Answering the question who is BabyBus has turned out to be more difficult than who shot John F. Kennedy…. okay well actually that’s an easier question because everyone knows it was the mafia. BabyBus unfortunately, isn’t as easy of an answer as the mafia…. Although it would be even more entertaining if it was the mafia behind BabyBus, the songs would be entertaining. But in all seriousness, who is BabyBus.
Well, I put on my detective hat and tried to find out who the creators are behind these singing animals. On their website, I thought the “About” section was where I’d get my info, but it basically gave me a bunch of cliches about children’s education and no real answers about who came up with this idea.
After doing more digging, the best I could come up with is that it’s a Chinese media company located in you guessed it…. China. After spending too much time trying to figure out who are the creators of the songs and the voices I gave up and decided some mysteries are meant to stay unsolved. After all, does it really matter who they are or where they’re from? No, if it’s entertaining for my toddler and not setting bad examples, that’s all that counts.
Don’t worry though, if you’re still new to BabyBus, I have plenty of thoughts on whether they’re worth your time, or if you should skip to the next video and go back to Cocomelon.
What to Expect with the BabyBus YouTube Channel
BabyBus actually does something that Cocomelon, ChuChu TV and the rest of the YouTube children’s’ music channels don’t do…. they tell a story as well as have music videos. Now, before you yell at me, I know ChuChu TV has a bunch of “storytime” videos where they tell…well..kind of strange stories, and Cocomelon is getting in on the storytime stuff as well. But BabyBus has many of their stories mixed into their songs. Think of a Broadway play type of thing. You can really get emotionally invested in what’s going on.
The main characters of BabyBus are pandas named Kiki and MiuMiu and the show follows them around throughout their BabyBus world. They touch on a variety of topics from trucks, cars, and airplanes, to going to the doctor, eating candy and everything in between. Also, most of their songs are set to familiar nursery rhyme songs that have been around for ages and ages.
One of the good things about BabyBus is that most of their videos last for a pretty long time. If you’re someone who tries to control what your child watches on YouTube this is very convenient because the videos don’t end after 2 minutes and then your child is asking you for something else.
A Big Con of BabyBus
Now, as a writer/blogger, I am not trying to be the English language police, but if you listen to BabyBus without paying attention to the story, you are going to be a little confused.
You may hear lines such as “I am Excavator, watch me dig.”.
Believe it or not, there are a lot of things to unpack with that last sentence. As I said, if you are new to BabyBus or aren’t really watching the video and just listening as you’re doing something else, you may think, well, this isn’t teaching my child great language skills. “I am Excavator” is not proper English on the surface, however, you need to get the backstory on BabyBus.
There are characters called POLICE CAR and AMBULANCE and yes…EXCAVATOR. So, when they are referring to themselves, they are saying “I am Police Car, or “I am Ambulance”, just as someone would say, “I am Jim”. I know, it’s very important stuff to clarify, or else you will listen to BabyBus and be frustrated with the grammar.
The Bottom Line
While there are some flaws with BabyBus, if you look past the occasional bad grammar, recycled melodies, and sometimes weird storylines, there is something catchy about it.
My son first got into it because they had a garbage truck song and we went down a million BabyBus rabbit holes and he wound up liking it so much, we have a BabyBus album. If you want to entertain yourself, put on BabyBus when someone who has no idea what they are is in the car and it’ll sound like very strange voices singing kids songs…. ah the joys of parenthood.
Anyway, if you ask me to rank who I like better…Cocomelon, ChuChu TV or BabyBus, I’d probably rank them 3rd in my lineup of kid’s music channels, but they are entertaining. Their songs are even so catchy that you’ll find yourself singing the words throughout the day, bad grammar, and all.
I will say that I think once your toddler hits the 4 or 5 range, BabyBus may be a little too…well I guess babyish…so enjoy the time you spend with them while you can because they won’t last for too long.
The Workin' Parent 