Little Einsteins

Little Einsteins is an American animated children's television series based on the Baby Einstein line of videos. Produced by The Baby Einstein Company (at the time owned by Disney) and animated by Curious Pictures, it marked the Baby Einstein Company's first project for preschoolers. The series follows the adventures of a group of four young children: Leo, June, Quincy, and Annie, who travel around the world in an anthropomorphic rocket ship and undertake various missions, each one themed around a particular painting or classical music composition.

Little Einsteins was announced in November 2001, when Disney purchased The Baby Einstein Company. Press releases stated "there are already plans to extend the Baby Einstein brand into a Little Einstein product line aimed at preschoolers." The show's concept and characters were developed by Douglas Wood, with further development led by Emmy Award-winning director Olexa Hewryk and Dora the Explorer co-creator Eric Weiner. Like the original Baby Einstein series, Little Einsteins makes heavy use of classical music. According to Common Sense Media, both series share the same "philosophy of artistic visuals and stimulating classical music to enhance brain development and learning."

Little Einsteins started out with a direct-to-video film, Our Huge Adventure, that was released on August 23, 2005. The series proper premiered on Playhouse Disney on October 9, 2005, and ended on December 22, 2009, after two seasons and 67 episodes.

Overview
Little Einsteins was designed to teach the target demographic art and music appreciation by integrating famous or culturally significant art works (usually, but not exclusively, paintings) and classical music (most typically from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras) into the scenery, story and soundtrack of each episode. The show is also designed to encourage viewer interaction (such as encouraging the audience to pat their knees, gesture or sing along to help the characters succeed on their "mission").

Broadcast
The first regular episode of Little Einsteins premiered in the United States on October 9, 2005 on Disney Channel, through the Playhouse Disney block. The final regular episode aired on December 22, 2009, and a standalone special titled "Rocket's Firebird Rescue" was released direct-to-DVD on August 21, 2007. The series continued to air in reruns afterward, including after Playhouse Disney was rebranded as Disney Junior on February 14, 2011, through March 25, 2019. The show is currently available on Disney+ and DisneyNow. In Canada, the show aired on Family Channel.

In the UK dub, the Little Einsteins are voiced by Piers Stubbs (Leo), Poppy Lee Friar (June), Mitchell Zhangazha (Quincy), and Kirsty Hickey (Annie), and certain American terms are changed to fit within British English, such as changing mentions of candy canes to those of "sweetie sticks".

Reception
The series was given a 5-star rating by Common Sense Media.

In other media
A video game based on the show was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2006.