The plot:
The children had an animals day at school and they'd all bought bears (teddies) as their favorite animals (though they were at least different bears, one had a polar bear another had a panda). One of the children has lost his bear so Barney and the children go on a bear hunt.

General Stuff:
I think this is one of the new episodes, the purple bird and the squirrel were in it . It was, IMO, quite a bit less hideous than some of the older episodes I have seen. Still not what I would call a good TV show but I think it is an improvement on the older episodes I've seen.

There are four children, two boys and two girls, one white (this one is an annoying little brat IMO), one African-American, one that I think is Japanese and a hispanic child, so there is a good racial mix. These children seem more real and act quite a bit less fake than most of the children I've seen before, the annoying brat does seem like a total fake and they are all quite fake at times but not as bad as some children that have been on the show. They looked like they are between the ages of about 7 and 13 somewhere (I'm not very good with telling ages), these children all acted very young, a lot younger than they look.

The dancing was quite choreographed in places but it wasn't as choreographed as in the older episodes and the kids were all dancing slightly differently (very different from the hideously choreographed and badly danced butterfly dance I can remember from an old episode I saw a while ago). The kids were all still dancing and singing spontaneously like they all already knew the songs but most of the episode was pretty fantasy like so it wasn't like they'd done a performance for someone without being shown practicing.

Barney was the centre of attention less that I remember him being in the older episode, the kids suggested the stuff they did quite a bit.

There were actually original songs in this, I didn't recognise anything as being ripped-off anyway (other than the "I luv you" song, mute buttons are our friends :o)). I'll comment more on some of the songs later in this review.

The kids did smile a lot, but the grins looked a little less fake than they did on the kids in the older episodes, and they were having fun most of the episode so they should have been smiling.

There wasn't any learning to deal with stuff in this episode, but then a lost teddy bear isn't exactly something that needs a big lesson, they looked for the bear and found it eventually. There was just no dealing with stuff which isn't a problem IMO, I only see there's a problem when they show bad stuff and deal with it badly.

Something in this episode realted to something discussed on ab4d recently... inanimate objects being treated like they are alive. The missing bear is described as having been the child's friend for a long time, and they try and dress like bears to make the bear come out of hiding, and the song at the end (ranted about further on..)... I never described a toy as a friend when I was a kid... maybe I was just strange that way :o).

More episode specific stuff:
The episode starts with one of the children suggesting a teddy bear tea party, all the children agree (even the one that's later revealed didn't have his bear with him!). One of the children wonders if Barney would like to join in their bear party (this was about 30 seconds or less into the episode, but at least the children were having fun before It showed up). Barney immediately turned big, all the children run to hug him and forget all about their bear party.

One of the children (who was quite happily playing teddy bear party a few seconds before) goes to get his bear which has been left by the tree, but the bear isn't there, and the kid actually manages to say his bear is gone without smiling *shock*.

One of the children suggests they go on a bear hunt, Barney says yes, then all the kids agree. Barney is jumping in a bit here, but it's a good thing that it was a kid that suggested the bear hunt and not Mr Eggplant.

Barney used the adventure screen to teach the children about bears. The screen hovered in the air and the film about bears that was shown in it seemed quite educational.

The kids carry on looking for the bear... kid: "Any sign of the bear?" Kid that lost the bear: "Nothing here".. with a *huge* grin on his face... do I even need to comment on this?!

The kids go on the bear hunt, they go through an imaginary river, over a mountain and through some snow singing on the way. First verse: They sing about a deep cold river "Can't go over it, can't go under it, gotta go through it" then they 'swim' through the river (which involves running, waving their arms and saying "splish splash"). This was obviously an imaginary river but isn't singing a song about going through a "deep", "cold" river on a kids show a just slightly dumb idea?

They then go to a room where there are paper snow flakes hanging from the ceiling. Barney magics them some coats and they sing a song about "you know when it's cold", which isn't too bad and has some vaguely educational content. The annpying thing about this song is that it was the kind that really gets stuck in your head, I actually caught myself humming the tune about a week after watching it, of course I stopped as soon as I realised what I was humming :o)

Then they find a cave and hear a noise in there. Is it the Bear?! No it's BJ, oh goodie!! They've been following BJ the entire time, not the bear, but they are happy to see BJ anyway.

They all sing a song about a bear "[bear says] why don't you run, I see you don't have any gun?". Now, in an American show this isn't a big deal I guess. But here, having these words in a song and the kids making pretend gun (hand gun) shapes with their hands... I'm very surprised this got shown and more surprised that nobody has kicked up a fuss about it (seeing as how quite a lot of Brits are insanely oversensitive that hand-guns dare to exist at all, and finding problems with TV shows seems to be practically a national hobby since the Teletubbies started). This is just not a good thing to be showing on a kids TV show anyway, for reasons ranging from it makes guns seem like more fun things to watching children, to the comment someone else made on ab4d that going after a bear with a gun usually is just not a good idea at all.

There's a funny sound... it's Barney's stomach rumbling... "All this bear hunting has made me hungry"... ummm... so there's only going to be three children on the show next week? No!! BJ to the rescuse, he has peanuts and offers Barney and the kids some. Slightly less Hellthy than some of the snacks the kids have drooled over in the past....

Someone (I think one of the children) suggests that they might be able to find the bear more easily if they looked like bears (the bear might come out of hiding for them)... time for the Barney Bag to appear! The kids make masks (flashforward from them taking stuff out of the bag to them wearing the masks), they are made of card and are a painted bear face that straps around their heads and rest on their foreheads. They are something I think the kids could make and their isn't any unrealistically fast thing in making them as it just flashes forward to it's obvious they have spent time on them that we just don't get to see.

And now for the bit that makes me think all these child psychologists that are supposedly involved in the show either suck majorly or were fast asleep this episode! The children have finished making their bear costumes (the masks), Barney says "now you really look like bears", they blatantly don't. Now what's the psychologists say about praising children? Something like 'praise them realistically and don't say everything is wonderful when it isn't' I think. Barney could have said "those are great bear masks" or something similar instead of telling them that they really look like bears when any child could have been able to tell that they blatantly didn't.

They eventually found the bear. The squirrel had thought he'd found a new friend, just a very quiet friend, he gives the bear back to the boy who owns it and everyone's happy. One of the boys says that "helping friends is fun, especially when you get to go on a bear hunt", helping friends is good when you can have some fun too? I guess there are other, nicer ways to interpret that sentance though, and it does teach that it's good to help friends.

And now for the horrible bit that had me reaching for the sick bag!! The owner of the teddy that was missing thanks all his friends for helping him look for it and gives a special bear hug to his best friend Barney. Out of all the people there a dinosaur from his imagination is his best friend?! YUCK!! Now what were we saying on ab4d a few weeks ago about B'harnii encouraging children to care for It way too much? Barney then sings the "I luv you song" at all the children, then the children sing "I luv you, you love me, we're best friends, like friends should be", while they sing this they are all looking at their teddies. Now is it just me or is singing songs about luv and best friends meaning an imaginary dinosaur and toys rather than the other children present who are supposedly their friends just a little bit unhealthy as a lesson in friendship? Ack x 10.

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