolor style of Scarry's illustrations.
Over the years, some of Richard Scarry's books were updated by him to address reader complaints that the female characters were shown too often playing only stereotyped roles (housewives, teachers, nurses, etc.). The Busy World of Richard Scarry, in turn, takes care to portray female characters that tackle a variety of active roles. Most remarkably, the show transforms Cucumber the African Photographer, a male one-off character from Richard Scarry's Busy, Busy World, into an adventurous recurring female character.
What Kids Learn from The Busy World of Richard Scarry
Richard Scarry was always both an entertainer and an educator, and his classic children's picture books provided this family-friendly animated cartoon with a perfect model to follow. Imagine That! songs about how an elevator works or how pipes bring water to houses are like diagrams from Richard Scarry books come to musical life.
At the same time, although Richard Scarry was clearly concerned with teaching kids proper manners and good behavior (as Pig Won't can attest), and although Huckle Cat and Lowly Worm do serve as good role models in Richard Scarry's books, the lessons his characters learn are stated more bluntly in the television show than they generally were in the original stories.
For example, the Busytown picnic story from the Summer Picnic episode is adapted from the tale "A Summer Picnic" in Richard Scarry's Great Big Air Book [Random House, 1971]. In both versions, the characters must move their picnic inside a school bus after it starts to rain. In the book, the narrator comments that "It was the best rainy-day picnic ever," while in the tv episode, the bus driver spells out the message explicitly by proclaiming that sometimes "the things you don't plan turn out to be the most fun of all."
Where to Find and How to Watch The Busy World of Richard Scarry
Originally, this animated tv series for preschoolers was produced by CINAR Films in Canada and aired on television stations like Showtime, Nickelodeon, and Nick Jr. A number of single 24-minute episodes are available on individual The Busy World of Richard Scarry videos, and the two VHS tapes that make up The Best Richard Scarry Collection Ever each contain 4 episodes.
Younger preschoolers still learning basic counting and alphabet skills will also enjoy the Richard Scarry videos produced by Random House, such as Richard Scarry's Best Learning Songs Video Ever! and Richard Scarry's Best Busy People Video Ever! Older children ready to develop logical thinking skills and an ability to use the scientific method will love episodes from the animated kids television show Busytown Mysteries (Hurray for Huckle).
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