Let me start by stating the I really don't like cartoon versions of history (don't get me started on Pocahontas), but, I was *very* impressed by this. The characters were drawn to actually look like the real-life Wright brothers. The video included real science and discussion of what breakthroughs the Wright brothers accomplished. It also brought in additional related characters and events from the time period. Finally, there were no made-up animal friends!
The video told the story in a straightforward, easy way to follow. My 4 yo, 7 yo, and 11 yo all sat down to watch and enjoyed it. Although she won't admit it, even my 13 yo was caught peeking. I, also, learned new things. (I had no idea what wing warping was or why it is important. But, now, the whole family knows.)
After watching the video, we took the quizzes that came on the DVD. The multiple choice questions gave me the opportunity to evaluate how well my kids understood the video. Each question has the option to watch a small snippet of the DVD again to learn the answer.
The video has language tracks in English & Spanish, and has subtitles in both languages. It's available through the Whatcom County Libary System.
Evidently, this is part of a full series of DVDs. To be honest, I'd probably not checked this out had I known it was part of a "character building" series. It's not that I object to character building; it's just that often they tend to be too sappy for my taste. After trying this one, I'm going to check out some more from our library.
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