Happy and You Know It 2026 Tv Show Review
As “Happy And You Know It” (2025 release; 79 min.) opens, we are at a Wiggles concert. The Australian band The Wiggles are the U2 or the Rolling Stones of the children’s music market segment. Anthony Wiggle, one of the band’s founding members, explains what makes children’s music tick, for children: the music needs to be interactive for kids. The Wiggles have been at it for 3+ decades, and are HUGE. At this point we are 10 minutes into the movie.
Couple of comments: this is the latest from longtime documentary director Penny Lane (“Hail Satan?”). Here she delves into the niche music segment that is children’s music. “Big names” in that niche segment like the Wiggles, Laura Berkner, Johnny Only and others are features. Most interesting is a guy who now performs as Casper Babypants, but 30 years ago was in the widely popular indie alternative band President of the United States of America. All of them explain that children’s music is a universe of its own, and not intended to appeal to adults as such. This almost certainly explains the low overall rating of this documentary here on IMDb. I personally found this documentary rather well done and even an eye-opener.
“Happy and You Know It” recently started airing on HBO (as part of its ongoing “Music Box” releases), and it is also streaming on HBO Max, where I caught it last night. If you have an interest in music, I’d readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.
