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The Princess Bride 20th Anniversary Edition — $14.99
It's hard to find a film more universally loved than The Princess Bride. Grown-ups appreciate its quirky wit; young kids love the over-the-top characters; and even at that age when boys' and girls' tastes tend to diverge, this fractured fairytale has something for both. This brand new edition is especially tailored to families, with a built-in videogame (more educational than Nintendo-like), a storybook with two retellings of the film, and three featurettes: one about fencing, one about fairytales, and a retrospective that will make you gasp at middle-aged Fred Savage. To skip it would be, well, inconceivable.
Ages 6 and up.
Get it at Amazon. |
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The Muppet Show: Season Two — $32.99
The first season of The Muppet Show is an entertaining curiosity, but the show didn't really hit its stride until Season Two. The cornball variety-show humor has aged remarkably well: the Swedish Chef's absurdist cooking segments, the pun-fueled soap opera spoofs, the musical numbers cut short by misbehaving puppets. Sam the Eagle's righteous indignation at the show's lack of "patriotic values" feels, in fact, remarkably contemporary. The twenty-four guest stars include Steve Martin, John Cleese, Peter Sellers and Julie Andrews, and even though your kids won't have any idea who most of them are, they're bound to find Kermit and company endlessly entertaining.
Ages 3 and up.
Get it at Amazon. |
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Treasury of 100 Storybook Classics from Scholastic Video — $53.49
There's no need to feel guilty about giving kids more screen time with this fantastic 16-disc collection; if anything, it will give them a new appreciation for the local library. Scholastic has assembled one hundred of their best storybook adaptations, including "Harold and the Purple Crayon," "In the Night Kitchen," "Good Night, Gorilla," "Make Way For Ducklings" and "The Snowy Day." Every story is narrated with the text of the book, accompanied by music, and animated in the style of the original illustrations (though a number of the stories are presented Reading Rainbow-style, scanning the illustrations without animation). No story is more than ten minutes long, and the leisurely pace is great for all ages. DVD extras include bonus stories, author interviews, Spanish-language versions, and a subtitled "read-along" option. Whether your kids are avid readers or non-readers, this is a painless way to introduce them to several decades' worth of classic picture books.
Ages 2-10.
Get it at Amazon. |
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Pixar Short Films Collection - Volume 1 — $19.99
Our kids may grow up taking CG animation for granted, but not too long ago, those 3-D computer images were nothing short of mind-blowing. Pixar's new collecton of thirteen short films (plus four even-shorter bonus films) shows us the animations that led up to Toy Story, plus the familiar, award-winning shorts that opened films like Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc. and The Incredibles. The films are visually enthralling and very funny, and it's fascinating to watch the Pixar style evolve over the course of the DVD. Special features include audio commentaries and a substantial history-of-Pixar documentary — plenty for older kids to geek out to, while the younger ones enjoy the silly animals.
Ages 3 and up.
Get it at Amazon. |
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Sesame Street: Volume 2 - Old School (1974-1979) — $23.49
A message at the beginning of this vintage Sesame Street collection warns that the set is intended for nostalgic adults, and "may not suit the needs of today's preschool child." But anyone who grew up with Mr. Hooper and a Jim Henson-voiced Ernie is going to want their kids to see the original. This disc contains no computer animation and no Elmo. It does, however, contain the Twiddlebugs, Richard Pryor doing the alphabet, and well-loved animations like the Pinball Number Count (everybody sing: "One, two, three, FOUR, five!"). This set contains five full episodes and several dozen "classic cuts" of songs, guest stars and sketches — so you can mix and match an episode for your children, just like the ones you remember.
Ages 3 and up.
Get it at Amazon. |
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