Meet my new friends Ben and Holly (Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom)

Member Name: i_am_joy

Product:	Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom
Date:	01/08/09 (636 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun and entertaining for pre-schoolers, engaging characters, a little humour that adults can enjoy

Disadvantages: ----------

Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom is one of my two year old granddaughter's favourite television programmes at the moment, not least because her name is Hollie and she thinks it's so comical to have a fairy named after her!

Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom is an fairly new animated show for Nick Jnr which is set in a magical kingdom that is populate by elves and fairies. Holly is a fairy princess, her Daddy (King Thistle) rules the kingdom although is rather lazy and tends to avoid his duties as much as possible although this is not a problem as the elf contingent are always on hand to help out and even Princess Holly takes her royal responsibilities seriously enough to help her Daddy out.

Ben and Holly are the best of friends, a fact that annoys Holly's Nanny no end as she is a bit of a snob and feels Ben (an elf) is beneath her royal charge. In my opinion there is an element of 'class war' in Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom, although happily the put-upon elves usually come to the aid of the fairies and save the day.

Holly and her fairy friends take magic lessons from Nanny Plum, a seemingly hard hearted but very efficient fairy who excels at magic and is rarely seen without her wand. She doesn't often get it wrong but when she does it's very comical, and her mistakes are usually down to being coerced into trying an unusual spell by the mischievous little fairies.

The animation used for this children's programme puts me in mind of another favourite of my granddaughters, Peppa Pig. The drawings are very basic but so colourful and fun that children and adults alike cannot fail to enjoy them, the characters have been made to look as sweet and fun as possible which draws in the attention of my granddaughter and amazingly even though she never sits still she will settle down and watch the 15 minute episodes and seems to enjoy it greatly.

I wouldn't say the show is particularly educational, perhaps it helps to teach young children about the importance of friends and how they should really listen to adults rather than trying things out for themselves. I say this because several of the episodes I have seen show Holly and Ben getting into scrapes after being warned not to do something by Nanny Plum, the funniest one being when Holly is told not to practice her magic alone - of course she does and ends up turning Ben first into a frog and then into a scruffy looking bird!

The voices in Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom are excellent in my opinion. The young fairies and elves have suitably childish voices which appeals to my granddaughter while the adults are happy and loving at all times, instilling a sense of love and cheer in the watching children. Some of the narrative is very dry but this just serves to make the overall effect entertaining and comical for adults as well as children. My personal favourite was in an episode I saw just yesterday where Holly and her family have gone to see the Wise Old Elf as they have a question, when the Wise Old Elf doesn't know the answer Nanny Plum rather cuttingly says: "You're not wise at all are you? You're just old!" Said in the wonderful voice of Nanny Plum this had me in hysterics, although really the pre-school children this show is meant for might not pick up on some of the comedy.

I think Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom is such a fun programme. Each storyline encompasses one short show and there is a tangible problem and solution in each episode. To give you an example, yesterday showed Holly being read a story by her Mummy only she had a question - where do stars go when the sun comes out? The rest of the episode showed the family trying to find out the answer to this question, with the elves eventually coming to their aid and finding the answer in their huge library.

I adore the way the makers of the programme have made the props for Ben and Holly from various items that we wouldn't look twice at. A rose leaf for a boat, an acorn for a doorstop and a dandelion clock will help any fairy worth her salt to fly in the wind. It's actually rather reminiscent of the film A Bugs Life as here too everything is in miniature which facilitates the cleverness of employing items us 'giants' take for granted. In particular I adore Gaston the ladybird who is Ben's pet and mode of transport. Gaston is very clever and although he doesn't speak he actually helps to solve the problems most of the time - with the added advantage of being able to fly with Ben and Holly on his back.

I think this is a wonderful show and more importantly so does my granddaughter. The cheery atmosphere between the characters is wonderful to watch and it's just such a fun programme that most people cannot fail to love it. The characters are just so loveable and fun, my granddaughter sits giggling at the visual gags and often comes to me repeating a 'new' word she has heard Holly or Ben say. Unfortunately I have yet to find any character merchandise from Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom as it is still a fairly new show, however with Christmas on the horizon I'm sure this will be addressed soon with Ben and Holly beanies in the shops before November - and guess who will be first in the queue!

Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom can be seen on Nick Jnr and Nick Jnr 2 at various times throughout the day, I have yet to find a DVD of the show although again I'm sure they will be available soon to accommodate the Christmas rush.

Summary: A wonderful new show for small children from Nick Jnr - another hit methinks!