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For ages 3-7 Bambi II Disney; G; 85 minutes $30 Available Feb. 7 “Bambi II” isn’t so much a sequel, but a gap filler, much like another animated Disney direct-to-video movie, “The Lion King 1 1/2.” The story takes place during an untold chapter in the life of young Bambi. With his mother dead from a hunter’s bullet, he is being raised by his stoic father, the Great Prince of the Forest. Bambi finds adventure, going off with his friends Thumper and Flower to check out the annual ritual of a groundhog emerging from its hole. Flower hopes for more winter so he can get back to hibernating. Bambi still gets butterflies when he’s in the presence of sweet doe Faline. The obligatory Disney villain this time is Ronno, a bully with budding antlers who makes the meadow a living you-know-what for Bambi. The DVD includes a trivia game and a making-of featurette. Not graded by press time. Magical Music Express Ventura; G; 60 minutes $15 Available Feb. 14 If you feel your child isn’t getting enough music appreciation in school, check out this ditty-dotted delight. Host Mr. Stephens and his dog friend, Keys, teach viewers the basic concepts and elements of the musical language. Two half-hour episodes introduce children to the world of music through innovative songs and creative visual instruction. “What is Music?” and “The Language of Music” are designed to supplement primary school music education, and will certainly be a boost to the child taking private music instruction. Available on VHS for years, here’s one DVD that’s music to our ears. Grade: A For ages 5-12 Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit DreamWorks; G; 85 minutes $30 Available Feb. 7 High on bunny, low on funny, this humdrum production out of England lacks the wit and charm of Aardman Animation’s earlier stop-motion works, particularly the 2000 feature “Chicken Run” and the shorts that popularized the clay-made duo from this latest movie. In the non-“Veggie Tales” veggie tale, the cheese-loving Wallace and his faithful dog Gromit hunt down a mysterious beast who has been gobbling up their village’s prize vegetables just days before the giant vegetable growing contest. The huge, hungry hare sounds much more exciting than he actually is. Peter Sallis, Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes lead the voice cast, but no one heard or seen are truly memorable in this commercial semi-hit of last fall. Grade: C- Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild Sony; G; 75 minutes $25 Available Feb. 21 When a live-action sequel earns less than half of what the live-action original grossed, yet the studio still thinks there’s money to be made, what do you do? Animate it! For the third film of what now can be called a “Stuart Little” franchise, the entire cast goes the way of the once-computer-generated mouse and gets animated along with everything else. So instead of watching Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie, we only hear them as Mr. and Mrs. Little, proud parents of a white mouse that again sounds exactly like Michael J. Fox. The talking rodent dreams of becoming a Scout, so when the Little family spends their vacation at a lakeside cabin, he can’t wait to test his hiking and canoeing skills. Actually, it’s his beast-slaying prowess that need proving as there’s something scary lurking in the woods. Animation is above-par for a direct-to-video title, and there’s so much sweetness the case should come with a warning label for diabetics. As a child-pleaser, however, the mouse delivers. As a movie to also entertain grownups, I smell a rat. Grade: B- For ages 6-10 The Best of the Electric Company Sony/BMG Music Entertainment; G; 700 minutes $50 Available Feb. 7 Long before he helped Bruce Almighty find God and drove Miss Daisy, Morgan Freeman worked for “The Electric Company.” This PBS children’s program, produced by the Sesame Workshop (formerly Children’s Television Workshop), originally aired from 1971 to 1977. The four-DVD boxed set contains 24 of the series’ 780 episodes that were geared to children too old for “Sesame Street,” but whose parents still wanted them to watch educational television. The variety show featured Emmy-winning sketch comedy, Grammy-winning music and an occasional cartoon, and a regular cast that included Freeman, Bill Cosby and Rita Moreno. The show might look retro today, but back then, especially for us Baby Boomers, it was cool. The DVD contains hilarious outtakes and nostalgic interviews. Grade: A |
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