Green with Children

Mama Mirabelle

An extra-intense cyclone in Myanmar. Food shortages and price spikes. Truckers giving up their livelihoods because it costs too much to fill the tank. Is this global climate change? Isn't it just what Al Gore warned us about?
When I'm completely defeated by the news, when my recycling bins and energy-efficient lightbulbs won't boost me, I turn on the TV. Not CNN--good grief, no. I turn on kids' TV. Life is always so bright and positive there.
Lately, we've been turning on Mama Mirabelle, a new program from some clever Brits and the folks at National Geographic Kids Entertainment (the Green Guide staff's somewhat distant colleagues). The relentlessly gorgeous Vanessa Williams is the voice of an elephant mama who uses National Geographic's astounding collection of wildlife footage to teach a crew of cute baby animals about the world. Not the troubling world in which we live, mind you, but the ideal world, where living creatures respect one another and the planet we live on.
My three-year old son Julius watches with a level of intensity that I find comical. Perhaps I should be disturbed by this, but it's charming to me how he talks back to Mama Mirabelle as if she were in the room. He's sitting beside me as I type this, and when I went to their website to get the link he started clamoring for me to play it for him right then.
What I like best is the music. Full disclosure: We've been bopping to this music since before the show premiered because a not-so-distant colleague--my husband, Jeff--works for National Geographic's music division and produced it all. The funky world music playing throughout each episode is fantastic--it's like MTV but instead of glossy hootchie mamas, it's centipedes, baby bears and hyenas dancing to the beat. Songs like "One of a Kind," sung by Bauhaus' Peter Murphy, and "Hip Kind of Hop" make us all very happy. And for a brief moment, I can forget about the news.
Check your local listings for when Mama Mirabelle airs on your local PBS station.

© The Green Guide, 2008

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