Actually, Great Adventures marks something of a change, as Bert and Ernie are now rendered via claymation. While some purists may cry foul, the new approach allows for the characters to do things they never could have done as puppets. The disc contains eleven 5-minute features, each one finding the duo in a different scenario. In the first adventure, "Pirates," they look for buried treasure. In "Ernlock Holmes," they solve a mystery. There is one where they're cavemen returning a dinosaur egg to its mother, and one where they are cooks in a bakery making a mess. My favorite of the adventures finds them as astronauts, flying in a rubber ducky spaceship and discovering an alien species (i.e. little green men who all look like Bert). A "Harry Potter"-themed adventure is also funny, with Elmo joining in to learn how to wield a magic wand.

Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures has been animated with style and skill, in a fashion that the intended preschool audience will love. My son couldn't take his eyes off it. The stories have small lessons about teamwork, dealing with frustration, and doing the right thing. Plus, they're genuinely funny. I laughed several times throughout the hour-long DVD.

This is a good watch for young children and their families. The adventures - which are based on Ernie's nightly dreams - emphasize imagination, encouraging kids to tap into the power of their own creativity. Given that so much of children’s "entertainment" is designed simply to sell toys, it's nice to find something that actually has some substance to it. Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures additionally has high replay value, given that kids can flip around to whichever stories they want to see. My family enjoyed watching it together, and that's the best you can ask for in this type of DVD.