Disney Junior
It’s always hard to share the ones you love. That’s a lesson kiddies can learn on this week’s Valentine’s Day-themed Doc McStuffins. When Doc gets a stuffed Valentine’s Day heart named Val as a gift, Lambie gets jealous because she thinks Doc likes her new toy better.
Check out the video below to see how Doc’s precious Lambie reacts to the newcomer co-opting her line.
Image Credit: Disney Junior
The other day my four-year-old daughter announced that she wanted to be Doc McStuffins, kind-hearted friend to ailing stuffed animals everywhere, for Halloween. To complete the look of the Disney Junior character, we would need to get a white doctor’s coat, a sparkly headband, and pink sneakers. “But I’ve already got a stethoscope and brown skin,” she said. So check and check on that. There was much to cheer about this conversation. 1) No request for a flimsy, sad-nightgown princess costume, the visual plague of suburban sidewalks come All Hallows’ Eve. 2) A doctuh! 3) My daughter has a pop culture hero with skin the same color as she. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Michael Buckner/Getty Images
EW’s TV critic Ken Tucker just reviewed Disney Junior’s Doc McStuffins, lauding the animated series for teaching little ones about the procedures around going to the doctor, which can be a scary prospect for children. The series — as Tucker explains in his review — follows the happenings around title character Doc McStuffins (Kiara Muhammad), a six-year-old girl who can “heal” toys, with a little help from her pals. And just who are those helpers? Well, for starters, one of Doc’s assistants is none other than Grey’s Anatomy staple and original Broadway Dreamgirls star Loretta Devine, who voices the role of Hallie the Hippo.
Devine, nominated for an Emmy this year for her Grey’s work, recently hopped on the phone to chat with EW about today’s release of Doc McStuffins: Friendship Is The Best Medicine DVD, which includes five episodes with two 11-minute stories each. (In a bit of serendipity, today is also Devine’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Loretta!) Devine chatted us up about what appealed to her about the voice role, what kids can learn from the show, whether she’d have watched it as a child, and much more.
Doc McStuffins is one of the most successful new cartoon-series launches in recent years, and like a lot of children’s programming, it’s also a good show. But what do I mean by “good show” in this context? Is good kid TV a show that holds your children’s interest, that they want to see more than once? Is it material that holds your adult attention as well as your child’s? Is it a creation that teaches a moral lesson, or suggests commendable behavior?
When it comes to children’s programming, slightly different measurements of quality obtain, and that’s one of the primary things I plan to explore regularly in this space. 
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