Shelley Duvall Bedtime Stories 4 Disc Complete Set Review

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(More customer reviews)Sad, but true, there was heretofore no information about the actual contents of this DVD set. It goes as follows:
Disc One: 6 Stories-75 minutes------
Elbert's Bad Word by Ringo Starr / Weird Parents by Bette Midler / Little Toot and the Loch Ness Monster by Rick Moranis / Choo Choo by Bonnie Raitt / Elizabeth and Larry by Jean Stapleton / Bill and Pete by Dudley Moore
Disc Two: 7 Stories-75 minutes------
Blumpoe The Grumpo Meets Arnold the Cat by John Candy / Millions of Cats by James Earl Jones / There's a Nightmare in My Closet by Michael J. Fox / There's an Alligator Under My Bed by Christian Slater / There's Something in My Attic by Sissy Spacek / Patrick's Dinosaurs by Martin Short / What Happened to Patrick's Dinosaurs by Martin Short
Disc Three: 6 Stories-78minutes------
Tugford Wanted To Be Bad by Steve Martin / Little Penguin's Tale by Candice Bergen / Moe The Dog in Tropical Paradise by Richard Dreyfuss / Amos, The Story Of An Old Dog and His Couch by Morgan Freeman / My New Neighbors by Billy Crystal / Rotten Island by Charles GrodinDisc Four: 7 Stories-105 minutes------
The Little Rabbit Who Wanted Red Wings by Shelley Duvall / Katy No-Pockets by Mary Steenburgen / Bootsie Barker Bites by Rhea Perlman / Ruby The Copycat by Shelley Long / Aunt Ippy's Museum of Junk by Kathy Bates / Uncle Wizzmo's New Used Car by Ed Begley, Jr. / The Christmas Witch by Angela Lansbury
Naturally these are read by, not authored by the various actors and actresses. The books chosen are not all time-worn children's classics, many are much more recent than Millions of Cats. I probably read only a fifth of these titles to my own children, which were read to constantly. However, parents and children love these DVD stories. Parents will get a kick out hearing John Candy, Steve Martin, and Angela Lansbury tell the stories. It is far preferable to read to a child on your lap for many reasons. But, these renditions are good for the times when someone has to get dinner on the table or nurse a sick cat. It will heighten the child's appreciation of books in general and, I believe, help encourage many to become good readers.


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First-time available on DVD. Winner of PARENTS CHOICE AWARD from TV GUIDE. Winner of the National Academy of Cable Programming Cable Ace Award for OUTSTANDING CHILDREN S PROGRAMMING. 26 Enchanting Animated Stories of the Award-Winning Children's Series, Bedtime Stories. The complete collection on 4 discs that can be enjoyed by the entire family. This delightfully animated series is based on best-selling picture books instantly recognized by parents and their children. Sparkling with brilliant animation and celebrity narration from a superstar line-up. This series is hosted and produced by Emmy nominee Shelley Duvall, widely recognized for such landmark entertainment as the award-winning Faerie Tale Theatre.

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Scooby-Doo: The Mystery Begins (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)First, I want everyone to know that I love the first two Scooby-Doo live action films. I thought the casting was done well, the stories were fine, and they looked good. I thought the second one was a little cooler because it had a lot of the "monsters" from the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? series coming to life.
With that being said, I was a little concerned with this third entry in the series. Usually a movie with this many red flags spells absolute disaster and almost guarantees a turd of a film. Let's spell out the red flags: its direct-to-DVD, it's a prequel, it's totally recast, and it's got a new director. Wow. That's a lot to have going against a movie. Interestingly enough, it didn't prove to be true for this flick.
Scooby-Doo: The Mystery Begins somehow rises up above the crowded direct-to-DVD sequel / prequel cesspool and actually is successful at being entertaining and not completely cheap-looking. You can tell that director Brian Levant really wanted to escape the stereotype that these types of movies get and show that he was serious about the subject matter and franchise. Warner definitely played it smart with Levant, being that he is responsible for bringing to the big screen some very successful family movies and iconic animated TV shows like Beethoven, The Flintstones feature films, Jingle All The Way, and Are We There Yet?
The casting was done pretty well. All the actors fit the parts, although not without a few minor problems. Robbie Arnell would have completely been convincing in the part of Fred, except that for some reason he wasn't made to bleach his hair blond for the film. What was the reasoning behind that? I mean, he did take the part of an iconic blond character. The least he could have done is bleach his hair out to put the finishing touches on the role. My only other problem was with Nick Palatas' performance as Shaggy. He was really good and definitely looked the part. It just seemed like he was going a little overboard with the cracking squeaky voice sometimes. It seemed a little forced at times. I thought it was cool that they kept Frank Welker as the voice of Scooby-Doo, as he has been doing the character for the past seven years in different series and movies.
Even the special effects were done well. The ghosts all looked just as good as any of the ones in the two movies they released in the theaters. I have to say, though, that there were scenes of the Scooby gang that were missing Scooby-Doo that felt kind of awkward. It almost seemed like they cut him out of the scenes to save money on their CGI budget. There were some parts with Scooby that looked a little less than stellar and where it looked like the actor in the shot with him was having trouble interacting with an invisible dog. They were all minor problems, though. It shouldn't take away from your viewing pleasure.
Overall, I have to say that I was pretty impressed with this movie. It was kind of fun to see the gang paint The Mystery Machine, meet each other, and solve their first crime together. If you're a Scooby-Doo fan, I'm pretty sure this movie will live up to your standards.

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What brings best friends together? For Daphne, Velma, Fred, Shaggy and Shaggy's spunky pup Scooby-Doo, it's a mystery! The feature-length live-action Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins original movie takes you back to when four teenage sleuths (plus one dog detective) first met. Unjustly accused of staging a spooky practical joke complete with ghosts, the kids are suspended from Coolsville High. To clear their names, they team to solve the supernatural mystery... and head straight into nonstop laughs and adventure. Special fun, special friends and extra-special effects make this "how-it-all-began" story--from boy-meets-dog to the first trip in the Mystery Machine and more--a doggone great time!

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Strawberry Shortcake - The Sweet Dreams Movie (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)"The Sweet Dreams Movie" is the first ever CGI film for the "Strawberry Shortcake" series. It was shown in limited release in theatres and is now available on DVD.Positives:
- To me, the CGI animation really isn't bad. Though I was thrown off by the look of it at first, I quickly grew used to it. I found some of it to actually be rather nice-looking. I also thought that the characters looked for the most part like they do in the TV show. Certainly a better effort to me than the CGI for "Clifford's Really Big Movie" (mediocre) and "Arthur's Missing Pal." (Not good at all.)
- Music and songs --- the best highlight of the film. "How a Garden Grows" is a fast-paced, standout song and very catchy. A couple of other fun songs include "All it Takes" and "The Land of Dreams." The songs overall are berry nice and drive the plot along.
- Characters - This film introduces a number of new characters to the series. Doing this sort of thing is always a bit of a tightrope, but I think all of the new characters work fairly well here. Raspberry Torte, works well as a reluctant protagonist (looking out for Lemon Meringue) and even though the series doesn't necessarily need villains to make it interesting, Purple Pie Man and his sister Sour Grapes fill the role well enough.
- Story - A decent enough plotline, though a bit slow-starting. The Land of Dreams was a fun place to visit and I wouldn't mind seeing it in the series again.Negatives:
- No special features other than Spanish subtitles and previews for other releases on this DVD. Most of the other "Strawberry Shortcake" DVDs at least have a music video and other such direct-to-video (or near direct-to-video) DVD releases have managed to put together at least reasonably interesting special features, so there's no reason why this shouldn't have any.
- Strawberry Shortcake's sister Apple Dumplin' is once again absent-without-leave, a disappointment, as she is one of the best characters in the series. Huckleberry Pie and Blueberry Muffin are also nowhere to be found.This film, per the closing credits, was dedicated with love to Pam Carter, who served as a voice director for the series.

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If you believe in your dreams, anything is possible. Strawberry Shortcake has a dream of fresh new field of berry bushes - enough for everyone. But, when the greedy Peculiar Purple Pieman rolls into Strawberrry Land, he decides to steal Strawberry's dream - and everyone else's dreams, too!In order to stop the Purple Pieman and his evil plan, Strawberry and her friends must travel to the Land of Dreams. Along the way, these special friends learn the value of working together to make dreams come true.

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