Little Einsteins (series)

This article is about the series, for more information about the team, See: Little Einsteins (group)

Little Einsteins is an American interactive animated children's television series on Playhouse Disney and in 2011, now reruns aired on Disney Junior for Special Edition.

In November 12th 2019, the Little Einsteins are now on Disney+ (pronounced Disney Plus) for a great special edition & a new re-release for all countries and their languages.

The educational preschool series was developed for television by Douglas Wood who created the concept and characters, and a subsequent team headed by Emmy Award-winning director Aidan Abril and JoJo's Circus co-creator Eric Weiner, and produced by Curious Pictures and The Baby Einstein Company. The first episode of the Little Einsteins TV series premiered on Playhouse Disney in the UK on October 3, 2005, in the United States on October 9 and in Japan on TV Tokyo on February 14, 2006. In Europe, the second season of the show premiered on the Disney Channel around Christmas time, and in Japan, it aired on October 8, 2007, on Playhouse Disney Japan. Reruns were then moved to Playhouse Disney's successor, Disney Junior. The final regular episode was broadcast in December 2009, and a final standalone special was broadcast in mid-2010, marking the end of the series.

The series was based on the direct-to-video film of the same name, subtitled Our Huge Adventure.

Like other Baby Einstein productions, the production company pays a royalty to Corbis, which acts on behalf of the estate of physicist Albert Einstein, for the use of the Einstein name ("Einstein" being a licensed trademark of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem). Despite the usage of Einstein's name, there is no discussion of anything physics-related in the series.

Overview
Little Einsteins was designed to teach the target demographic art and music appreciation by integrating famous or culturally significant art works (usually, but not exclusively, paintings) and classical music (most typically from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods) into the scenery, plot and soundtrack of each episode. The show is also designed to encourage viewer interaction (such as patting their knees, gesturing or singing along to help the characters succeed on their "mission"); at the end of the mission, the character Leo says "Mission Completion!" and the Little Einsteins then do the Curtain Call. At the end of the Curtain Call, Leo says, "See you on the next mission!", then the curtains close. In Season 2, a That's so Silly segment is shown, where, as the main plot, Quincy would try to blow his tuba, but something would be in his tuba, like a sock, and Annie (or another protagonist) would say, "That's so silly!" at the end.

Episode
For list of episodes, See: List of Little Einsteins episodes (Little Einsteins episode list)

Main

 * Leo is the leader of the Little Einsteins, and the one who pilots Rocket. He is Annie's big brother. His main talent is conducting and his most prized possession is his conductor's baton. Leo has red hair and green eyes. He wears green glasses. He is voiced by Jesse Schwartz and singing voice by Harrison Chad.
 * June is a young ballerina who loves to dance. She also enjoys looking at the stars at night with her telescope. She has dark brown hair and brown eyes. She wears a purple dress and pink headband. She is voiced by Erica Huang.
 * Annie is a girl who loves to sing. She is Leo's little sister and the only character who has piloted Rocket alone. She loves animals, including dolphins and horses, but is afraid of spiders. She owns a silver microphone with orange music notes that she won in a singing contest. When she wishes to urgently point something out to the team, her usual phrase is "Look-look-look!" She has blonde pigtails tied in pink hairbows and blue eyes. She wears a green shirt with a blue denim dress and pink shoes in Season 1, and a light-blue shirt with a pink denim dress and light-blue shoes in Season 2. She is voiced by Natalia Wójcik.
 * Quincy is a boy musician who plays a variety of musical instruments, including the violin, flute, and trumpet. At some point in each episode, Quincy exclaims, "I cannot believe it!". He has dark brown hair and brown eyes. He wears a red and blue baseball cap, and a green and yellow T-shirt. He is voiced by Aiden Pompey.
 * Rocket is the Little Einsteins' main mode of transportation, as well as their friend. Rocket has an array of tools and accessories that help the team complete their missions. Rocket also has the ability to transform into any other form of transportation, like a submarine or a train. Rocket communicates by making xylophonic noises.

Recurring

 * Big Jet is a blue fighter plane, who is the nemesis of Rocket and the Little Einsteins. Big Jet has been known to ruin parties, and steal things to keep for himself. Big Jet hates springtime, owing to his being allergic to flowers, as seen in the episode "Oh Yes, Oh Yes, it's Springtime". He also hates losing, as seen in "The Great Sky Race Rematch". In episode 64, "Show and Tell", Big Jet becomes friends with Rocket and the Little Einsteins. Big Jet is depicted with yellow horizontal stripes on his vertical stabilizers.
 * Little Mouse, The Good Knight, and Joey the Kangaroo appeared individually in their own episodes, "The Mouse and the Moon", "The Good Knight and The Bad Knight", and "Jump For Joey", respectively, and collectively in "Rocket Soup". And Little Mouse's cameo came in "The Song of the Unicorn" for Quincy's Silly Segment.
 * The Three Little Pigs appeared in three episodes: "Farmer Annie", "Super Fast", and "Build It Rocket".
 * Melody the Music Pet is a musical pet that Leo helped find her ticket for the pet train in "Melody the Music Pet". After boarding the train, Melody is brought to live with Leo. She reappears in "Melody and Me", where it is up to Leo to save her after her hot-air balloon flies away.
 * The Bad Knight is the knight that imprisoned the good knight. In the episode "The Good Knight and The Bad Knight" he rides a cello that acts like a horse but at the end of the episode it is revealed that he was under a magic spell by an evil musical sorcerer that made him a bad knight after rescuing the Good Knight he transforms back into a good knight.
 * The Little Red Train is a good friend of Annie, and although he is very small, is very determined and very strong. He appeared in the episodes "Go West, Young Train" and "Annie, Get Your Microphone".
 * Ring appeared on the episode "Ring Around the Planet". Ring fell off Saturn and landed near June's Garden. Ring is also a great dancer just like June which makes them and the rest of the Little Einsteins friends. The Little Einsteins brings the ring back home to Saturn.

UK version
In the UK version, the Little Einsteins are voiced by Poppy Lee Friar (June), Piers Stubbs (Leo (Season 1)), Daniel Culleton (Leo (Season 2)), Mia Murphy (Annie (Season 1)), Kirsty Hickey (Annie (Season 2)), and Mitchell Zhangazha (Quincy), and certain American terms are converted to the British vernacular: for example, changing "Candy Canes" to "Sweetie Sticks".

Home media
All episodes of the show are available for purchase on the iTunes Store, although they have been split into five volumes.

Reception
The series was given a 5-star rating by Common Sense Media.

The series was given a 6.2/10 rating by IMDb

The series was given a 7.4/10 rating by TV.com

In other media
A video game based on the show was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2006.

A video game based on the TV show and the episode "The Glass Slipper Ball" was released for the VTech V-Smile.