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Ni Hao, Kai-Lan: Super Special Days |  | Director: Allan Jacobsen
Actors: Jade-Lianna Peters, Clem Cheung, Khamani Griffin, Angie Wu, Jack Samson
Studio: Nickelodeon
List Price: $12.99
Buy New: $5.67
as of 7/30/2010 07:54 PDT details
Seller: inetvideo
Rating:  19 reviews
Format: Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Languages: English (Unknown), Mandarin Chinese (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Running Time: 30 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: PARD892354D
UPC: 097368923546
EAN: 0097368923546
Release Date: August 12, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Movie DVD
A sort of Dora the Explorer that features Mandarin Chinese instead of Spanish, Ni hao, Kai-lan is an entertaining Nick Jr. animated program for preschoolers that positively portrays biculturalism, helps build problem solving skills, and introduces basic Chinese words. Kai-lan is a creative, compassionate young girl who has a very close relationship with her Grandfather (YeYe) and loves to play and try new things with her many animal friends including Tolee the koala, Rintoo the tiger, and Hoho the monkey. Like all young children, Kai-lan and her friends play and explore and minor conflicts and emotional outbursts inevitably arise. Kai-lan has a way of stepping back and reviewing the situation to reveal the underlying problem, whether it's hurt feelings, frustration, or downright anger. With a little help from her grandfather and his calming techniques, she always finds a way to support her friends and make everyone feel better. Along the way, viewers learn some basic Chinese words and get a sense of the importance Chinese culture places on things like intergenerational families, calmness, and looking at things from another's perspective. (Ages 3 to 7) --Tami Horiuchi
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 19
 Great Show! May 2, 2010
Jami Sue Graham (Denton, Tx USA)
This show is very cute and has a lot of episodes on it. Great buy!
best purchase so far for my daughter February 23, 2010
JD
We bought this for my 2 year old daughter and she totally loved it. We have more than 40 different DVDs including Disney movies, wiggles, Barney, Dora.... This is the only one can keep her focused for 2 hours every day (commute to/from her daycare). It has been months now and she is still watching it. The other day she wanted me to go with her do something and she suddenly said to me "gen wo lai", which is the Chinese for "follow me" that she learned from the DVD. It's the cutest thing in the world and made my day!
not like Dora, something new and BETTER November 21, 2009
overjoyed mommy (California)
My 4 1/2 month son LOVES Kai-Lan.....this is the one cartoon he smiles and laughs throughout (and at the same spots usually!) and he just adores her and her grandfather, Ye-Ye. It's a great cartoon teaching children basic valuable lessons that kids are bound to come across in real life growing up. It's sweet, has catchy tunes and very interactive and the episodes are just ADORABLE. I just wish they had more DVDs of the episodes :( Hopefully they'll come out soon.
One other note, while glancing at some reviews on this screen some say the characters are "bad" or they are too harsh or something to that effect.........what on earth are they talking about? They must be have this cartoon mixed up with another one or something. The characters are all cute, lovable and are all great friends and the main point of every episode is to cherish your friends and care for one another. (Just wanted to add that in case someone gets discouraged from buying this or even watching it on TV....'cause like i said it's a hit at my home)
NI HAO KAILAN DVD August 17, 2009
Kim T. Bowles (stem nc)
This is a great dvd. My 20 month old will hardly sit still to watch anything educational on tv, but this show she dearly loves. It teaches manners, how to feel empathy for others, how to deal with conflict, and most importantly respect for other peoples feelings. It is a very cute program that I feel any child would benefit from watching.
 Mediocre, it upset my son! July 27, 2009
T. Yuen (PA, USA)
9 out of 12 found this review helpful
We bought this DVD because we're Chinese American and wanted a product that would introduce our son to Chinese culture and language. We had been very satisfied with the Dora and Diego series and what it did for Latino/Hispanic culture. We were very disappointed. Evidently Nickelodeon used up most of it's talent and resources for it's money maker Dora the Explorer and Kai Lan seems like an afterthought.
Our biggest gripe is that each episode involves one of Kai Lan's friend's exhibiting some poor personal characteristic (selfishness, anger, etc) and upsetting their set of friends and generally disrupting whatever fun task they have that day (going to the beach, etc). The rest of the episode is then spent rectifying this problem and "teaching" everyone what attitudes are proper. In theory this is fine for older children who understand the concept that the show is imaginary and can distance themselves from the show. For younger children (like my son) it may be upsetting to see one of the central characters being angry, sad/crying or acting out (grabbing toys from other children, throwing tantrums). In one episode a character spends most of the episode depressed and feeling left out, my son actually cried. The happy ending was too little too late to make him feel better.
What we wanted was something fun and educational focusing on Chinese culture, not lessons in behavior and morality taught by intense emotional scenes and demonstrations of poor behavior. Older kids may be able to grasp and benefit the lessons and see it only at a show but the paradox is that this age child would probably not enjoy the show. I think the plot and "acting" of the episodes are too intense and abstract for the children Nickelodeon is targeting. As an adult I found the characters and their troubles actually very annoying. Others on this site have echoed this main complaint of mine, so rest assured it's not just me.
Additional brief complaints: the songs are not catchy and light years behind the music in the Dora and Diego episodes. The Chinese is also minimal (taking a back seat to each episode's morality lesson) and I would have liked it to be more of a focus.
On the positive side (what saved it from being just one star): In all fairness though you buy these DVD's to watch with your kids and provide a starting point for conversations and not to use it as a sole teaching method. So it would be a nice way to facilitate lessons in Chinese with your children and a good starting point. The pronunciation is correct and the portrayal of Kai Lan and her Chinese culture and ethnicity is great and authentic. The characters are cute and initially captivating, if it wasn't for their annoying behaviors my kid probably would probably love them.
The bottom line is that my Chinese-American son remembers more of his Spanish-centered Diego episodes (characters, plots, songs, etc) and has more fun watching these than theses videos about his own culture and about a language he hears everyday from his grandparents. It's a shame.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 19
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