Official Synopsis:
Curious George Takes A Vacation And Discovers New Things -

Curious George loves to travel, and no matter where he goes, adventure is always waiting for him! And he's sharing it with you in a new collection of shows from his Daytime Emmy-nominated hit PBS KIDS TV series. Go exploring with George, from the tip-top of the big top to deep under the sea, in Curious George Takes a Vacation and Discovers New Things!

Curious George Takes a Vacation - The Man with the Yellow Hat and George are going on vacation, but their plane is delayed and there's a long wait ahead. With all the sliding doors, moving sidewalks, luggage carousels and beeping carts, George thinks that the airport is a great vacation destination!

Unbalanced - The Amazing Balancing Zucchinis are in town! George wants to be an acrobat, too, but before he can join the troupe, he needs to save an allergic tightrope walker from a very determined Gnocchi.

The Times of Sand - George and The Man with the Yellow Hat are having a sandcastle contest at the beach, and George is determined to make the best castle ever. Now if only he could keep the tide from washing away his masterpiece!

Curious George Takes a Dive - George meets a turtle and decides to bring his new friend home. But the turtle isn't happy in the bathtub, and when George brings home fish and weeds and frogs to keep it company, The Man with the Yellow Hat isn't very happy either.

Curious George, Sea Monkey -It's George's first underwater adventure when he investigates the wild world of life in a limestone coral reed. George is thrilled with all the colorful sights and sea life and even makes a few fishy friends.

Curious George Sees Stars - George wants to count all the stars in the sky, but he just can't stay awake long enough to finish. And when he goes back to the city it's even more difficult - the stars have disappeared! How will George keep count?

Curious George and the Missing Piece - George discovers a bone buried in the ground, and he's convinced it's got to be part of a dinosaur skeleton. He tries to use his best scientific detective skills to match the bone to the animal, but Charlie keeps stealing it away!

Castle Keep - George and The Man with the Yellow Hat visit Uncle Sam in Scotland, and George can't wait to practice his swing at the Castle Golf Course. But when a squirrel steals his ball, George goes on a wild chase through the castle and finds that all he needs is a little leverage.

The Land Before Time: Through The Eyes Of A Spiketail  -

It's time for more dino-riffic fun, friendship and songs as your favorite prehistoric pals reunite in 4 exciting new TV episodes in The Land Before Time: Through the Eyes of a Spiketail! Join Littlefoot, Spike and the rest of the kids as they play, romp and have exciting adventures in the Great Valley. With over ninety minutes of animated fun, you'll want to watch Spike and his friends again and again!

Through The Eyes Of A Spiketail
See what it's like to be Spike! When the kids go searching for "hard-water sweets", Spike can actually hear the treats talking!

Stranger From The Mysterious Above
Spike accidentally falls into a deep hole, where he meets some funny, new creatures who call him "The Big Wise One".

March Of The Sand Creepers
Some pesky, crab like Sand Creepers are driving everyone crazy, so Littlefoot and his friends try to convince a cranky Sand Creeper to lead the others out of the Great Valley.

The Forbidden Friendship
Spike and his friend Tippy are having fun playing together when the adults tell them to stop. When they sneak off to play, will Ducky reveal what she saw?

  
Our Take:
I don’t really watch cartoons for the sake of watching cartoons anymore. I mean, occasionally I’ll watch one of the DC Comics shows or something on Adult Swim, but I don’t spend my Saturday mornings glued to the TV set like I did when I was a kid. However, now that I’m a parent to children who will be watching TV in the near future, I’m excited to be able to start watching cartoons again. Without a doubt, Curious George and The Land Before Time are two cartoons I will definitely let my kids watch.

Curious George is utterly fantastic. It’s the kind of kids programming that parents look for. This isn’t some Pokemon-styled animated acid trip, but rather a fun, humorous, interesting cartoon that will have kids magnetized. Parents will likely enjoy it as well; it’s not particularly deep, but its lack of sarcasm or humor that parents don’t “get” and its simple style of storytelling means it won’t antagonize adult viewers either. In the latest DVD collection, Curious George Takes A Vacation And Discovers New Things, eight magical episodes are collected on disc. There’s no real theme to the episodes or anything, but each one is special and fun in its own way.

The Land Before Time is one of those, “Well, finally!” cartoons. After years of coming out in extremely successful direct-to-video movies, it’s nice to see that someone finally figured out that a regular cartoon show makes a lot of sense. All the usual gang are here: Littlefoot, Cera, Spike, and Ducky, along with a few new characters from time to time, and it captures the feel of the more recent movies just fine. Much like with the Curious George DVD, The Land Before Time: Through The Eyes Of A Spiketail is just a handful of episodes without a theme. On this DVD, there are only four episodes, which is a bit of a let down, but kids will surely enjoy it no matter what.

There are no extra features on Curious George Takes A Vacation And Discovers New Things, but The Land Before Time: Through The Eyes Of A Spiketail does at least offer up a few kids’ games and coloring book activities.

Both Curious George and The Land Before Time are terrific cartoons for young kids that are also enjoyable for the parents who might be watching. While I’m still hoping for eventual complete season collections, both of these releases easily come…

RECOMMENDED!

Overall Picture:
Show:

Curious George: A

The Land Before Time: B+
DVD:

Curious George: C+

The Land Before Time: C+

- Mike Spring

Editor