Review LazyTown Live 2008 UK - Roboticus

[sportagirl_10.5]

LazyTown LIVE in UK and Latin America

I'M GOING TO LAZYTOWN LIVE TOMORROW!

BE WARNED LITTLE KIDS!

[Alan314159]

LazyTown LIVE in UK and Latin America

I hope your fellow audience will be in more of a participating mood that mine! Killjoys stopped getting up and jumping around like loons after the first couple of times.

I had the advantage over some of them though - one lot of moves was taken straight from one of the Latibær plays: "Klapp, klapp, læri, læri, kross, út, upp, upp!" so I was running ahead of the guys on stage slightly

[AgentKJ]

LazyTown LIVE in UK and Latin America

I had the advantage over some of them though - one lot of moves was taken straight from one of the Latibær plays: "Klapp, klapp, læri, læri, kross, út, upp, upp!" so I was running ahead of the guys on stage slightly

Cool, I saw in a video on YouTube that they did that (it was from one in Argentina though). Cool that they stick to some stuff from the plays.

[sportagirl_10.5]

LazyTown LIVE in UK and Latin America

Cool, I saw in a video on YouTube that they did that (it was from one in Argentina though). Cool that they stick to some stuff from the plays.

I did that dance! I said it all in Icelandic at the same time as well!

My friend kept looking at me because I started to sing along to the songs in Icelandic... and didn't actually notice I did it...

[Alan314159]

LazyTown LIVE in UK and Latin America

I did that dance! I said it all in Icelandic at the same time as well!

My friend kept looking at me because I started to sing along to the songs in Icelandic... and didn't actually notice I did it...

Hooray for crazy Icelandic singing! Soon we will take over the world... well, perhaps just entertainment for the under-sixes then.
Out of curiosity, do you speak Icelandic, or just enough to sing along to the songs?

[sportagirl_10.5]

LazyTown LIVE in UK and Latin America

Hooray for crazy Icelandic singing! Soon we will take over the world... well, perhaps just entertainment for the under-sixes then.
Out of curiosity, do you speak Icelandic, or just enough to sing along to the songs?

I was learning... but then I had to empty my head of it to cram in all my GCSE stuff for my exams.

I wonder who shouted "WOOHOO!" when everyone was booing Robbie...

[sportagirl_10.5]

LazyTown LIVE in UK and Latin America

Ok... here's my experience... but it's long...


My Report on LazyTown Live in Preston Guild Hall July 2nd

Mary, my three year-old sister, and I got out of my granddad's car. I looked down the street, I could already see a mini-Sportacus and a mini-Stephanie. Well at least I knew I'd come at the right time.

Mary was simply wearing a pink t-shirt, pink shorts and a pink cardigan... and of course her red Charlie and Lola backpack. Meanwhile I was wearing black combats, my black with white stripes jacket, under this I was wearing my school red PE top because we had games on our last day in Year 11 and my friend was turning our shirts into Liverpool shirts, on the back mine said “Sportagirl 10.5”. We walked into the building to meet my friend Liz, who I'd only ever spoken on the phone to, or emailed beforehand. She had brought her cousin Joe, unfortunately I wasn't sure which young woman with a little boy would be her.

And so, like Robbie, I devised a plan *insert evil laughter*. I took my phone out my pocket and phoned her to see who would pick up a phone. After she answered I finally spotted her and we went into the foyer under the Guild Hall together giving our tickets to the gentlemen on the door.

The room was pink and blue. Seriously. I wanted to be dressed like Sportacus so I could go up to one of the many little Sportacuses... Sportaci... (who knows what two of them are called!) and act out a scene from one of the episodes where Robbie (the villain, with a handsomely big chin, and amazing fashion sense) has dressed up as Sportacus (the town's slightly-above-average hero) and walks into Sportacus, and they do the “I'm Sportacus.” “No, I'M Sportacus!” routine.

Not before long, we were dragged to the table selling merchandise. They sold Sportacus crystals that flashed when you jumped up and down, and they were cheaper than the activity brochure and poster that came together, so I bought us both one to wear. We then went and found our seats and sat there for a while, I took my purple 'elf' hat out of my bag and put it on, so I looked like a Robbie-coloured Sportacus... and then five minutes before it started Mary looked at me... “Vic... I need the toilet.”

She has got to be kidding.

So we fought our way through the audience and I carried her down the stairs and all the way to the toilets to be very quick. I sat her on the toilet... “This is the last call for LazyTown Live.”

Great.

She looked at me “Oh no Vic, we're going to miss it.” And after all that... she didn't want the toilet after hearing that. We walked outside, only to meet Liz and Joe, who claimed he wanted the toilet as well. So Mary and I went back to guard the seats, in case Stingy tried to claim them. Liz and Joe came back quite quickly, it turned out he didn't need it either. What is it with little kids and plotting against their carers?

Well, you may be reading this and wondering what I'm talking about, since I have no idea who'll read this. You may not know anything about a TV show called LazyTown... or you may be like me, who knows more or less everything that I can find on the show. Can I cram everything I know into a little summary... probably not but here goes...

Once upon a time, there was a man who lived in the small country called Iceland that was not actually made of ice. He was a carpenter and made a bet with his mates, he ended up winning the silver medal at the world championship of professional aerobics. His name was (and still is) Magnus Scheving, and he used his fame to travel around the world and give talks on healthy living. He noticed that parents always asked him the same questions about raising their kids, and when he thought about it, there were no healthy role models for kids. So he went back to Iceland and wrote some books that became bestsellers and later became musicals in which he would play the hero, Íþróttaálfurinn, the 'Sports Elf', who later in the TV series became 'Sportacus 10'. The first musical, 'Áfram Latibær' was about a group of kids in 'Latibær', or 'LazyTown' as it later became, who were negative about living healthily, until a certain Sports Elf appeared and changed this. The second play 'Glanni Glæpur í Latabæ' introduced a villain, 'Glanni Glæpur', played by one of Iceland's greatest actors/comedians, Stefan Karl Stefansson, who still plays 'Robbie Rotten' in the TV series.

Eventually, Magnus managed to get Nickelodeon to commission a TV series for their little kiddie channel Nick Jr. The show is entirely produced at the TV studios built for the show in Gardabaer in Iceland. It mixes live acting, puppetry and CGI, and is noticeable for the bright, vivid colours that young children like. Magnus doesn't believe in lowering quality just because it's made for kids, not adults, and spends roughly £421000 on each 24-minute episode. Puts the BBC to shame considering the budget they have, to make kids TV programmes compared to other channels. The BBC spent £14 million on producing a hundred 30-minute episodes of 'In The Night Garden'. To be honest, do we want our kids singing songs that will help them brush their teeth, or do we want them to go round kissing trees and singing “Makka Pakka, Akka Whakka, Mikka Makka Moo!”?

LazyTown Live is based on the characters from the TV series, but has one new character, but I don't want to ruin the surprise for you. Stephanie, played by American actress Julianna Rose Mauriello in the TV series, is a cheerful 8 year old who always wears pink to match her bright pink hair, she moves to LazyTown to visit her uncle, Mayor Milford Meanswell. Mayor Meanswell, as his name suggests, always means well, but unfortunately he is a little organised and clumsy and often ends up in sticky situations. Mayor Meanswell completely adores Miss Bessie Busybody and will do anything for her. Bessie is the town's gossip, she is always seen talking on her mobile phone and is unaware of the Mayor feelings for her, she tries to be a motherly figure for the kids in the town, but unfortunately is not so good at it. The kids in the town tend to stay indoors all day playing computer games and eating unhealthy junk food, probably influenced by Robbie Rotten and his lazy ways. Ziggy is always eating candy and is the youngest of the group, Stingy thinks he owns everything, Trixie doesn't like following rules and Pixel would rather talk to a computer than a actual human being. Stephanie comes along and tries to change their ways, Robbie of course doesn't like this, so Stephanie calls Sportacus to the town. Each episode shows Sportacus beating Robbie's dastardly plans, as Robbie does not give up, (ironic he's trying to throw a pink girl out of town who uses the phrase “There's always a way” a lot) as in the words of Stefan Karl “Robbie is a good man but he wants to be the villain.”

So we all boarded the flight from Preston to LazyTown. The show was cleverly done, all on the same set and it was surprising how much like Stefan Karl's Robbie, this Robbie was. He was clumsy, he squealed like a girl... but didn't notice the “WOOHOO!” for him among all the booing, I wonder who that was...

The show used clips from many of the songs from the show which the kids, and slightly older kids, sang to. A certain little girl next to me couldn't stop bouncing up and down on her chair, when she wasn't hugging me to death, saying “It's too scary!”. I'm not sure why they bothered with seats for all the kids. I noticed that after the interval lots of the children had just gathered around the stage, then again it's easier to dance there than in a chair. They were jumping up and dancing and joining in. I think that Preston has to work with their parents as they seem to be incapable of jumping up and joining in even though Stephanie told everyone, even the parents to jump to knock the apple down. My friend and I must have been the only people over the age of 7 who did actually jump up and join in. How can parents expect their kids to join in if they don't? I suggest that the council start working on this, persuading parents to be more active, so next year my friend and I are saved from the embarrassment of dancing on our own. If Sportacus is fighting child obesity, we need someone to fight adult obesity, because kids copy their parents and if they don't change why should kids?

In the interval, the Guild Hall were selling the ice cream they always sell, and popcorn, well at least Ziggy and Robbie would be happy. I made a rather loud comment to my friend “YOU WOULD THINK THEY WOULD SELL CARROTS, OR APPLES, CONSIDERING WHAT SHOW IT IS!”

I think the only negative things of the show (other than the food they were selling) were the lack of Robbie's line “IT'S DISGUISE TIME!” and the lack of Bessie in the show, after all the puppeteer and voice for Bessie in the TV show is Julie Westwood from Bolton.

So when we walked out, Mary chased the man selling balloons. I wasn't going to buy one because I hate balloons. But then again, Stephanie has faced her fear of heights, and Sportacus has faced his fear of dinosaurs and even Robbie faces his fear of heights nearly every episode, even if it is to kick 'Sportakook' out of town. So we got on the bus with my mum, and a balloon, and a mini-Stephanie, and a mini-Sportacus.

LazyTown has a massive fan base on the internet, ranging from parents of kids who watch it to teenagers at college. While here in the UK fans are happy, we can watch the episodes on Cbeebies or Nick Jr. and buy the merchandise in the shops, fans in America cannot find anything related to LazyTown in the shops and gradually the channels showing LazyTown has been declining. Just because Nickelodeon don't own all of LazyTown and doesn't get the money from the merchandise, they have decided to stop importing the merchandise or show it on TV, and instead bring out as much 'Dora the Explorer' and 'Go Diego Go!' merchandise as they can. American LazyTown fans are calling LazyTown fans all over the world to write to Nickelodeon in America and persuade them to show the show again.

As we walked out, my friend turned to me “So, I'll book the tickets for next year.”