Babble

Even the most blasé Gen X-er will grow misty-eyed when recalling Free To Be...You And Me, Marlo Thomas' cult-classic 1974 children's album television special. Just thinking about defensive lineman (and needlepoint enthusiast!) Rosey Grier's no-nonsense vocals on "It's Alright To Cry" makes me cry. Shot on location in New York City, Free 's patchwork of songs, stories, poems, sketches and animation perfectly captures the ethos of its decade. So, nostalgia aside — how does it hold up after 30 years?  From the opening number, my husband and I were grinning wistfully (and sometimes rolling our eyes), while our toddler was enthralled. She particularly adores "William's Doll"-- a musical cartoon about a boy who desperately wants a doll -- and the funk R&B tune "Sisters And Brothers," featuring The Voices of East Harlem gleefully dancing in Central Park. There are some clunkers: the feminist princess story "Atalanta" means well but feels very Maude in its heavy-handedness; "Circle of Friends," featuring Marlo and a groovy group of "friends" (including Kris Kristofferson) singing and swaying by a cozy, soft-porn fire, is too hilarious to take seriously. There's also the sad and painfully ironic duet by Roberta Flack and Michael Jackson (with his original face): "When we grow up...we don't have to change at all...." Nevertheless, Free still has plenty of entertainment value, and a message that's worth passing on to a new generation. — Nancy Balbirer

Suddenly, the kids' dad and I are the ones wheedling for just one more episode, even though it's already 5 minutes past bedtime. The second season of Aardman Animation's Creature Comforts is one of those rare entertainments that the whole family can enjoy — as in rip-snorting, rewinding, really enjoy — as opposed to humoring the other side with the occasional pallid chuckle.

As in Season One, a diverse selection of the UK-residing interviewees are transformed (via a laborious stop-motion process documented in the bonus features) into a host of inspired animal characters, including a pair of elderly, royalist bats; a twittering plateful of mussels; and an emphatic mouse whose thick Newcastle accent is beyond comprehension. They're all so wonderful, it's difficult to claim a favorite — though we try, subjecting guests to extensive re-enactments of the sort that have given Monty Python fans a bad name. Thus far, nine-year-old Inky is the winner, turning in an affable male Sharpei that's so dead-on, her brother has to stand on his head shouting fart jokes to reassert his status as the family's class clown. — Ayun Halliday

Too much "smart" children's programming seems kind of dopey, like those ubiquitous Baby Einstein videos (hey, look, the cat likes it!). HBO's Peabody Award-winning animated series Classical Baby is an ingenious take on the genre. Divided into 3 30-minute DVDs, this stimulating yet soothing wind-down collection provides an ingeniously layered introduction to masterpieces of music, art and dance. Each DVD begins with "Classical Baby," the spiky-haired, diaper-clad toddler, conducting an all-animal orchestra. Short musical pieces (selections include Bach, Debussy and Ellington) are set to wonderfully evocative animation. My toddler has been captivated by this series since she was 18 months old. Her favorites include "The Cow Song," in which a cow sings a Puccini Aria (The Music Show); Mary Cassatt paintings set to Schubert's "Trio In B Flat" (The Art Show) and an animated rendering of Balanchine's "Waltz of the Flowers" (The Dance Show). For grown-ups too, Classical Baby's whimsical presentation of iconic images (who knew there were families of Boll weevils living inside Van Gogh's Starry Night?) reawakens the awe of discovery. — Nancy Balbirer

Eloise, six years old, lives in the Plaza Hotel on 5th Avenue in New York City. Her mother, an actress, sends for Eloise and Nanny to join her in Hollywood by train. Eloise, discovered by chance, lands the starring role in a big movie, but finds that the life of an actress is not what she expected.

LISA: So, what did you guys get out of that movie?
WOLF: Hollywood actors — they can be anything. A monster or an alien or a giant ape. You have to practice.
SADIE: It's hard for them, so they pretend to hurt their ankle so they can get away from the life. It was hard for Eloise. It would be fun for me.
LISA: Would you guys rather be a child actor in Hollywood or an heir living it up in New York City ?
SADIE: I'd rather live in Hollywood. It's pretty there. Prettier than any twilight. The convertibles, the palm trees.
WOLF: Palm trees can have coconuts, dates, bananas or figs. I prefer New York. It has hotels, big buildings, robbers.
LISA: Robbers?!
WOLF: Yeah — I could make booby traps for them.
SADIE: Wolfgang said "booby"!
LISA: Do you guys see any similarities between those little kids working on a studio lot and you little kids working at home reviewing?
WOLF: It's both a lot of talking.
LISA: Yeah, but you guys are expressing your own ideas. Actors have to express someone else's ideas. And nobody does you guys' hair and makeup.
SADIE: I would like it if someone did. I would like hair and makeup before my next review. And turn my hair pink.
WOLF: I'm dressing up as half-human, half-ape before our next review.
LISA: Yeah — you guys should put the glamour back in reviewing. Like Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons.
— Lisa Carver, Wolf (twelve), Sadie (four)

I've always been a huge fan of the Broadway musical Annie, so I was disappointed by director John Huston's artless, self-conscious and frequently boring 1982 film version. Carol Burnett as horny Miss Hannigan is wildly over-the-top, Albert Finney (Daddy Warbucks) seems disoriented, and Aileen Quinn (Annie) smiles so hard, my face hurts. Even Sandy (the dog) is miscast; with his '80s poofy coif, he looks more Brentwood than Bowery. And yet my twenty-three-month-old daughter is obsessed with it. After only one rapt viewing, she was saying incessantly "I wha Ah-nee!" from the moment she woke up. What is it about this hot mess of a movie that enchants her so? Apparently my daughter can see beyond all the superfluous plot points, leaden performances, and winking Hollywood paeans. To her, it's just a fun story about little girls and a dog and a nice big house, with lots of music and dancing and fireworks and happy endings. And you know, maybe that's enough to make me "wha Ah-nee," too. Best DVD feature: "Act Along With Annie," in which the adult Aileen Quinn offers decent acting pointers for playing Annie in three scenes. Worst feature: the disturbingly sexy, faux-hip-hop rendition of "It's A Hard Knock Life" performed by a no-name "pop group." — Nancy Balbirer

OLD-MAN-VOICED TRAIN: "I especially like the company of children."
LISA: That’s a little creepy!
SADIE: That is NOT creepy.
WOLF: It’s creepy that the trains have faces.
SADIE: It doesn’t creep me out.
LISA: Would you guys say that, in life in general, Sadie is not very creeped out and Wolf is?
WOLF: I don’t think it’s really general in life that a train has a face.
LISA: Actually, Wolf’s right. Their eyes move when they talk, but their lips don’t. This is horrifying!
SADIE: It’s not horrifying to ME.
LISA: Yeah, well, your favorite movie is The Butterfly Ball [a live show from the 70s with interpretive dance, arena rock, smoke machines, and people dressed up like moles and dogs].

— Lisa Carver, Wolf (twelve), Sadie (four)

The first story is "a bunch of worms that talk, slither, and eat," the second is "silly little mice with silly little accents," but then there’s this: Frog Goes to Dinner.

WOLF: Okay. A boy in a suit puts his bullfrog in his pocket and is having dinner in a fancy restaurant and the frog jumps out of his pocket all over the place. He just jumped inside a trumpet.
SADIE: Uh-oh. He just got blown out of the trumpet into the lobster barrel. Now the frog got in the people’s salad.
WOLF: Noooo! Hahahahahahahahahaha! Hahahahaha!
SADIE: Hahahahahahahaha!
LISA: Hahaha, ah, oh my god! Okay, it landed on the guy’s toupee. Now the toupee got thrown off into the lady’s soup.
EVERYONE: Ahahahaha! Oh! Oh!

— Lisa Carver, Wolf (twelve), Sadie (four)

Until I watched Disc 4 of the Chronicles of Narnia box set, I'd assumed that the hundreds of behind-the-scenes hours devoted to the sheen, transparency, and reflective qualities of Finding Nemo's anonymous jellyfish represented the pinnacle of labor-intensive filmmaking for young audiences. The crowning gem of a great trove of goodies justifying this set's $42.99 price tag is Visualizing The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, a making-of doc in which everyone from the costume designer to the Voice of Mr. Beaver describes the flaming hoops through which they jumped in the quest to get it right. Some of this — superimposing fawn legs on human actors, recreating computer-generated ice floes piece for piece on a sound stage — is impressively high-tech, guaranteed to render non-industry mortals like us agog. Even more remarkable, for my money, is the child cast's ability to sell what wasn't there, not to mention the crouching stagehand who spent whole days waving an expressionless stuffed beaver around to ensure that those young eyes would stay properly focused. And while boxed sets are all about the bonuses, it should be noted that the extreme care we see being taken in the documentary resulted in a wonderfully old-fashioned, snark-free family film. — Ayun Halliday

SADIE: She laughs crazy.
WOLF: It's kind of scary.
LISA: And there's Courtney Love. Do you think she's crazy too?
WOLF AND SADIE: Yes.
LISA: Do you think these movies are appropriate for kids?
WOLF: No. Because Darcy has a bra on.
LISA: That's a gown! A debutante gown. When did you get so conservative?
WOLF: She's kind of like a little girl, like Greta and Sadie.
SADIE: She has a little devil and a little angel.
LISA: She's got that Catholic dichotomy going on. And there's her doppelganger, up in the tree!
SADIE: Is that her cousin?
LISA: Yes. Her evil cousin. Now here's Darcy inside a dollhouse, getting a vaccine, like you guys do.
SADIE: That piece of lettuce talked! That's funny!
WOLF: It's scary.
LISA: Parts of childhood are scary. Don't you think?
SADIE: Maybe the vaccine made her mean. Is she in jail?
LISA: That might be symbolic for being confused or feeling small. Here comes the devil band.
SADIE: That devil band is going to be in so much trouble!
WOLF: I think they're nice devils, because they helped Darcy escape.
LISA: Music often does that. In this movie, Darcy's reflection in the pond gave her a present.
SADIE: A magic letter, for her tears to make dresses and umbrellas.
LISA: Can you think of what that may be symbolic of?
SADIE: No! This is not like my real life at all!
LISA: You might have a steadier life than some children. When I was growing up, it felt like this.
SADIE: In this one, three demon mermaids are going on the sailor's ship.
LISA: Exactly! Here Darcy is being interviewed on Japanese TV. She says: "To me, reality is just a place to make fantasy happen."

Next, Darcy did some crazy interior decorating, with the theme of Alice In Wonderland as The Last Supper. Inspired, Wolf asked if he and Sadie could put ribbons and decorations up. I said okay. They made an impenetrable maze out of my house; I tripped and fell on my face making dinner. But I left it up. Totally impractical, illogical, ridiculous and sublime. When we whitewash out the dark, impenetrable, scary parts of childhood, we also erase the beauty. — Lisa Carver, Wolf (twelve), Sadie (four)