Review: The Wonder Pets Save the Beetles

Nickelodeon first aired "The Wonder Pets Save the Beetles" as a prime-time special on Monday, April 21, 2008. With all the hype Nickelodeon had been giving to the prime-time special and the DVD release, I assumed it would be a "double-length" Wonder Pets. While I didn't have high expectations for this special, I was actually disappointed that it was only a regular-length Wonder Pets story. To fill out the time, this was paired with "Three Wonder Pets and a Baby."

When "The Wonder Pets Save the Beetles" started, you knew you were in trouble when the Wonder Pets logo came up and was done in the style of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover. Then, this was followed by the title of the episode being said with a British accent. The classroom was decorated with yellow submarines, and there was even a picture of "The Beetles" hanging on the wall.

After the kids leave, the "phone" starts ringing... except, instead of ringing, it was gurgling water. The Wonder Pets answer the "phone" and find The Beetles on the other end. They are in their yellowish submarine, on their way to perform at Octopus' Garden, but got stuck in kelp. The Wonder Pets covert their flyboat into a submarine, and get stuck in a mobile. They have to work together to free themselves and go rescue The Beetles.

Within the roughly 12-13 minutes this story ran, the writers tried to squeeze in so many references to the Beatles. During the course of the episode, there were references to: "Yellow Submarine," "Help!," "Eleanor Rigby," "Fixing a Hole," "Octopus's Garden," and "Let it Be" come to mind. I'm sure there were some others that I'm not thinking of right now. While these references will go over the heads of the target audience, any adult watching with the kids that are familiar with the Beatles will spend more time groaning at the references than actually trying to enjoy the story.