Though I’d seen a few comic books in my youth, my first exposure to the Batman phenomenon was in 1989 when I saw Tim Burton’s Batman on the big screen. From that moment on, Michael Keaton captured the duality of Batman for me – playboy by day (as bazillionaire/tychoon Bruce Wayne) and crime fighter (Batman) by night.
Then in 1992, Batman: The Animated Series really drove that home the comic legacy of the Batman character. Paul Dini and around 30 other writers took the Gotham City from the pages of DC Comics and breathed life into the heroes and villains that walked its streets. It was really the series’ four seasons that Batman graced my television screen that made me appreciate the depth of what DC Comics and Bob Kane had created from the late 1930s to today.
In 2008, a new chapter of Batman animation would unfold as Batman: The Brave and the Bold. But where previous incarnations of the world were portrayed in a serious vein, this new series amped up the campy, fun nature once seen in another Batman television product starring Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin in the 1960s.
The Brave and the Bold uses Batman (voiced by Diedrich Bader – The Drew Carey Show) as the straight man while still managing to incorporate the classic heroes and villains of the DC Universe with humor. Now DC Animation and Warner Brothers are releasing the first 13 episodes of season one in a two-DVD set – Batman: The Brave and the Bold – Season One – Part One.
In the first 13 episodes, we see an amazing array of heroes share the stage with the Dark Knight… We meet the Blue Beetle (Will Friedle, Batman Beyond, Kim Possible) as he’s just getting used to his alien powers; Plastic Man (Tom Kenny, SpongeBob SquarePants) who’s constantly struggling with his criminal side; the Red Tornado (Corey Burton, who seems to have been in 100+ different cartoons over the last 30 years) who is an android trying to understand what it is to be human…
We also meet:
Green Arrow
Wildcat
Deadman
Bronze Tiger
The Atom
But Aquaman (John Di Maggio, Futurama, Penguins of Madagascar, Ben-10) is by far my favorite. He manages to be endearing and annoying at the same time. Larger than life and willing to tell of his adventures to anyone who will (willingly or unwillingly) listen.
Not to be outdone, we also see many of the classic villains appear along with some I had never heard of… Kite Man (Jeffrey Combs, The 4400, Justice League, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), gliding thief, nemesis and former employer of Plastic Man; Black Manta (Kevin Michael Richardson, The Penguins of Madagascar, The Cleveland Show), a surface dwelling criminal who seeks dominion of the sea; Gorilla Grodd (Di Maggio in another role), super-intelligent gorilla from Gorilla City seeking revenge over the human race; and many more…
Kanjar Ro
Gentleman Ghost
Fun Haus
Morgaine le Fey
Slug
Chemo
Despero
Terrible Trio
Clock King
Owlman
Honestly, when I watch an episode of Batman: Brave and the Bold it’s a very guilty pleasure. It’s fun to see how cheesy some of the lines can be (deliberately) and how the bad guys inevitably foul up and let the good guys win. These are definitely simplified hero vs. villain stories, but they’re great for kids and adults who want to become kids again for a little while.
Other than the episodes and a game trailer, you don’t get any extras, but that shouldn’t prevent you from enjoying any of the 13 great episodes in this collection.
So if you’ve seen an episode or two and want to catch up or simply want to have a good time, be sure to check out Batman: The Brave and the Bold – Season One – Part One. I’m very excited to see when Part Two comes out so I can enjoy my favorite episode of the series so far – “Mayhem of the Music Meister!” starring Neil Patrick Harris as the Music Meister!
This article first appeared at Blogcritics.org here.
–Fitz
p.s. Pick up Batman: The Brave and the Bold today and enjoy some campy fun!
Most of you know I’m pretty apolitical. If it smells of politics, I’m typically walking the other way. But recently, a few things have ticked me off.
If you don’t want to read further about my minor political and education rant, you might as well stop now… [Hopping on my soap box...]
I’m pretty liberal. And not religious at all. If anything I’m probably an agnostic with atheist leanings. But I believe firmly in the power of humankind to do amazing things for both good, selfish, and evil reasons. My hope is that we as a whole balance out so we’re not tilting to the wrong side, whatever that may be.
So that’s me. You’re entitled to your opinions and beliefs so long as I am also afforded that consideration.
Today I saw that there’s a new political humor book for kids called Democrats are Dumb, A Children’s Guide. The press release states that the book “harmlessly and humorously works on detonating the left-wing landmines the Democratic Party has left lying around in its attempt to indoctrinate us and our children in ‘Socialist Think.’”
Before I get going, let me say that I’m all for political humor. We need it. Politics is absurd under the best of circumstances and we need to keep some perspective.
But… and you felt there was a “but” there, didn’t you… Kids need to form their own opinions based on the history they learn in school and based on observations of the world around them. If they become conservative, liberal, or independent-minded, more power to them. But we shouldn’t urge them to do more than think for themselves.
This kind of Dr. Seuss rhyming sing-song for kids who don’t yet have political opinions of their own is like giving them a loaded gun… One quoted rhyme says…
“Khrushchev said, ‘.without firing a shot.’
To elect more Democrats was a Communist plot.”
I think we could just as easily write a book making fun of the Conservative right wing that is pushing us towards religious intolerance and scientific ignorance depending on who you listen to.
Let’s let our kids be kids. Keep politics out of the equation until they have the facts about history, government by the people for the people as laid out in the U.S. Constitution, and can form opinions of their own in coherent sentences.
I fear that planting sing-song political land mines in their minds too early will backfire like so many other indoctrination techniques wanted by those wanting to influence our youth. Let them think for themselves.
Please avoid “political primers” for kids like Democrats are Dumb.
I don’t know many people (myself included) who didn’t run into a few problems in school growing up. Whether it was bullies, mean (or boring) teachers, “friends”, or anything else (the list was long in my case), it was never the ideal experience for anybody. Well, at least anybody I know personally anyway. There were always those “perfect” kids who could do no wrong, but I suspect karma rectified that situation with them later in life.
Based on the best-selling novel by Jeff Kinney, the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid provides a glimpse into Greg Heffley‘s (Zachary Gordon) life as he enters middle school. He’s joined by his best friend and well meaning but clueless kid Rowley (Robert Capron) and together they try to navigate the complex waters of middle school. Of course, it’s not easy.
Greg has an older teenage brother Rodrick (Devon Bostick) who’s the drummer in the band Loded Diaper. Rodrick does everything he can to make his younger sibling’s life heck, including not bathing and sticking Greg’s face in his armpit. Rodrick is more than a bully in the house however, he’s also a source of amusement. Like when Rowley sees Rodrick wearing eyeliner and dressed for a gig with his band when Rowley says – “Wow. You’re lucky. My mom doesn’t let me play with makeup any more.”
Greg’s parents are well-meaning, but very strange. His mom (Rachael Harris) means well and tries to let her kids learn from their mistakes. At one point, she goes with Greg to a dance… And I can’t say that I remember a Mom & Son dance during my school career, but I’m pretty sure I would have been mortified at that age as well. Greg’s dad (Steven Zahn) tries to keep his boys masculine and prove that he can protect his family and house. To do this at one point in the movie, he goes so far as to splash kids he thinks are going to teepee their house on Halloween.
At school, things aren’t much better for Greg. He thinks he has all the answers to become a popular kid, but all of his schemes backfire. And by the end, Rowley is popular and has disowned Greg because of all the mean things that happen. Angie (Chloe Moretz, Kick-ass, upcoming Let Me In) is the school journalist who encourages Greg to think for himself and stop trying to be popular – but of course he doesn’t listen until the end.
Ultimately the story is about navigating one of those inevitable phases most of us go through of finding our way in the world. Each time the context changes, whether it’s changing schools or changing jobs, we have to figure out how to make things work again. With Kinney’s novel for source material and Thor Freudenthal’s (Hotel for Dogs) direction, I think the film worked pretty well illustrating the pitfalls of treating school like a popularity contest.
Though the film didn’t do great at the box office, it made more than $60 million at the box office with a budget of around $15 million (according to Box Office Mojo). That seems to be enough for a sequel to be in the works for March 2011 if everything works out.
“The Cheesiest Edition” package of Diary of a Wimpy Kid includes the Blu-ray, a DVD of the movie, and a DVD with a digital version on it. Also included in the packaging are a few pages from Rowley’s “Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid”, which are just as endearing and clueless as Rowley is in the film.
On the Blu-ray and DVD for the movie are included some amusing and gross extras… Feature commentary with director Freudenthal and scriptwriter Gabe Sachs was interesting, but the Deleted Diary Pages were at times both disturbing and endearing. Though you might dismiss them as deleted scenes, the way they’re presented seems to me that they are much more than that.
“Fregley‘s Scavenger Hunt” was… sick and wrong on multiple levels. Fregley (Grayson Russell) describes the various things he’s found around school where you might not think to look. For example, one of his “treasures” is a piece of fudge under a girls’ desk. He put it in his pocket. And when he merged the fudge with three fries he found under a tree and invented “fudge fries”. I knew Fregley was weird, but I had no idea…
Another favorite of ours in the film was Chirag Gupta (Karan Brar) – the only kid in class smaller than Greg. In “Chirag’s Trail of Tears” you learn his secrets to dealing with bullies… Most of his approach depends on hiding in lockers, beneath the bleachers, behind the big kid in gym, and so on. Of course, hiding doesn’t always work – thus the “trail of tears” where he explains in gruesome detail the events he’d rather not remember.
But “Rowley’s Lost Zoo-wee Mama Cartoons” was probably my favorite of the 10 deleted scenes. It’s not as much a deleted scene as simply a collection of pictures of some of Rowley’s “Zoo-wee Mama” cartoons that were published in the school paper. You only catch a glimpse of the cartoons during the film, so it’s nice to see them included as extras. They’re actually pretty cute – mostly dealing with something bad happening to a character asking a question in the first panel and having something bad happen to that character in the last panel.
I have to say that though the Blu-ray quality is excellent, it’s a bit of overkill in this case and there weren’t any additional features on the Blu-ray that weren’t also on the DVD. So the benefits of Blu-ray, beyond better picture quality and providing a little additional downloadable content, was minimal.
That said, we really enjoyed the film as a family. We missed it at the theater and were looking forward to seeing it on DVD. Now that it’s available, I’d recommend it to anyone looking for family-friendly fare to watch together. Look for Diary of a Wimpy Kid at your favorite rental or retail counter.
This article first appeared at BlogCritics.org here.
–Fitz
p.s. Pick up the movie and books from Barnes & Noble!
That’s right! Shaun, Bitzer, the Farmer, and all the rest of the gang are back for another set of adventures on Shaun the Sheep: One Giant Leap for Lambkind.
For those of you who might not have heard of Shaun the Sheep before, it’s a series of stop-motion animation shorts that revolves around a flock of sheep on a farm. Created by Nick Park and Aardman Animation, this series is from the same creative folks who brought you the many Wallace & Gromit shorts and films as well as the movies Chicken Run and Flushed Away.
Unlike traditional hand-drawn or computer-drawn animation, stop-motion animation requires physical models and sets to be put into position for a particular scene. A picture is taken, they verify that everything looks right, and then they painstakingly move the clay models the tiniest amounts in preparation for the next frame. At 24 frames per second, you can imagine it takes quite a long time to film each episode, which is about 5 minutes.
As far as the characters in the show go, Shaun is of course the star of the show and the leader of the flock. He’s a clever little sheep and can find ways to have fun and get out of trouble when he needs to. Bitzer is the sheepdog and Shaun’s friend. Bitzer makes sure the flock stays where they need to be and don’t get into too much trouble. And the Farmer owns the farm where Shaun, Bitzer, and the rest of the gang hang out. He seems completely oblivious to the fact that his dog and sheep are probably smarter than he is.
What makes the series entertaining is the combination of slapstick comedy, simple stories, and the complete lack of actual speech by any characters. There are grunts, grumbles, and groans that approximate a conversation, but nothing understandable by the audience. And the slapstick humor is appropriate for everyone from ages 0 to 100. Though shown most often to kids, I think there’s plenty for adults to love as well.
Shaun the Sheep: One Giant Leap for Lambkind is a collection of 6 hilarious episodes from the series. Included are “Shaun Encounters,” “The Bull,” “Hiccups,” “Bitzer Puts His Foot In It,” “Save the Tree,” and “The Visitor.” You get everything from aliens to unstoppable hiccups, the dangers of letting concrete dry around curious sheep, and the power of a flock working together to save the biggest, most beautiful tree on their field. Among them, three were my favorites.
“Shaun Encounters” pits Shaun, Bitzer, and the flock against two little aliens out to have a good time. The aliens are cute – with a single eye on top of their heads and butts that squeak when they walk. And all they’re looking for is fun. The devious pair dives into Shirley’s (the biggest sheep in the flock and a real eating machine) wool and makes her float in the air. Well, she floats until Shaun tries to save her and they both fall to the ground.
I was entertained by the “spooky” piano music at the beginning of the episode that reminded me of music from the Halloween movies in the 1980s. And I learned something new as well. I had no idea the Farmer wore dentures!
In “The Bull,” we meet the bull who lives on the farm and somehow gets into the flock’s field. When Shaun tries to get him to go home, the bull takes offense and poor Shaun gets catapulted into the pig sty with the three Naughty Pigs. Things get further out of hand when the Pigs toss a can of red paint into the flock’s bathtub. Then you have a whole flock of red targets for the bull to chase. But never fear, Shaun comes up with a plan and saves the day playing a matador to save his friends.
This is the first episode of Shaun the Sheep that I have ever had to rewind and watch a part over again because I didn’t believe what I was seeing. I had to watch in slow motion as the red-dyed sheep get the poop scared out of them by the bull. That really made me laugh.
And in “The Visitor” we see a combination of “Shaun Encounters” and a new interstellar biofuel for space travel. When an alien crash lands in the flock’s grazing area, the sheep help fix up his spaceship so he can go home. But he’s out of gas, so they look around the Farm for things he can use to power his ship. Eventually they find that sheep poop makes a perfect fuel source! Why can’t we run cars on the stuff?
In addition to the six episodes, you also get a couple of bonus features. With “Sing-Along With Shaun” you can sing, karaoke-style, along with the Shaun the Sheep theme song… “He’s Shaun the Sheep / He even mucks about with those who cannot bleat / Keep it in mind / He’s one of a kind / Oh… life’s a treat with Shaun the Sheep!” And with the “Whack-a-Pig” game, you try to throw vegetables at the pigs and get a high score.
As with all Shaun the Sheep DVDs, I laughed through all the episodes with my family. It’s perfect for kids and parents and there’s plenty of funny to go around. Check out the series’ website at ShaunTheSheep.com for more information about the show and be sure to look for Shaun the Sheep: One Giant Leap for Lambkind at your favorite rental counter or retailer!
This article first appeared at BlogCritics.org here.
–Fitz
p.s. Click below to pick up some great Shaun the Sheep DVDs!
Creativity is a difficult thing to cultivate, whether you believe yourself to be an artist or not. There have been many books about enhancing your creativity over the years. Of these, my favorite so far has been The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. It takes a simple approach to brief field trips and exercises you can explore to stretch your artistic muscles. And the beauty of her approach is that it works across all disciplines – writing, drawing, painting, sculpture, and so on.
Whitney Ferré’s book The Artist Within: A Guide to Becoming Creatively Fit takes a slightly different path, which I think might work better in a group setting than as an individual. I am fairly conservative but feel I have a fairly open mind, and though I appreciate what Ferré was trying to do, it didn’t really work for me.
The first chapter works through the “Eight Principles of Design” to provide a foundation for the rest of the book. The eight principles are emphasis, balance, proportion, unity, harmony, contrast, rhythm, and repetition. And, as she says, these principles “are not the result of a panel of art academics who felt the need to create more rules… They have been used by artists for centuries to create paintings that successfully communicate their heart’s desire, the natural beauty of a landscape, the spirit of a portrait, or the innate element of objects in a still life.” These couple of sentences for me define what the book is all about – expressing yourself through a graphic artistic medium.
After that, I really found myself struggling to work through the exercises. I held on as she had me simply scribbling on paper (which is a great exercise for stress relief if you haven’t tried it), but really started losing interest when I was supposed to find a “Personal Symbol” among the square, triangle, spiral, circle, and plus sign. This to me was similar to the notion that being born during a particular time of year ties a person to the behavioral pattern of an astrological sign. The power therein only works if you believe it does. And evidently I lost the faith early on in this book.
From there, she works through the eight principles of design a chapter at a time, using exercises like leaf rubbing, dream collages, clay charades, magazine mosaics, and so on. As I said earlier, I seriously feel that this book might work in a group setting – especially with children. But as an individual seeking to get “creatively fit” I couldn’t get behind the “touchy-feely” aspects of the approach.
If you’re looking for a book about inspiring your own creativity and aren’t working in a group, I’d avoid Whitney Ferré’s book The Artist Within: A Guide to Becoming Creatively Fit and look for The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. If you’re looking at a book to serve as a pattern for an art class for children or adults, Ferré’s book might be just what you’re looking for. But it didn’t work for me.
Kids’ books are a funny thing sometimes. One book might provide an exciting adventure but be light on substance while another might have too many lessons packed into a story that won’t hold a child’s interest. Lately however, there have been many authors who have provided great fiction with just the right level of moral lessons, history, or mythology – the Harry Potter series from J.K. Rowling and the Percy Jackson series from Rick Riordan are great examples and two of our current favorites.
But Frank McKinney isn’t someone I would have expected to write or been involved with one of those “just right” books for children. McKinney is the author of multiple best-selling books, including The Tap, Burst This! Frank McKinney’s Bubble-Proof Real Estate Strategies, Frank McKinney’s Maverick Approach to Real Estate Success, and Make it BIG! 49 Secrets for Building a Life of Extreme Success. The closest a child might come to one of these books is as an impromptu step stool or booster seat.
However, McKinney was inspired by his adventures walking his daughter Laura to school through the years. As a father, I certainly understand the power of spending as much time as possible with your kids and their imaginations as they grow up. They grow up so fast that it’s far too easy to miss things if you don’t.
That’s just one of the lessons hidden inside Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes, and the Good Luck Circle (or just Dead Fred for short). The book tells the story of Ppeekk (pronounced “Peekie”) Rose Berry – a thirteen year-old girl forced to relocate from Indiana to Florida. Walking to school on her first day of school, she encounters a strange little man on the back of a cement truck who blows a magical smoke ring. Soon after that, she encounters a dead fish who comes back to life in her hands and talks to her. And that’s just the beginning…
It took a long time to work through this book with my two daughters, ages 5 and 9. Not because the book wasn’t entertaining or well written, but because things kept getting in the way. Finally we managed to find the time to get all the way through Ppeekk’s story and her adventure with her friends Mini Romey, Quatro, and the rest of the gang – and it was well worth the effort!
Dead Fred leads readers on a magical journey above, around, and beneath the waters of an inlet near Ppeekk’s house into Dead Fred’s underwater kingdom of High Voltage. Dead Fred, also known as King Frederick the 9th, was regent of an area teeming with ocean life. But there’s a problem. Dead Fred has been deposed by Megalodon, a huge, evil prehistoric shark who wants to turn everyone above and below the water into joyless zombies.
As Ppeekk and her friends learn more about what they are capable of and what Megalodon and his minions (vicious crabs and remora fish) are capable of, they begin to understand the dire situation that High Voltage finds itself in. Dedicated to helping Dead Fred save his kingdom, the kids learn just as much about themselves as they do about the amazing creatures beneath the sea as they struggle to find some way to get rid of Megalodon for good.
We had a lot of fun reading this story. Even my five-year-old daughter was engrossed right away – as soon as Dead Fred spoke, she was hooked to the end. In the book’s 300 pages, kids learn about many of the creatures of the sea as well as how to treat themselves, their friends, their parents, and the world around them. And what was amazing was that it wasn’t preachy at all – the message seemed very genuine and organic, not forced.
If you’re looking for a fun book with many great messages for kids, Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes, and the Good Luck Circle by Frank McKinney and Kate Mason presents a perfect opportunity to read together. Great characters, amazing adventures, and learning opportunities await within! For more about the book, be sure to check out Dead-Fred.com.
This article first appeared at BlogCritics.org here.
–Fitz
p.s. Pick up this and other books from Frank McKinney at Barnes & Noble!
Just in time for Earth Day 2010, Lionsgate is releasing some environmentally-conscious blasts from the past in Jim Henson’s The Song of the Cloud Forest and Other Earth Stories. The DVD features four unique programs produced by the Jim Henson Company all centered on the interconnected nature of animals and the environment from the late 1980s and mid-1990s.
“The Song of the Cloud Forest” originally aired in 1989 as part of The Jim Henson Hour on NBC and focuses on Milton, a golden toad in the rain forest, who can’t find a date. Using a variety of very colorful Muppets and backgrounds, Milton discovers from two humans (called “uprights” by the animals) that he’s an endangered species and worries that he’ll never find his mate. When he and his friends discover that the uprights have a female golden toad in a cage they’re using to lure Milton out, he has to figure out what to do… Will he try to free her or will he run away to avoid capture himself?
The whole premise of this segment is that we (humans) don’t understand that everything is interconnected and the animals must somehow express this sentiment to save the rain forest. Though the uprights in this instance see the light in the end, I’m not convinced that the rest of the world understands this simple idea even after 20 years. We can only hope that the growing awareness of concerned people around the world will eventually find ways to get the message across that we must stop destroying our planet or we will be killing more than a few trees or frogs – we’ll be committing species suicide.
The only negative comment I have about “The Song of the Rain Forest” is that it looks like someone designed it while on an acid trip. The colors are far too bright in just about every scene, which distracts the viewer from the message and enjoying the story and songs. But if you wear sunglasses during those “too bright” bits, you’ll probably be just fine.
Next on the DVD are two episodes of Jim Henson’s Animal Show with Stinky and Jake – “Owl & Frog” and “Kangaroo & Frog”. “Owl & Frog” originally aired in 1996 on Animal Planet during season 3 of the series and “Kangaroo & Frog” aired on Fox Kids in 1994. The Animal Show is set up in a talk-show format with Stinky the skunk and Jake the polar bear interviewing different animals and sharing fun facts.
And lastly is an episode of Fraggle Rock – “River of Life”, from season five of the show that aired on HBO the mid-1980s. Something has gone terribly wrong with the Fraggle’s water supply and contaminated it, making the Fraggles who drank it very sick and killing the vegetable garden of the Gorgs. What they don’t know is that Doc, a human inventor living outside the Fraggle’s cave with his dog Sprocket, is making a deal to test a waste disposal technique in the caves. The waste is polluting the water and once Doc figures that out, he pulls the plug on the experiment and flushes the system with fresh spring water, which makes everything better.
All in all, this is a fun collection of Jim Henson classics that directly relate to the world we live in. Even now, these shows are relevant and provide a good message to the youth of today. So if you’re looking for some environmentally-related, but fun programs for your kids, be sure to check out Jim Henson’s The Song of the Cloud Forest and Other Earth Stories on DVD today!
For more information about this and other Jim Henson productions, check out their website at Henson.com.
This message originally appeared here at BlogCritics.org.
–Fitz
p.s. Pick up this and other great Jim Henson DVDs at Barnes & Noble below!
Evidently I was too focused on being an adult in the mid-1990s because I missed a number of fun kid’s shows. I’d never heard of Jim Henson’s Animal Show before, but evidently it aired Seasons 1 and 2 on Fox Kids from 1994-1996 and had a third season on Animal Planet in 1997. I suppose I shouldn’t be too shocked, considering that my eldest daughter wasn’t born until 2001, so I really didn’t have a reason to watch fuzzy Muppets talk about animals!
The Animal Show, hosted by Stinky the skunk and Jake the polar bear, focused on one or two animals per episode in a talk-show format. Stinky and Jake would interview their Muppet-ized guests and then show video clips of the actual animals in the wild. The hosts were assisted by co-hosts Armstrong the chicken hawk and Ollie the tapir (later replaced by Bunnie Bear, a distant cousin to Jake), who had their own segments of the show – “That’s Amazing,” “Animal Awards,” and “Habitat Time.” And then Tizzy the bee for the episode’s quiz and Yves St. La Roache the cockroach who hosted a cooking-show segment.
Lions, Tigers, and Bears includes five different episodes of the series – “Zebra & Lion,” “Tiger & Tiger Beetle,” “Raccoon & Polar Bear,” “Grizzly Bear & Hedgehog,” and “Chimpanzee & Hyena.” All but “Chimpanzee & Hyena” were from the first season of the show.
Watching with my family, we were entertained by every episode. Each episode was structured in roughly the same way, providing a consistent pattern for learning by the kids watching. And sometimes we even learned something! The silly songs, fun characters, and important lessons about animals, their habitats, and the environment is timeless.
As parents, my wife and I were most entertained by Armstrong and Yves St. La Roache. Armstrong’s dry wit and reluctance to try new things really resonated with me, as I tend to be the same way. And La Roache reminded us fondly of the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show. It seems it’s tough to be a cockroach and get taken seriously as a chef. But somehow La Roache manages to pull it off with humor. We were both wondering if they ran out of budget for cute and cuddly animals for the “Chimpanzee & Hyena” episode because both Muppets were so ugly. But overall each episode achieved a good balance between humor and education without going overboard on either.
When it was airing, the TV series received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Children’s Series/Children’s Programming and received a “Parent’s Choice National Television Award,” as well as receiving an endorsement from the National Education Association (NEA). Though the video clips are a bit outdated as far as quality goes, the show footage with the Muppets is crisp and clear. And the content is just as relevant now for kids as it was 15 years ago.
If you’re looking for a fun and educational way to spend a couple of hours with your kids, look for Jim Henson’s Animal Show with Stinky and Jake: Lions, Tigers, and Bears on DVD at your favorite retailer online or off. Hopefully they will be releasing all three seasons of Jim Henson’s Animal Show with Stinky and Jake on DVD soon!
Most of the kids I grew up with expected the Easter Bunny to arrive at their house before Easter morning, leaving behind baskets of candy and multi-colored eggs and hidden surprises around the house or yard to try and find. And inevitably he would appear, like clockwork, on Easter morning. We’ve been trying to keep that tradition alive with our kids now, so I was pleased to see The First Easter Rabbit, Deluxe Edition released on DVD for the holiday this year.
Originally airing in 1976, The First Easter Rabbit tells the story of how a lovable little stuffed bunny became the first Easter Bunny ever and how he was helped that first year by Santa Claus! This animated special was done by Rankin/Bass – founded originally by Arthur Rankin, Jr and Jules Bass – who were famous for making stop-motion holiday specials like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town and many more between 1960 and 1980.
Though it was done in traditional 2D animation, not stop-motion, The First Easter Rabbit tells a story somewhat based on The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. In the special, a little girl gets a stuffed rabbit for Christmas and calls him “Stuffy.” Unfortunately, she gets Scarlet Fever and her doctor orders all of her clothes and toys taken away and burned in case they may be carrying the disease on them and thus prevent her from getting better. Stuffy the stuffed rabbit is saved by a fairy who brings him to life and sends him off to Easter Valley – a magical place at the North Pole where it’s always springtime.
Unfortunately, a mean-hearted person called Zero doesn’t like the fact that he can’t make it snow in Easter Valley. Zero is in charge of keeping the North Pole cold and seems to have control issues. He knows there’s a magic flower in the valley that keeps the winter away, but he can’t find a way into the valley to steal it.
With help from some rabbit friends Stuffy meets on the way to the valley, and a little help from Santa Claus, Stuffy finds a way to bring baskets of Easter goodies to the kids in the town with the little girl, who has gotten better.
Though The First Easter Rabbit isn’t my favorite of the Rankin/Bass productions of the era, I have to admit that I hadn’t seen it since it aired in the mid-70s. And it was nice to be able to share its message of hope and celebration with my two daughters. And it’s tough to beat Burl Ives, who not only narrates the show, but sings the song “The Easter Parade.” There’s something magical about Ives’ voice, who was a part of many of the Rankin/Bass productions.
If you’re looking for a good Easter gift, pick up a copy of The First Easter Rabbit, Deluxe Edition and hide it away for next year’s Easter basket!
Yes, I’m a cartoon junkie at times. But not the cartoons you might think. Case in point is the recent release of Bugs Bunny‘s Easter Funnies on DVD. I’m a huge Bugs Bunny fan and have loved all of the classic cartoon characters from the 1940s and 1950s, even though I grew up in the 1970s – Bugs, Sylvester, Tweety, Granny, Pepe Le Pew, Foghorn Leghorn, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, and all the rest. But starting in the 1970s, the cartoons I saw were compilations of bits and pieces from those earlier classics mixed with bridging clips for continuity of a particular story or theme.
As a kid, I didn’t catch on that the studios were doing this and I just enjoyed the shows. But as I got older, I noticed that the voices weren’t the same for the characters in some places or that the animation style was slightly different here and there. And to see Bugs Bunny’s Easter Funnies on DVD after all this time, it really drives home how weird those bridging segments really were in a few places. (It originally aired in 1977, which makes me feel really old!)
This collection is focused around the Easter Bunny, who is sick and can’t deliver eggs to all the good little boys and girls who expect such things on Easter morning. EB calls Granny, who tries to find a suitable replacement. Bugs of course comes to mind, but he’s required by contract to finish a few cartoons and won’t be free in time to help. But together, Bugs and Granny hunt for someone else who might work. Daffy Duck of course thinks he’s the best replacement and eventually steals the job (though Granny and Bugs know it’s him), but along the way they watch several cartoons from other possibilities.
So if you were a fan of some of these collected shows, I apologize. This one is tough to complain about because it includes segments from some of my favorite WB cartoons of the classic era.
Sylvester and Tweety appear in a clip from “Birds Anonymous,” which features Sylvester trying to go “on the wagon” and swear off our fine feathered friends. Obviously that doesn’t go very well and Sylvester tries to eat Tweety. And when Sylvester’s friend from Birds Anonymous tries to help but falls off the wagon just as quickly. This short won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject in 1957.
“Knighty Knight Bugs” sends Bugs Bunny on a quest for King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table to retrieve the stolen “Singing Sword” from the Black Knight (Yosemite Sam) and his vicious dragon. Though Sam puts up a valiant fight, in the end Bugs saves the sword and sends his foe to the moon. This short also won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject in 1959.
Also included were clips from “Robin Hood Daffy” where Daffy Duck pretends to be Robin Hood and Porky Pig as Friar Tuck laughs uproariously at his antics. Even today, I still laugh when Daffy tries to use his “dollar and a quarter” quarter staff to protect himself. His “ho haha guard turn parry dodge spin ha thrust…” where he smacks himself in the head with the staff makes me giggle just to think about it.
Also included are clips from “For Scent-imental Reasons,” “Sahara Hare,” Rabbit of Seville,” “Hillbilly Hare,” “Tweety’s Circus,” and “Little Boy Boo.” And you get a bonus short – “His Hare-Raising Tale” – and a set of interactive puzzles on the DVD.
Now if the DVD just included each of those classics in their entirety, I would have called this a great bargain. But you only get snippets of each pasted together with this forced plot of finding a replacement for the Easter Bunny.
However, if you have kids, Bugs Bunny’s Easter Funnies isn’t a bad way to have them spend about 50 minutes to have a good time. I know my two daughters enjoyed it and they hadn’t seen it before. Look for it at your favorite rental or retail store. But if you’re looking for the full versions of these classic cartoons, I’d look for the Looney Tunes DVD collections on DVD.
–Fitz
p.s. Pick up some of these great Bugs Bunny shows on DVD!
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In 2008, a new chapter of Batman animation would unfold as Batman: The Brave and the Bold. But where previous incarnations of the world were portrayed in a serious vein, this new series amped up the campy, fun nature once seen in another Batman television product starring Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin in the 1960s.
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