Kids' Spotlight (DVD Review)

We have a TON of new kids releases to look at this month! First off, From Marvel, we have The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes - Volumes 1 and 2.

Perfectly timed to coincide with the release of the Thor feature film in theaters, this double feature includes the first season of the hit cartoon show that premiered last year. I'm glad that, even though it's split into two volumes, Marvel seems committed to getting these episodes out there to the paying audiences quickly. The show is a lot of fun, packed with action and full of great voice talents. This is one of those shows that's great for both kids and longtime comic book fans.

Each set also comes with a cool featurette looking at the making of the show and the upcoming season two. Sweet!

Always a favorite in my household, we have four new titles from Scholastic: Splat the Cat, Tikki Tikki Tembo, North Star, and The Scrambled States of America. Splat the Cat is one of Scholastic's terrific three-disc box sets, while the other three releases are all single disc story collections. (In fact, when my kids ask to watch Scholastic movies, they call them "stories.")

If you're not familiar with Scholastic's terrific kids' DVDs, they basically take well-loved (and some more obscure) children's storybooks and bring them to life via animation, narration, and music. Each one is usually 5-10 minutes, and each disc usually includes 4-8 stories. While previous DVDs have seen the likes of Curious George and Goodnight Moon, these discs focus more on newer titles (or at least newer to me), and my kids love them. The Splat the Cat discs (one of which includes The Napping House and Bear Snores On) are in heavy rotation in my house right now. Tikki Tikki Tembo features stories that have an Asian flair, while The Scrambled States of America features two Scrambled stories plus two additional unrelated stories.  All in all, another terrific batch from Scholastic.

RECOMMENDED!

We also have four new releases from Shout Factory: Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Season One, Reboot: Seasons 1 & 2, Marvel Super Hero Squad Show: Volume 4, and The Wild Thornberrys: Season One.

Captain Planet and the Planeteers takes me back to my younger days, as an eco-friendly superhero tries to save the world from bad guys and pollution at the same time. The show features some notably good voice talent and guest stars, including LeVar Burton, Whoopi Goldberg, Ed Asner, John Ratzenberger, James Coburn, Martin Sheen, Dean Stockwell, Jeff Goldblum, Meg Ryan, Sting, Malcolm McDowell, and Frank Welker. It is a bit dated, but it's good clean superhero fun, and like I said, there's a bit of nostalgia there for me personally.

Reboot is an interesting one. I was a bit too old to watch it when it originally aired but I remember thinking it looked pretty cool.

As the first kids' show to use computer generated animation, Reboot is undeniably pretty cool, at least for its time. Now, it does look a bit simple comparatively. The story focuses on a computer world and the inhabitants of it, and it goes through the usual action/adventure tropes, although with a bit of a computer-themed twist. The early episodes are all stand-alone shows, but around halfway through the second season, the show started to develop multi-episode story arcs and really expand it's mythology. That would continue into the two final seasons, which Shout Factory has announced will be released separately later (this box set includes the first two seasons.)

Marvel's Super Hero Squad Show is perfect for kids who are into the Marvel Universe but aren't quite old enough for The Avengers show I talked about above. I always enjoy this mini-Marvel superhero show, although I wish Shout Factory would simply release a full season set and get it over with. Still it's great for kids who are into superheroes but not old enough for the more mainstream superhero animated shows that might be a little too violent. My kids are just about at the age that they can start watching it, and I expect them to really love it, especially since they already know who most of the characters are.

The Wild Thornberrys is a fun Nickelodeon throwback. It was a bit after my time, but it's certainly fun to look back at it now, and I'm sure my kids will like it. It kind of fits into the mold of a lot of Nick programming from the time like Rugrats and Doug, but don't hold that against it. It's a perfectly fine kids' cartoon. This is apparently the first time the entire first season has been collected on DVD.

Next, we have a couple of fun TV shows from different eras: Wild Kratts: Creature Adventures and H.R. Pufnstuf: The Complete Series. H.R. Pufnstuf really takes me back a bit. I was a huge Sid & Marty Krofft fan when I was a kid, devouring any of their shows I could find on TV. I think it's pretty cool that we live in an age where all my childhood memories can be packaged on shiny plastic discs. Not only that, but this particular package includes a very cool Pufnstuf bobblehead doll right in the package. As for the show itself, it's a bit trippier than I remember -- okay, it's a LOT trippier than I remember. I don't know that it's the kind of thing I'll be playing for my kids, but they probably wouldn't get it anyway. This show is a product of its time, and it probably works best as a time capsule more than children's education.

The Wild Kratts is an animated PBS show starring (and created and produced by) Chris and Martin Kratt (hmmm... a Krofft parallel there?).  It's sort of a cross between a nature show and a superhero show, as the Kratt brothers travel around the world in search of animals and have to fight a trio of super villains with their animal powers. It's a fun show that combines the excitement of superheroes with something a little more educational, so I like it. It's a bit old for my kids still, but I think they'll enjoy it in another year or so.

Nickelodeon has a ton of new releases out, including: Dora The Explorer: It's Haircut Day, Food With Friends, Max & Ruby: Rainy Day Play, and Go Diego Go: Diego Saves The World.

Usually an all-new Dora episode caps off the four-episode collections of the popular cartoon, but Dora The Explorer: It's Haircut Day seems to be all episodes I've seen on TV a dozen or more times. Not only have I seen them a lot, but they've been airing recently, which  makes it seem like Nick's TV and DVD divisions aren't communicating as well as they could be. Why would I buy a DVD full of the episodes I've just gotten sick of my kids watching?

Diego also returns in a new four-episode collection called Diego Saves The World, which has the usual ecology/animal theme to it. Ultimately, while I'm not a big fan of Dora or Diego overall (why can't they just stop yelling at me?), my kids love them both, and they're perfectly fine shows for them to watch.

Max & Ruby: Rainy Day Play is a great Spring & weather themed collection of the popular animated show about young rabbit siblings. Despite the fact that i can never figure out exactly where Max & Ruby's parents are (seriously, are they even alive?), this show has grown on me over time. It's not my kids' favorite show, but it is certainly well enjoyed from time to time in our house. And considering how much rain we've had in my corner of the world this Spring, this DVD has been played more than a few times already!

Food With Friends is one of the Nickelodeon collection DVDs, which are great. It features episodes of Dora, The Wonder Pets, Blue's Clues, Ni Hao Kai-lan, Yo Gabba Gabba, and Go Diego Go. As my kids watch almost all of these shows, theses compilation DVDs are like gold in my house. I still feel like Blue's Clues doesn't really fit with the rest (it skews a little younger), but still, there are no major complaints. This time around, the theme is... surprise! Food!

HIT also has several new titles out including Barney: Play Date Pack, Thomas & Friends: Play Date Pack, Shaun The Sheep: The Big Chase, Thomas & Friends: The Birthday Express, Barney: I Can Do It, and HIT Favorites: Sweet Dreams.

The Barney & Thomas Play Date Packs are three-disc collections of previously released material. These are deep catalogue titles, so they may be ones your kids don't have already, but be aware that youre not getting any new content. Of course, the price point is super low, so it's hard to complain.

Shaun the Sheep is a really fun, clever show that is lots of fun for kids (and their parents) from the creators of Wallace & Gromit. It's a little on the short side, but it's still worth watching. This latest collection offers up the usual eight vignettes, with running time under an hour. I'd really like to see one nice big collection of all the Shaun the Sheep episodes at this point. Still, a good one for the kidlets.


Barney: I Can Do It is a new collection (running about an hour) that features episodes never seen on TV, so that's a nice bonus for parents who hate to buy the shows they watch on TV every day. The theme here is pretty obvious: I Can Do It. It's about growing bigger and trying new games and activities. Thomas & Friends: Birthday Express is a collection of episodes that obviously includes a birthday-themed episode. This one makes a great birthday gift for a friend or family member because not only does it include the DVD (which is sadly only 46 minutes long), but it also includes a packed-in wooden train whistle with the Thomas logo. Very cool.

Sweet Dreams is one of HIT's show collections, with episodes of eight shows: Barney, Thomas, Bob The Builder, Fireman Sam, Roary the Racing Car, Kipper, Angelina Ballerina, and Timmy Time. Of course, each episode has a night time or bedtime theme to it, but these discs are always good for a little variety.

Finally, two new Sesame Street discs are out: Elmo's Travel Songs & Games, and Wild Words and Outdoor Adventures. These are the typical Sesame Street releases, with one focusing mostly on Elmo and his friends, and one a more general Sesame Street gang adventure. Of course, as always, the focus is on education and reading, so what is there bad to say? The only thing I can think of is that the discs are pretty short, under 50 minutes, and there are no extras to pad things out.