In 1999, a company called BM Korea released their own versions of Baby Einstein and Baby Mozart. As you can imagine, they did not actually have the rights to the franchise, and when Julie Aigner-Clark discovered these releases, she promptly sued them for ripping her off. BM’s unofficial releases were taken off the market, and they promptly released ripoff videos called “Baby Genius” (which has yet to surface online) and “New Baby Mozart”.
While the BM Korea release of Mozart has few edits, mostly limited to on-screen text identifying the classical music, their release of the first video is totally different. Let’s go over it, scene by scene…
Intro: The video tutorial seen on the early releases of Baby Einstein is here, but it’s been overdubbed by some kind of Korean song. Pictures of flags corresponding to the different languages have also been inserted.
Hello!: The first Bear-in-the-Box clip has been shortened a bit, but remains in English. Following that is the intro, where BM Korea have inserted their own card with a translation of the video’s title.
Fish: Unchanged
Machine Ball Factory: What’s this doing here?!? Yeah, I forgot to mention earlier that a bunch of clips from Baby Bach have been added to this version of the video. The audio during this scene is of Julie’s rendition of Humpty Dumpty that’s supposed to be later in the video.
Patterns: “Leise, Peterle, Leise” has been replaced by what sounds like someone counting in Korean.
Roly Poly Cow: Unchanged
New Scene: Instead of the Rock-a-Stack, we get new footage of someone placing magnetic blocks on the screen. I have no idea what’s being said here.
Train segue: Unchanged
Aiueo: Unchanged
Jack and Jill: Unchanged
Fruit: This scene replaces “Numi, Numi”, and instead of flowers, we have pictures of fruit. The audio during this scene is “J’avais”, which is supposed to be later in the video.
After this comes three more scenes from Baby Bach, namely a fire truck, Sierra Clark playing with a rattle, and a toy piano.
Backe, Backe, Kuchen: Dubbed over by a Korean version of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”. At least the lady remembered to clap her hands.
Hola!: Instead of Spanish, we hear someone greeting us in Chinese.
Cardboard Bricks: Unchanged
Candles: The Russian lullaby that normally comes here has been dubbed into Korean, though it has the same tune as the original.
New Scene: We now get, I kid you not, footage of naked babies. This scene in general was one thing that made Julie Aigner-Clark particularly upset when she found out about this video.
After that, we get a picture of a Korean drum, and Baby Bach footage of a mouse eating cheese.
Edo no Komori Uta: Normally, there should be pictures of dolls here, but BM Korea replaced them with the wind chime that’s supposed to come near the end of the video. They also fade to black and start the wind chime footage over again so it doesn’t transition to the metronome that normally follows it.
New Scene: Pictures of various things, like a monkey plush, fruit, a still shot of the train that appears throughout the video, and a toy plane.
Spiral Ball Lamp: Instead of counting in German, we hear someone counting in Chinese.
After this, we get more Baby Bach footage of Sierra playing with a trumpet, a trumpet toy, and a flipping dog (Flipsie?), complete with awkward cuts in the audio.
Fun Links: “Habi, Beybi” is replaced by some kind of wacky Korean song.
Foam Blocks: The Hebrew alphabet is replaced by someone who is not Julie Aigner-Clark singing the Alphabet Song in English, although the sound of the blocks falling at the end is left intact.
Malenki’ye Gusi: Redubbed with a Korean version of “Frere Jacques”. The backing track is the music that plays during the “Jack and Jill” scene, albeit awkwardly cut around Julie’s voice.
More Baby Bach footage of a toy trumpet, Sierra playing peek-a-boo, and a toy truck being loaded with coins follows this.
Musical Clock: Unchanged
Konnichiwa!: Unchanged
Bo Peep: Unchanged
Xylophone: Unchanged
New Scene: Korean flash cards with pictures of various things on them are displayed. This is then followed by a mechanical duck toy waddling around. Ironically, this duck later appeared in an actual Baby Einstein video (Neighborhood Animals).
Candles/Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star: Unchanged. However, a scene from Baby Bach with a barnyard toy is inserted between it and the next scene.
Patterns/Japanese 1-20: Unchanged
“New” Scene: A bubble-blowing bear from Baby Bach is accompanied by a Korean poem.
Bonjour!: Unchanged
“New” Scene: Baby Bach footage of a cat toy is accompanied by a Chinese version of “Frere Jacques”.
French 1-20: Instead of a mobile, this plays over Baby Bach footage of various carnival related toys.
Metronome: Unchanged
Rattle: The Spanish audio is replaced by a Korean poem.
Little Miss Muffet: Unchanged, but is then followed by more Baby Bach footage of a dinosaur hatching from an egg, an accordion, and a chicken.
Sakura: Instead of vegetables, this plays over pictures of flowers.
Duck Rattle: Instead of German, the duck greets us in Korean.
Niji: This plays over footage of the rings on the Rock-a-Stack appearing.
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