Archive for the ‘Children's’ Category
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 16th, 2010
Anyone who has come here long enough to get to know my likes and dislikes probably knows what a Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse fan I am. The man and the character opened the road for so much of what we have today, from Pixar to Tom and Jerry. But, if you’re looking for the kind of cartoons you and I have grown to expect, this one is bound to disappoint you. It’s an episode of the current television series Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It’s an animated Sesame Street, however, and not really a cartoon adventure.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 9th, 2010
“This is the story about a football team. From the beginning this football team had heart and ability. But there was this one big problem. They didn’t believe that they could win. And then this dog came along, and this dog could do amazing things, and suddenly, the team started winning. But the truth is, even without the dog, they were winners, each and every one of them. So, if you believe that a dog can play football, then you better believe that we’re gonna win this game.”
Nah, this story isn’t about that. It’s about me … Baby.
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Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on January 30th, 2010
This is the story of two young twins who are living completely different lives, one in a boarding school who is caught up in a child smuggling ring and the other is living with his struggling artist father, but are able to share their physical pain and emotions as if telepathically. Thomas, who is with his father, knows of Tom, the boarding school “orphan,” but everyone believes Tom is just his imaginary friend. Through a chance encounter the two are reunited and both must find a way to escape the smugglers who wish to take them sell them outside of England.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 12th, 2010
“Now this might be the room of any small boy, but it happens to belong to a boy named Christopher Robin, and like most small boys, Christopher Robin had toy animals to play with. And together they had many remarkable adventures in an enchanted place called The Hundred Acre Wood. But out of all of his animal friends, Christopher Robin’s very best friend was a bear called Winnie The Pooh.”
“Oh Bother”A.A. Milne was quite an eclectic writer. He wrote murder mysteries that even appeared on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. From that fertile mind would also come a place known as the Hundred Acre Wood.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 15th, 2009
“For years, we’ve been putting a secret into the heart of every member of the Saberling Family. Be it the cryogenic refrigerator or the microwave heated coffee maker. A Secret which is at the core of any successful family: Communication.”
When director Hoyt Yeatman’s son Hoyt, Junior, got a pet guinea pig, he began to put soldier-like gear on the unfortunate animal and imagine stories that the rodent was part of a secret spy ring. He would imagine all kinds of missions for the little guy. Thus was born the idea for G Force.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 9th, 2009
This must be tool month at Disney. I ended up watching two of the specials that were released on the first, and both have tools as a central theme. This one is apparently about tools all of the time. Handy Manny is a Spanish handyman who has a living collection of tools in his box. They all talk. The Phillips and straight edge screwdrivers bicker. There’s a tape measure named Stretch, a wrench named Rusty, and a pair of pliers named Squeeze, to name a few. Together with Manny’s expertise, they can tackle any repair or building job.
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Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 3rd, 2009
Spongebob Squarepants is such the cultural phenomenon that anytime an anniversary or a full length motion picture comes into production, the show can usually get a slew of good actors and sports stars to do a cameo. For Spongebob’s tenth anniversary and third tv movie of the series: he decided to bring out a slew of guest stars. The only question that remained was the hour long episode any good or was it the show’s version of week old bread with those really crusty parts?
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Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 15th, 2009
Written by Adrienne Ambush
Imagination is better than knowledge – Albert Einstein
In a film where humans play minor characters, Aussie & Ted’s Great Adventure is about Aussie, a loveable dog, embarking on a journey to return his young owner’s stuffed animal back to her.
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Disc Reviews by Chelsea Quinn on October 9th, 2009
The Strawberry Shortcake Movie: Sky’s the Limit definitely surprised me. As I turned this 96-minute movie on I expected to be bombarded with female stereotypes: flowers, butterflies, and the color pink. Though Strawberry didn’t fail to deliver these dainty, feminine elements, it also offered six very strong and independent female characters.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 7th, 2009
“Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?”
Years ago a news magazine, I don’t remember which, conducted a survey. They discovered that more adults knew the names of the 7 Dwarfs than could name 7 figures in the federal government, including President, Vice-President, Senate, House of Representatives, and The Supreme Court. They say our educations begin very young. Well, since 1937 our youths have been entertained
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 6th, 2009
“Welcome to The Hundred Acre Wood, where voices come together in joyful celebration and, the seasons gently turn like pages in a book. A time of giving, shared with good friends and a silly old bear named Winnie The Pooh.”
“Oh Bother”A.A. Milne was quite an eclectic writer. He wrote murder mysteries that even appeared on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. From that fertile mind would also come a place known as the Hundred Acre Wood. In that select place some of literature’s finest characters had the greatest adventures any boy could imagine.
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Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 24th, 2009
In 1996, the Mighty Morphin moniker was retired from the Power Rangers. Ever since, they have changed their cast, name, & plot every year and have been running for seventeen seasons. The most current incarnation is called Power Rangers: RPM and is being currently broadcast on ABC. In fact, there a couple of new episodes that should air this Friday (9/26). So, let’s catch you up on some of the earlier episodes on this DVD.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 23rd, 2009
When the later cartoon series ran starting in 1983, the show from time to time spoofed many of the popular films of the time. Over the years everything from Star Trek to Star Wars received the Chipmunk treatment. Collectively these episodes have often been released under the title Chipmunks Go To The Movies and have even appeared with Roger Ebert. One of the best of these spoofs is the hilarious Star Wreck. Actually, the disc comes with three episodes, each spoofing a different film.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 23rd, 2009
“This is the Alvin Show, you’re positively gonna love the Alvin Show.
There’s Dave Seville, and what is more here’s the boy who giggles known as Theodore.
Now you see, on camera three, the brother known as Simon on the family tree.
And here’s the star of the show… Alvin”
The hilarity continues with a second release: The Very First Alvin Show.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 15th, 2009
“England. August in the year 1940. Again – A time for valor. A time of whispered events, now faded with the passing years.”
In 1971 what had not faded in the 7 years since its release was the enormous success of Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins. With its charming story and characters and the breakthrough special effects that the studio had developed, the film was a milestone for the entire film industry. I suppose it isn’t too surprising that the folks at Disney would want to try to recapture that success all over again.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 31st, 2009
“Now this might be the room of any small boy, but it happens to belong to a boy named Christopher Robin, and like most small boys, Christopher Robin had toy animals to play with. And together they had many remarkable adventures in an enchanted place called The Hundred Acre Wood. But out of all of his animal friends, Christopher Robin’s very best friend was a bear called Winnie The Pooh.”
“Oh Bother”A.A. Milne was quite an eclectic writer. He wrote murder mysteries that even appeared on Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 26th, 2009
“A dragon. A dragon. You bet we saw a dragon. So big and brave he came to save a village in distress. He kept the ship from crashing when he heard the SOS. He faced a group of villains and he fought them with success…”
When Walt Disney Studios released Mary Poppins, the entertainment world was turned on its ears. The integration of live action footage with animation had never been done with such success before. The studio that nearly singlehandedly perfected modern methods of animation was also the studio that learned how to combine it almost seamlessly with real breathing actors.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 7th, 2009
Who doesn’t remember the original Witch Mountain films from Disney back in the 1970’s. They were clever family films. They were camp, to be sure. But, most of us remember them fondly, if not as particularly outstanding films. While Disney’s reimagining of the franchise doesn’t have a great deal in common with those earlier films, you can pretty much describe the reaction as being spot on. Race To Witch Mountain isn’t going to be breaking any box office records, but it is the kind of film you get a pretty warm feeling for, and like its predecessors, you’ll end up remembering it with fondness.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 7th, 2009
“Now this might be the room of any small boy, but it happens to belong to a boy named Christopher Robin, and like most small boys, Christopher Robin had toy animals to play with. And together they had many remarkable adventures in an enchanted place called The Hundred Acre Wood. But out of all of his animal friends, Christopher Robin’s very best friend was a bear called Winnie The Pooh.”
“Oh Bother”A.A. Milne was quite an eclectic writer. He wrote murder mysteries that even appeared on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. From that fertile mind would also come a place known as the Hundred Acre Wood.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 22nd, 2009
I grew up on the Peanuts creations of Charles M. Schulz. Most of us have, in some way or another. His newspaper comic strip is one of the longest running and most successful strips of all time. The work has been translated into every language currently spoken on the planet. The images of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, and the rest of the Peanuts gang have appeared on just about any kind of product imaginable. Our pop culture contains too many references to the strip to mention briefly. For me, it was the television specials starting in the mid 1960’s that brought the gang into my life.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 5th, 2009
Warner nearly single-handedly invented the cartoon medium as we know it today with the advent of their various Bugs Bunny and associates cartoons. Ever since the early 1930’s these characters have become an indelible part of the American pop culture. Their images became an important part of the World War II effort and even helped to put a face on the issues of the Great Depression. They represent one of the richest histories in animation, second only to Walt Disney.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 1st, 2009
“The legend began hundreds of years ago when the fierce warriors known as the Samurai served the warlords of Japan with absolute loyalty. The most fearsome of all were the ronin, the samurai who had lost his master, set adrift like a wave on the open sea. One ronin sought out the master swordmaker, Masermune. The legendary master agreed to forge the samurai a sword of great mystical power. But, it would take an entire year to complete the work. The master’s evil-minded apprentice, Masamas, offered to forge another sword, but in only half the time.”
Scooby Doo has spanned generations and over 40 years.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 28th, 2009
“We’re tiny. We’re toony. We’re a little bit loony. And in this cartoony we’re invading your TV. We’re comic dispensers. We crack up all the censors. On Tiny Toon Adventures, get a dose of comedy. So, here’s Acme Acres, it’s a whole wide world apart. Our home sweet home, it stands alone, a cartoon work of art. The scripts were rejected, expect the unexpected on Tiny Toon Adventures it’s about to start.”
What do you get when you cross Steven Spielberg with the tradition of Loony Tunes?
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 23rd, 2009
“You are invited to a reunion.”
I grew up on the Peanuts creations of Charles M. Schulz. Most of us have in some way or another. His newspaper comic strip is one of the longest running and most successful strips of all time. The work has been translated into every language currently spoken on the planet. The images of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, and the rest of the Peanuts gang have appeared on just about any kind of product imaginable.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 16th, 2009
“Oh Bother”A.A. Milne was quite an eclectic writer. He wrote murder mysteries that even appeared on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. From that fertile mind would also come a place known as the 100 Acre Wood. In that select place some of literature’s finest characters had the greatest adventures any boy could imagine. And adventures are certainly no fun on your own.
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