”The Adventures of Commander Crumbcake, Vol. 1” (Created and developed by David Burke and Fred Surr. Hi-Tops Video, 1987. Color. Running time: 60 minutes. $14.95)
Meet Commander Crumbcake, a talking dog whose mission in life is to defeat the nefarious CREEP (Collection of Really Evil Evil People) in time for lunch.
Filled with ”thrills, chills, spills and reading skills,” the first installment in a series of six Crumbcake videos manages to entertain while teaching kids ages 6 and up about synonyms, antonyms, suffixes, prefixes and so on.
The action is a blend of the campy ”Electric Company” (formerly on public television) and ”Batman” series with overacting actors, puppets and corny dialogue, all in a pitched battle of good vs. bumbling evil.
This video contains three episodes, the first of which (”Secret Code Alamode”) recounts how just-regular-dog Crumbcake becomes Commander Crumbcake, superhero and supersleuth, after an experiment in Doc Mindboggle`s lab goes awry.
In between all the silliness and during all three episodes (the final two are entitled ”Ed Breaks in Thesaurus” and ”Revenge of the Words”), Doc Mindboggle finds time to teach Aggie and Banjo, Crumbcake`s young friends, about language and vocabulary. The two eventually use their new knowledge to crack CREEP`s code and rescue the kidnapped Crumbcake.
The unabashed corniness of it all is practically guaranteed to divert kids` attention away from the fact that they`re learning something.