Educational Media Reviews Online

This Caribbean folk tale is reminiscent of Hansel and Gretel whereby children are held captive by a hungry adult who is prepared to cook and eat them. Both stories also feature said adult being unwittingly duped by one of the tricky and quick thinking children. In this version, the adult is Mama Zee whom the children suspect is a ‘cocoya’ which is one that will shrivel up and blow away if the sunlight hits her. Mama Zee wishes to boil up the young boy with sugar and spice, but his sister continuously informs Mama Zee that before she can go to bed for the night (thus allowing Mama Zee to eat her brother) that at home Mama Nettie will perform various tasks such as setting her hair or bathing her. Toward the end of the story as daylight is coming, Mama Zee is tricked into going out for bath water and she…I can’t give it away!

The animation is different and pleasantly quirky and gels smoothly with the story. The Caribbean accents are not so strong as to confound the intended young viewing audience, but are an essential effect for the story. Mind Me Good Now is a bit expensive for such a short film, assuming you are paying institutional pricing versus home use only pricing. The video is accompanied by the 29-page story book written by Lynette Comissiong and illustrated by Marie Lafrance. The video is not the book word for word and Lafrance is not the animator, so purchasers can get a little more bang for their buck by reading the story and showing the similar film. Mind Me Good Now is entertaining and recommended for larger public libraries or elementary school libraries and media centers.