Jakers! Treasure Hunt on Raloo Farm
Voice cast: Mel Brooks, Charles Adler, Pamela Adlon, Melissa Disney, Maile Flanagan, Nika Futterman, Peadar Lamb, Tara Strong, Russi Taylor
Paramount Home Video
Available Feb. 19, 2008

Jakers! Treasure Hunt on Raloo Farm collects four of the Emmy Award-winning episodes of the Jakers! cartoon from PBS Kids. Featuring beautiful CGI animation, imaginative stories, and memorable characters, the show is clever entertainment of the highest quality for kids and adults alike.

Each episode begins with Grandpa Piggley Winks telling his grandchildren a childhood story of growing up in Ireland on Raloo Farm in the village of Tara. The show then moves to a flashback of a young Piggley having adventures with his friends. As one would expect, every tale has a lesson to be learned, with grandpa’s stories offering advice on dealing with challenging situations a child might experience. Cartoons like this are a dime a dozen, but where Jakers! really stands out is the care and attention to detail taken in capturing the atmosphere of the Irish countryside. As each new episode played, I found myself more and more impressed at the world these characters inhabit. Everything from the lush scenery to the smallest prop has an authentic “feel” about it that absorbs you into the story.

The first installment has Piggley Winks and his friends Ferny the Bull and Dannan the Duck going on a treasure hunt that’s concocted by Piggley’s father to get him to do his farm chores without realizing it. Further adventures have the trio discovering what they’re convinced is a dragon egg… learning how to do traditional Irish dancing from Dannan’s grandmother… and finding out what it means to be a grown up. Fun stories all.

If the show has any failings for me, it’s the weird situations you get into when anthropomorphic animal characters inhabit a world which also has non-anthropomorphic animals. Watching a talking pig, bull, and duck collecting eggs from “regular” chickens may not freak out kids, but it kind of freaks out me. Also, Mel Brooks lending his voice to Wiley the Sheep may be genius comedic casting, but his obvious American accent seems oddly misplaced when all the other characters are given more authentic Irish brogues. Neither of these criticisms diminishes my enthusiasm for Jakers! one bit, but I do find them distracting enough to mention.

Overall I highly recommend this brilliant cartoon series, not just for its target audience of kids ages 4 to 7, but for anybody who wants to experience the charm of traditional Irish storytelling with an educational slant. The DVD has precious few special features — a read-along story, featurettes showcasing real-life storytellers, and interludes with real-life kids introducing their grandparents — but they support the series well and are worth checking out. Jakers! Treasure Hunt on Raloo Farm is available today, and retails for $14.99 from Paramount Home Video.