Imagination Movers – entertaining for parents too

We are going to the Imagination Movers concert this weekend. The very second we heard that the guys were coming to Birmingham, we cued up at the Web site to buy tickets. I haven’t been so excited about going to a concert since camping out for Adam Ant. (Did I actually just admit to that?) Love those Movers. We were somewhat fans before Truman joined us on this earth – they had come on Rick’s show in the early days. Then we saw their music videos between shows on Disney. And then last fall they debuted their own 30-minute program on the network, which Truman love-loves. The guys are kind of silly but the songs rock, and that means a lot to parents who have to listen in while their child watches TV.

Check out some of the Imagination Movers music videos.

Truman used to be a huge Wiggles fan when he was a wee kid. Those guys are all good and well but godforbid if I heard another polka song sung by those smiling Aussies I swear I’d plunge my eyes out with a spike. We heard that music daily for more than a year and I was so Wiggled out I thought I’d die.

My MIL broke up the monotony with a few jewel purchases from Walmart’s dollar table – something we affectionately called the “boys and girls.” It was a group of kids who sang and danced around theme park rides and lip-synced to cheesy songs. The videos must have been produced in the 1990s, if not the 1980s. That was torture enough. But what made it worse is that there were two chipmunk-like creatures – two adults dressed up like some sort of fuzzy school mascot – that did cameos in each of the videos and sang in these annoying helium-wretched voices. There was one song where the guy chipmunk-thing says something like, “Now, boys and girls, let’s do the hand jive,” and I swear to you he was saying “hand job” but Rick INSISTED that he was saying “hand jive,” whatever that is supposed to mean. Perverts.

And then there were the hand-me-down religious tapes MIL picked up from a friend as an attempt to keep our son on the straight and narrow. These were sung by extremely over-animated kids contorting the words of common songs to have a religious slant. Again, that was all fine and well as long as those tapes stayed at MIL’s house and not mine. Let him watch what he will at the ILs home…so long as we keep the rank music in my home at a minimum.

We did manage to gradually introduce our son to decent tunes after that. He became a fan of the Beatles Yellow Submarine CD and had nicknames for all those songs like “The Walking People,” which was a direct result of watching that really weird animated movie they made. He particularly loves several Dixie Chicks hits, too. But his all time favorites are head banger songs I do not know the name of but that my son fell in love-love with when my husband lovingly taught him how to click the bookmarked button for “Nascar crash videos” on YouTube. Those tunes are on the iPod now…and well, at least it’s not the freaking Wiggles or those perverted chipmunk creatures.

Which leads me back to the Imagination Movers. Now, that is good, clean kid’s music….tunes even the adults will appreciate. My absolute favorite one is called something like “Nina.” I would download it. (In fact, why don’t i?) Their tour appears to be somewhat limited – and somewhat over. But at the very least, if you have a kid – you should DVR or Tivo the Movers’ shows on Disney. I’m telling you, you will be dancing around the house in no time!