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• Babble Gift Guide Outtakes: Instant Karma CD

  Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur CD - $16 This John Lennon tribute CD was left out of our gift guide on a technicality; it's not really intended for families. But we like it anyway, especially since profits go to benefit a fantastic cause: the Amnesty International campaign to end the violence in Darfur. How's the music, you might ask? Well, the short answer is: take a look at the track list, and if you like the musician, you'll probably like that track.  Our favorites are the low-key ballads: Corrine Bailey Rae's "I'm Losing You," Postal Service's "Grow Old With Me," Jackson Browne's "Oh My Love," Ben Harper's "Beautiful Boy" (one of the best parent-child love songs ever) and Regina Spektor's "Real Love." We also give props to Matisyahu's inventive cover of "Watching the Wheels."  Yes, there are some crappy tracks (cough Xtina cough Avril cough), but at the 2-CDS-for-the-price-of-1 cost, you can download one disc's worth and consider it money well spent. — Gwynne Watkins To see what made it into the Babble Gift Guide, go here!  Posted Dec 20 2007, 09:32 AM by editors with | with no comments Filed under: music, cd, gift guide, outtakes, john lennon, instant karma, amnesty international

• Babble Gift Guide Outtakes: Brian the Brain

  Brian the Brain - $69.99  We were pretty excited to play with Brian the Brain, an interactive robot whom we likened to Teddy Ruxpin 2.0.   Just go here and read the description. Don't you want one? So did we. Until we actually tried him out. We found his personality obnoxious (he called us insulting names — seriously — when his voice-recognition software failed to acknowledge our commands), his interface hard to use, and his features lacking. The built-in dictionary didn't recognize half the words we threw at it, the "this day in history" feature was super-arbitrary, and we couldn't even find the encyclopedia. Brian can also function as a glorified phone, MP3 player and "room alarm;" we didn't test those features. But considering that Sharper Image sells this thing for like $140, we expected more.  — Gwynne Watkins To see what made it into the Babble Gift Guide, go here!  Posted Dec 19 2007, 01:06 PM by editors with | with no comments Filed under: gift guide, outtakes, brian the brain

• Babble Gift Guide Outtakes: The Care Bears 25th Anniversary Gift Set

  Care Bears: The 25th Anniversary DVD Gift Set - $30.99 True 80's nostalgia hounds will be happy to learn that the original Care Bears series (1985-1988) has finally come to DVD. The Care Bears have seen a recent revival, thanks to several computer-animated straight-to-DVD movies and the accompanying toys — but how does the original hold up? Truthfully, it's not that bad. The animation is less wince-worthy than, say, He-Man, although it doesn't reach the standards of anime-inspired 80's cartoons like Rainbow Brite. The show remains fun, the characters are pretty cute and not too grating — but in the end, it's just not that smart, funny or interesting. Even with the bonus Care Bear plush toy, four discs is too much Care Bears. — Gwynne Watkins     To see what made it into the Babble Gift Guide, go here!  Posted Dec 17 2007, 03:17 PM by editors with | with no comments Filed under: dvd, gift guide, care bears, outtakes