Little Einsteins

Little Einsteins is an American animated children's television series based on the Baby Einstein line of videos. Produced by The Baby Einstein Company (at the time owned by Disney) and animated by Curious Pictures, it marked the Baby Einstein Company's first project for preschoolers. The series follows the adventures of a group of four young children: Leo, June, Quincy, and Annie, who travel around the world in an anthropomorphic rocket ship and undertake various missions, each one themed around a particular painting or classical music composition. Little Einsteins was announced in November 2001, when Disney purchased The Baby Einstein Company. Press releases stated "there are already plans to extend the Baby Einstein brand into a Little Einstein product line aimed at preschoolers." The show's concept and characters were developed by Douglas Wood, with further development led by Emmy Award-winning director Olexa Hewryk and Dora the Explorer co-creator Eric Weiner. Like the original Baby Einstein series, Little Einsteins makes heavy use of classical music. According to Common Sense Media, both series share the same "philosophy of artistic visuals and stimulating classical music to enhance brain development and learning." Little Einsteins started out with a direct-to-video film, Our Huge Adventure, that was released on August 23, 2005. The series proper premiered on Playhouse Disney on October 9, 2005, and ended on December 22, 2009, after two seasons and 67 episodes.