The adventures are fun and well written and the dialog is witty, but the thing that really sets The Backyardigans apart is the music and the dancing. Each episode has a musical theme for which the staff composers (notably Evan Lurie of the Lounge Lizards) create original music and songs of often surprisingly high quality.

So far The Backyardigans musical vocabulary ranges from 60s Garage Punk (Monster Detective) to Bossa Nova (Castaways) to Kenya Highlife (Mission to Mars) to Klezmer (Horsin’ Around).