Psalty Songs for Li'l Praisers Volume 1: God Loves Me So-o Much!

This was the lone Psalty tape I had when I was little, and I got rid of it in a garage sale when I was 7. It has probably been 15 years since I had last seen it. When I found it on You Tube last night after midnight, I decided to kill 23 minutes and re-live some childhood.

Now that I have, let me tell you...some childhood memories should just be left behind and buried.

For those who don't know, Psalty is basically a Christian knock off of Barney. Psalty actually pre-dates Barney, but you would easily see the comparison. That alone may turn off a bunch of people, and as a Christian myself, I say GOOD.

Now, this isn't the worst thing in the world. The video has some classic religious kid songs that are catchy no matter your age-like Jesus Loves Me, Give Me Oil In My Lamp, This Little Light Of Mine, and God Is So Good. Those songs briefly make the video tolerable. The video also has a good lesson that God loves us, which is well explained in a toddler-level way of understanding.

But that leads me to the flaws- for instance there's some songs made for the video that are instantly forgettable.

One big annoyance the video has is a character named Mr. Nose It All. N-O-S-E. That's not a typo. He's a nose with lots of knowledge. Mr. Nose It All has a voice that is a cross between Ed Wynn and a clown, and trust me when I say that is NOT pleasant to listen to!

The kids do not assist with this matter. One girl asks: "Mr. Nose It All, who loves more than anyone in THE WHOOOOLE WOOOOORLD?" Mr. Nose It All says "God loves us more than anyone in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD!"

Then a boy named Josh wants to sit under the nose, because before he answers a question, he sneezes out confetti. (I felt bad for whoever was in charge of cleaning that up!) To activate the confetti, Josh asks "How do we know that God loves us?" Mr. Nose It All sneezes and cites John 3:16, the most famous verse in The Bible to which, I must add, is a minor pleasure within itself.

There's also a few times where the Nose runs away, and Psalty makes a terrible pun that it's a "running gag." There's other puns on that level in the video as well, which have escaped my mind. What doesn't haunt me was either a forgettable scene or a classic song.

Oh, and the nose in these running scenes has legs coming out of the nostrils. If that isn't disturbing enough, Psalty is a hymnal with a face out the spine of the "book"!

That's the kind of thing that really brings this down. I feel that this earns 2 separate ratings-3/10 for anyone above kindergarten, and 6/10 for anyone under. Unlike a Christian series such as Veggie Tales, the show Psalty only appeals to a young target audience, and them only.

My overall recommendation is this: This video can be found on You Tube. If you want to show it to your youngster, set it up on your phone or electronic device, and flee the room as soon as possible. Otherwise, you will be salty, and NOT in a Christian way!

Reverse Recommendation: If you want to teach kids how much God us, it would be better to You Tube search "Veggie Tales God Loves You Very Much", which has a catchy song about God's love and 3 Bible parodies about it. It's an hour longer but MUCH, MUCH BETTER!