I watched a little bit (or a lot) of Sprout every day when I was both 7 and 8 years old, but I still watched it on some days when I got older, until it rebooted as Universal Kids in 2017. I watched all the shows they played at the time, including the Pajanimals. It's my favorite out of Sprout's original shows, outside of their blocks. For those of you who don't know, it started off as a series of 3-minute music videos and later became a full-length 11-minute show. I like the full-length episodes better for the most part because they give the audience an opportunity to get to know the characters better, they have plots, and there are more characters in them, but I still like the shorts too.
The premise is interesting! This is the only bedtime show I know of, besides the Goodnight Show. It's a quiet and laidback show, which is appropriate for a bedtime show because one is supposed to settle down and be quiet when it is getting close to bedtime and when others are sleeping or trying to. There are various bedtime related locations in the show, like the Land of Hush, which has pillows and blankets everywhere and a rule about always being quiet, hence its name. The shorts are all about 4 young muppet animals in pajamas (hence the show's title): a green dog named Apollo, a blue duck named Squacky, an orange horse named Sweetpea Sue, and a white and purple cow named Cowbella (whom for some reason has an Italian accent in the shorts and an American voice in the full-length series), lullabying themselves to sleep and singing songs about preparing for bed.
They sing about various pre-bedtime activities, life principles to help them fall asleep, and issues that are keeping them awake, like brushing your teeth, getting exercise to tire yourself out, having a special stuffed animal or blanket to sleep with, having a scary dream, noises (clocks ticking, water dripping out of the sink faucet, etc.) preventing you from sleeping, and more. Most of these songs appear in the full-length episodes too, but some new songs are present as well. My favorite Pajanimals song is Goodnight to Mom because it's about the gift we have in parents (mostly mothers, hence the title), and the lyrics are deep, touching, and make me feel the need to cry, most notably "We are never far apart, I am always in her heart." The songs are amazingly soothing and can easily lull viewers to sleep, especially Goodnight to Mom and La-La-Lullaby (which the Pajanimals sing in one of the shorts, and their mother sings it to them at the end of every episode of the full-length series). I have insomnia, and sometimes I listen to a Pajanimals lullaby or watch the show to help myself fall asleep. It works most of the time, even though I'm not a little kid anymore.
The lessons and tone are gentle, heartwarming, and empathetic! In every episode, the Pajanimals have a common problem that is keeping them awake, like not knowing what to give a friend for their birthday the next day, missing Mom and Dad while they're at work, being afraid of the dark, the fear of nightmares, feeling nervous about starting school the next morning, and more. Three of them get in another one of the Pajanimals' beds with whomever sleeps in it, and they all fly to a far-off land and ask a friend for advice. The colorful characters who live in the lands give them warm words of wisdom, and the Pajanimals take their advice, feel more confident, and fly back home, and their mother sings them to sleep. There's an episode where one of the characters says that feeing sad when a loved one is sad or sick and trying to cheer them up are signs that you care about them. I've never thought of it that way before watching the episode, but those are very wise words of advice! In another episode, Squacky and Cowbella get put in time out after the former whacks the latter with a guitar and the latter pulls the former's hair, much to their chagrins. That night, one of their friends tells them that the reason why kids are sometimes put in time out after misbehaving is so they're seated away from distractions and can sit down, think about the problems with their behavior and how to improve, and that's a sign that parents still love their kids no matter what. The shorts started when I was 5 years old in November 2008 (though I didn't know it existed until March 2011), but the full-length series didn't start until I was 8 in October 2011, and I wish the full-length series would've come out sooner. Why? For all my life, I've had a strong dislike of being disciplined, and ever since I was 7, I've always strived to be good to the best of my ability. The aforementioned episode gave me a better understanding of why kids sometimes get sent to the "timeout/naughty chair" after misbehaving, and maybe I wouldn't have been as uptight about it if I saw the episode sooner. The show has proved time and time again that having bedtime issues is nothing to be ashamed of, ensuring the audience that they won't feel threatened when parents discuss those issues with them. Amen to that!
I give this an 8/10 for a reason: in the full series, there have been some unnecessary changes to the lyrics of some of the songs that originated in the shorts, and it has never been explained how the Pajanimals' relationship works. It has been confirmed on the show that they're siblings, but how can a dog, a duck, a cow, and a horse be siblings? I'm guessing either a) one of them is biologically related to the parents and the rest of them are adopted, or b) all 4 of them are adopted. Mom and Dad's voices are always heard, but they never appear on screen, so nobody knows what they are.
I must say that the Pajanimals is a far cry from the loud and obnoxious preschool shows out there that are unbearable for older audiences like me to watch (e.g., Caillou, Peppa Pig, etc.). If you don't like those shows, watch the Pajanimals instead. I find it hard to hate, and it's sure to sooth you and your kid(s), help kids and kids at heart with almost any bedtime issues they may have, and put them to sleep easy.
