Dwizzle Dee is a Labor of Love

23 Apr, 2010 By: Billy Gil

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Cinema Werx, previously a distributor of demolition derby videos, is releasing its first children’s title May 25 with Dwizzle Dee – Colors, Sizes, Songs & Imagination! at $14.95. To hear one of its creators, Ryan Poore, tell it, producing the first episode of the educational series was a labor of love, completed over five years, in seven cities in three different states.

Poore works for Clear Channel, while his business partner, Scott Anderson, is an air traffic controller. Poore says having a 3-year-old at home and watching countless children’s videos spurred his belief that he and Anderson, who started Cinema Werx together in 2001, could do it on their own, in their spare time.

“I thought, ‘how hard could this be to do this?’” Poore said. “Five years later, we found out how easy it was.”

Their concept involves a teacher named Ms. Ashley and three students, Lenny, Penny and Gifford. The puppet characters start in the classroom and then head to the outdoors, where children learn basic concepts, picking out which flower on the screen is red, or what the biggest flower is, for instance.

“We just had someone tell us this past week it was the first time they had seen their daughter reach to the screen to try to grab these characters,” Poore said.

Poore said getting distribution at retail was no easy feat (the DVD is currently available as a pre-release exclusive at Amazon and FilmBaby.com), but having the approval of both the Dove Foundation and Kids First! helped.

“They don’t just hand out these awards,” Poore said. “You have to meet certain criteria. There has to be no violence, it has to be kid-friendly. [The Dove Foundation has] reviewers, parents, adult juries and children’s juries that watch the show and they give their feedback and rating based on what they think and then you get an overall rating.”

So with the seal of approval from two esteemed family entertainment organizations, two extreme sports video producers have brought a new children’s show to fruition, which they plan to continue with another episode with the same character traveling to the farm. The initial program is approximately 30 minutes, and the DVD includes sing-along songs, broken out from the program itself; printable coloring/activity pages that are available as downloadable PDF files; and an animated preview for the children’s book El Gato, which teaches English-speaking children basic Spanish.

“To see the reaction of a child watching this show, that pretty much pays us,” Poore said. “All the work we put into it, that’s the reward.”

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