I’m probably late to the game, but I just found out about Netflix original series Motown Magic. We were actually scrolling Netflix on Saturday night looking for something to watch to avoid watching Bo on the Go and Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas for the 808080th time that day. When James showed me Motown Magic I was immediately skeptical. I’m going to admit I never heard of Beat Bugs or Josh Wakely prior to this show, so I had no background to go off of. We showed RJ and his immediate response was “no I don’t wanna watch that.” LOL. We didn’t give him a choice, and within the first episode I was SO GLAD I didn’t.
** Mild episode one spoilers ahead**
Motown Magic follows the story of Ben, an 8 year old who lives in the city of “Motown”, who uses a paintbrush to make the street art in his neighborhood come to life. When the theme song started during episode one, we immediately got excited, The Jackson 5’s ABC is the theme song sung by 11 year old Zacary James. Episode one introduces us to Ben and his extremely talented family living in the city of Motown. Everyone in his family seems to know what their “thing” is but Ben doesn’t believe he has talent.
Episode one is pretty much when you realize the show is LIT. Each episode is inspired by a classic Motown song with a contemporary take. The song fits in with the theme of the episode and there is a lesson learned in every one. Even better for little preschool attention spans, each episode is only between 12 and 15 minutes long with the exception of episode one. By the second episode RJ and Zayn were dancing and singing (along with me and their dad) and all signs of “I don’t want to watch that” had left the building. A few more episodes in and my 4 year old started seeing himself in Motown. There was “Mommy! Ben looks like me!” and “Mommy, Ella has hair just like you!”. You cannot convince me that representation doesn’t matter to kids.
It’s Tuesday morning now and we’ve watched every episode of Motown Magic AT least once already and we’re on round 2. I’m pretty sure we’re going to check out Beat Bugs next since we’re late to that party as well, but I’m thankful Josh Wakely created a show where my baby can see himself, and we can all sing and dance to songs even my parents and grandparents love. It’s an amazing break from Baby Shark!
Have you watched Motown Magic yet with your little ones? Check out the trailer below, it’s easy as 123!
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