Year:  2011
Genre:  Kids, Cartoon, TV series
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Tom McGrath, Jeff Glen Bennett, John DiMaggio, Danny Jacobs, James Patrick Stewart, Andy Richter, Mary Scheer, Tara Strong, Nicole Sullivan
Director:  Bret Haaland
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     There’s another Penguins of Madagascar DVD coming out February 14th, from Paramount Home Entertainment, this one called Operation Get Ducky.  See, there’s this egg that Marlene finds, and she brings it to the penguins because they’re birds and ought to know what to do with it.  Apparently, these aren’t the penguins from March of the Penguins, where the males nurture the eggs until they hatch.

     No, these are the Madagascar penguins, who somehow manage to train the egg to be a super-commando before it hatches into a little computer animated baby duck.  The second episode is also about the duck, who comes back to the zoo as a fully-formed little ninja baby, and decides to beat up everyone in the place.  Including the elephants.  Because that’s what you would do, if you were a ninja commando duckling. 

     Of course, after that, the theme of the duck disappears entirely so the DVD can be filled out with six more episodes that have nothing to do with a vicious little duckling.  King Julien gets introduced to April Fool’s Day, Marlene goes outside the zoo for a while and becomes a feral otter, the crocodile comes to live in the penguins’ enclosure for a time, and some hornets keep showing up and threatening to sting everyone’s face. 

     Penguins of Madagascar is as entertaining as ever, and Operation Get Ducky is pretty much the same as every other DVD they’ve put out.  A few tangentially related episodes and a bunch of filler.  The way I figure it, you either like it or you don’t.  And nothing says Happy Valentine’s Day like the gift of a children’s animated DVD!

Year:  2011
Genre:  Comedy, Cartoon, TV series
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Creator:  Mike Judge
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     Beavis And Butthead Volume Four hits DVD February 21^st from Paramount Home Entertainment.  I’ve always thought the funniest thing about Beavis and Butthead was their commentary on music videos.  But today, there are precious few music videos for them to skewer.  You can watch MTV for an entire day now, and see no music videos at all.

     But then, MTV has an awful lot of shows.  And if there was one reason to bring back Beavis and Butthead (and I will say that I am still not sure there WAS any good reason to bring them back), it’s Jersey Shore.  Oh, sure, it’s funny when they watch Teen Cribs or True Life, or comment on 16 and Pregnant.  But it’s Jersey Shore that really brings out the comic genius in Beavis and Butthead. 

     Even the seemingly innocuous clips from the show, like J-Wow talking about how cool it is that she gets to make pizza in Florence Italy, become absolutely hilarious when seen through the eyes of two high school losers.  Sure, there are still some music videos.  Apparently, MTV still does that.  Sometimes. 

     And there are of course Beavis and Butthead episodes, with plots and everything, like the one where the boys discover that they still get paid while taking bathroom breaks so they spend their entire shift in the bathroom.  But the only really funny stuff comes from Jersey Shore.

     It makes me wish, in a way, the Beavis and Butthead revival had happened a few years earlier, during the time of The Hills and A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila.  The thing is, they don’t watch Jersey Shore every episode.  Sometimes they watch The Ultimate Fighter instead.  Which is fine, but not nearly as good.  So I don’t know if I would recommend sitting through the entire two disc collection.  I can get just as much of a belly laugh from the reality show commentary on The Soup.

Year:  2011
Genre:  Kids, Cartoon, TV series
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Bill Fagerbakke, Carolyn Lawrence, Clancy Brown
Director:  Paul Tibbitt
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     Another week, another Spongebob DVD release.  On January 3^rd, that DVD is Spongebob’s Frozen Face Off, from Paramount Home Entertainment.  This time, the little yellow square guy sets off on a cross-country race against all the other characters on the show.  For some reason this takes place on sleds, in snowy wintery blizzard conditions.  Are they even trying to pretend they remember this show takes place under water any more?

     I don’t know.  It seems that not only have they forgotten that the Spongebob lives in a pineapple Under The Sea, they have also run out of ideas completely.  Every episode seems to involve Plankton trying to steal the Krabby Patty formula, again.  Even the race through the frozen mountains is an episode involving Plankton stealing the Krabby Patty formula.  This makes me a little sad.  I love Spongebob, and I don’t really want the show to end, but this does sort of feel like the death knell of the series. 

     After all, how many cartoon series have featured a huge cross-country race in their final season?  Scooby-Doo, Popeye, Yogi Bear, and hundreds of others have signaled their upcoming cancelation by pitting all their characters against each other in a no-holds barred race across dangerous terrain, featuring back-stabbing and rampant cheating and other shenanigans.  Hundreds of them.  It may, sadly, be time to say goodbye to Spongebob.

     Until then, of course, Spongebob will be releasing a new DVD twice a month or so.  The only artist more prolific than Neil Young appears to be Spongebob.  If you were a hardcore fan of both, and had to pick up every Neil Young release and re-release and compilation and concert, and you had to pick up every Spongebob DVD as well, you’d go broke.  Then again, if you were a huge fan of BOTH Neil Young and Spongebob, you would more likely be spending all your money on weed.

     I think I’ll keep track of both this year.  Which will release more things on Tuesdays, Neil Young or Spongebob.  So far Spongebob has the lead, with one DVD in one week of 2012.  1-0 Spongebob.  To be continued…

Year:  2010
Genre:  Kids, Cartoon, TV series
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Tom McGrath, Jeff Glen Bennett, John DiMaggio, Danny Jacobs, James Patrick Stewart, Andy Richter, Mary Scheer, Tara Strong, Nicole Sullivan
Eye candy:  Nicole Sullivan (Marlene, if you will)
Director:  Bret Haaland
Run time:  73 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     On January 10^th, Paramount Home Entertainment releases Operation Blowhole, the latest DVD from the Penguins of Madagascar.  There’s a lot of content on the DVD, not all of it the Penguins of Madagascar series, but you’ve really got to navigate around the disc a lot to find it.

     The three central episodes centre around Dr. Blowhole, the evil dolphin nemesis of the Penguin commando team.  Dr. Blowhole, voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, is a lot of fun.  Like an evil dolphin super-villain version of Doogie Howser.  But again, as always, the penguins work best in small doses, and three back-to-back-to-back episodes of them fighting a dolphin is no small dose.  It’s a big dose.  I like Dr. Blowhole, and I like the multiple musical numbers they throw in here, but one at a time, please. 

     On the Operation Blowhole DVD, there are a lot of extra episodes, of this show and others.  That’s good, because some of those Blowhole episodes have appeared on other DVDs before.  There’s a total of 73 minutes of content on this DVD, some of which is a bit tough to find. But it provides some good variety, and the kids should really enjoy all of it.

Year:  2011
Genre:  Kids, Cartoon, Comedy, Kung-fu
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring (Voices):  Jack Black, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Gary Oldman, David Cross, Michelle Yeoh, James Hong, Danny McBride, Dennis Haysbert, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Victor Garber
Director:  Jennifer Yuh
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     The first Kung-Fu Panda worked because it was as much a kung-fu movie as it was a kids’ comedy.  The voice casting was superb, and the kung-fu staples weren’t (badly) dumbed-down.  It was as good a kung-fu movie as I’ve seen in a decade, and a gerat kids’ film as a result.

     The second Kung-Fu Panda, out on DVD and Blu-Ray December 13th from Paramount Home Entertainment, is even more a kung-fu movie than the first one.  There are some wonderfully animated kung-fu scenes, including a great chase through a Chinese city on rickshaws, which I think is the highlight of the movie. 

     There is much deference to kung-fu movies of the past.  And it’s not just the involvement of Michelle Yeoh and James Hong.  The central concept is that an evil peacock has invented the Ultimate Weapon, one that cannot be beaten no matter how good one’s kung-fu is.  This is a classic plot line to countless films, like Flying Guillotine.  And…Flying Guillotine 2.  And many others that don’t spring to mind right away.

     The weapon this peacock has devised is a cannon.  The advent of firearms was a plot device used in many classic films, as it signified the end to a way of life.  It was used in samurai movies as well as kung-fu flicks, the most famous probably being The Seven Samurai.  Similar themes sprang up in westerns with the advent of machine guns.

     Then there are the masters.  So many kung-fu movies have multiple masters, each one usually the master of a different discipline.  In this case, there is Master Rhino (Victor Garber), Master Ox (Dennis Haysbert), and Master Croc (the wonderfully cast Jean-Claude Van Damme, who says distressingly little throughout the movie).

     It works magnificently as a kung-fu movie.  Now for the bad news – it isn’t even close to the first film as a kids’ cartoon comedy.  Sure, it’s still funny in places, and charming and cute in others.  But Kung Fu Panda 2 lacks the charm of its predecessor, and it’s childlike sense of wonder.  Now that Po IS a member of the kung-fu elite, he no longer idolizes the Furious Five the way he did in the first film, so much of the magic that created is gone.

     I still like Kung Fu Panda 2 a lot.  I will definitely be watching it again, probably many times, with the kids (and by myself).  Just because it doesn’t live up to the magical humour and throwback genius of the first one doesn’t mean that this movie isn’t also very good.  Kung Fu Panda 2 is very good.

Year:  2011
Genre:  Kids, Cartoon, TV series
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Bill Fagerbakke, Carolyn Lawrence, Clancy Brown
Director:  Paul Tibbitt
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     More than nine hours of Spongebob hilarity are packaged together on the Complete Seventh Season of Spongebob Squarepants, out December 6th from Paramount Home Entertainment.  Nine hours of Spongebob, 50 episodes!  And it even contains three, four…maybe even FIVE episodes that I have yet to see!

     Let’s see…there’s the episode where Plankton dresses in Sandy’s fur so he can steal the Krabby Patty formula…seen that one…there’s the one where Squidward gets a new neighbour who plays the bassoon and falls in (nonsexual platonic) love…seen that one…

     Patrick learns karate…yep…Spongebob invents a hot dog krabby patty then regrets his invention…Spongebob gets a job as a kitchen sponge model (GREAT episode)…Squidward tries to take Spongebob’s place at a dance audition…Squidward tries to clean up enough garbage to get a statue built of him like Squilliam…seen ‘em all! 

     The thing is, I have already watched The Great Patty Caper, Blast from the Past, Spongebob’s Last Stand, and Legends of Bikini Bottom this year.  In fact, just two weeks ago I saw Spongebob Hallowe’en, Spongebob Christmas, Spongebob Miscellaneous Holidays and Tales From the Deep.  Now, if youève managed to avoid buying all of THOSE DVDs this year, then Spongebob’s Seventh Season is a great pickup!  Cause it’s Spongebob.

Year:  2011
Genre:  Kids, Cartoon, TV series
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Bill Fagerbakke, Carolyn Lawrence, Clancy Brown
Director:  Paul Tibbitt
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     On November 8th, the same day Paramount Home Entertainment releases the three-disc Holidays With Spongebob gift set, they are also releasing a single Spongebob disc called Tales From The Deep. 

     It appears that releasing three Spongebob DVDs a month has been SO profitable that they have decided to up the dosage and release four at once.  As I said about the holiday DVDs, there are really TWO holiday episodes and then about 22 random episodes that have nothing to do with the rest. 

     Similarly on the Tales From the Deep DVD, there seems to be no unifying theme at all to the disc, it’s just nine random episodes, most of which I had seen before.  The one where Spongebob tries to get Squidward to eat a Krabby Patty, the one where he goes into Sandy’s underwater biodome for tea, and the one where he and Patrick try to get Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy to come out of retirement have been on many of these compilation DVDs before.

     Then there’s the Valentines’ Day episode.  How come the HOLIDAY gift set had a Hallowe’en DVD, a Christmas DVD, and then a totally unrelated disc called To Love A Patty, when the Tales From The Deep DVD, released the SAME DAY, has a Valentine’s Day episode.  I hate to be cynical here…except that this is Cynical Cinema…but could it be, just maybe, that no one who put these Spongebob DVDs cared at all and it’s just another in a series of increasingly frequent cash grabs with Spongebob’s face on them?

Year:  2011
Genre:  Comedy, Cartoon, TV series
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Creator:  Mike Judge
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     I laughed harder than I have in a long time while watching the new Beavis and Butthead DVD, out October 4^th from Paramount Home Entertainment.  Mike Judge’s Most Wanted is a collection of classic Beavis and Butthead cartoons, to help promote the return of the show to MTV at the end of October.

     Now, when I say I laughed harder than I have in a long time, I don’t mean while watching the cartoons.  I find very little funny about the show itself, and the episodes about some chicks who take the idiots’ money at a movie theatre, and the one where they draw some terribly violent cartoons in film class, and so on and so forth, are boring to me. 

     I always liked Beavis and Butthead, but only when they commented on music videos.  And, when they started, MTV showed music videos.  Now, MTV is a reality show network with precious little musical content – which is actually perfect for Beavis and Butthead.  The belly laughs I got came from the special features, which offered a sneak preview of the upcoming show. 

     And watching them comment on Jersey Shore was one of the funniest things I have EVER seen. I killed myself laughing.  That’s why I put that bit up at the top of the review here on the video.  If you bust a gut laughing when Butthead says “that’s how she answers the phone”, you’re just like me.  Maybe you have to know a bit about Jersey Shore first.  Maybe not.  All I know is that this is the best laugh I’ve had in a while.

     The old stuff on this DVD doesn’t really appeal to me.  I just can’t get into frog baseball or two morons destroying a house trying to kill a fly.  But that one-minute preview of the upcoming season was absolutely perfect, and I will be looking forward to THAT in a big way.

Year:  2010
Genre:  Kids, Cartoon, TV series
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Bill Fagerbakke, Carolyn Lawrence, Clancy Brown
Director:  Paul Tibbitt
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     New data shows that Spongebob is bad for your kids’ brains.  At least in the short term.  Is it worse than video games?  Dunno.  The study didn’t say.  Worse than constant thumb-numbing texting?  Who knows.  All the study really said was that Spongebob is worse for kids than those PBS documentaries that they tend to watch all the time.

     Recently, I was able to tear the kids away from the Ken Burns Civil War documentary series they were watching to put in the new Spongebob DVD, Runaway Road Trip.  (Out September 20th from Paramount Home Entertainment.)  Sure, they grumbled, and complained a little, and made sure I kept the Civil War DVD out so they could go back to it and learn what became of Nathan Bedford Forrest.

     I’m a lot like my kids.  I also grumble a little when it comes time to view a new Spongebob DVD.  It’s one of those shows where I forget my love for it as soon as a week has gone by and I haven’t seen an episode.  Thankfully, a new Spongebob DVD is released once every three weeks – maybe even more often than Neil Young releases albums and compilations and DVDs.  So I don’t get too much time to become disillusioned with the show.

     Then I put on the new DVD, like Runaway Road Trip, and fall right back in love.  This one is all about vacations (a “staycation” with Patrick, a cruise with Mr. Krabs and stowaway Plankton, a trip to the Bikini Bottom mint with Mr. Krabs and Pearl, and a road trip with Patrick and Spongebob’s parents).

     Here is where I think Spongebob might actually be bad for kids.  Spongebob’s name is…well, Spongebob.  His parent’s names are Claire and Harold.  They are clearly sea sponges – all mishapen blobs that look like Mr. Potato Heads.  HE is a ready-made square, yellow kitchen sponge.  That raises a lot of questions.  Designer babies?  Genetic tampering?  Children for corporate profit?  That stuff could really mess with kids heads.

     Now, back to MY kids and Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Year:  2010
Genre:  TV series, Cartoon, Kids
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Voices:  David Hornsby, Nika Futterman, Jamie Kennedy, Wyatt Cenac, Jeff Bennett
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     Fanboy And Chum Chum: Brain Freeze, the new DVD out August 16th from Paramount Home Entertainment, is aptly titled.  As advertised, it did not take long for my brain to freeze while watching this frenetic insipid nonsense.  I object to Fanboy and Chum Chum the way I object to action movies shot by music video directors.  Jump cuts, flashy colours and sudden extreme closeups don’t make things more exciting.  They make them more confusing.  And why you would do this in a cartoon, I can’t imagine.

     Brain Freeze appears to be a collection of Fanboy and Chum Chum episodes centred around a theme.  That theme here is the Slurpee-like beverage called a Frostee Freeze that is sold at the local Frosty Mart.  Well, that was either the theme of this collection, or it’s the theme of the whole show.  I have never watched this show before, and I would really hate to think that every single episode was all about a drink.  That would make me sad.

     There’s an episode on the DVD that is a parody of The Hangover.  No kid watching this show will have seen The Hangover.  I assume.  Or hope.  And no adult who has seen The Hangover would want to watch Fanboy And Chum Chum.  I assume.  Or hope.

Year:  2011
Genre:  Comedy, Cartoon, Kids, Western
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring (voices):  Johnny Depp, Bill Nighy, Isla Fisher, Timothy Olyphant, Abigail Breslin, Ned Beatty, Alfred Molina, Ray Winstone, Stephen Root, Harry Dean Stanton
Director:  Gore Verbinski
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     Paramount Home Entertainment releases Rango on July 15th.  It’s an animated kids’ film where Johnny Depp voices Rango, a pet chameleon who ends up stranded in the middle of a western movie in the desert.  It’s a wonderful little movie which conjures up images (and pays tribute to) of some of the greatest western movies ever made, specifically Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns.

     Although the chameleon’s name is Rango, that’s just the name he chooses for himself when he’s put on the spot.  Really, as a pet owned by some family, he has never left his tank, and has never been given a name at all.  And in this way, he recalls the Man With No Name from A Fistful Of Dollars and The Good The Bad And The Ugly.  In fact, there is a character that is clearly meant to be Clint Eastwood AS the “Man With No Name”, who shows up at the end of the movie, voiced by Timothy Olyphant. 

     There are other movie references, most of which will be WAY over the heads of most of the children at whom the movie is mostly aimed.  Some are to other Johnny Depp movies, including one hilarious and pitch-perfect allusion to Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas.  Not a lot of kids have seen Fear And Loathing. 

     Despite the little moments that reference other films, Rango is a true western, through and through.  The chameleon ends up in a desert town populated by birds and toads and other desert creatures.  They carry six-guns and ride roadrunners.  It’s a tough town, and Rango must be tough to survive.  Fancying himself a Shakespearean actor, he pulls off a tough guy routine so well that he gets elected sherriff.  Now he must battle a whole bunch of bad guys in a quest to find out who’s stealing the town’s water.

     Just about everything about Rango works.  The animation is terrific, and even though none of the creatures are dehydrated or dessicated, the drought and lack of water is palpable.  It made me thirsty just watching.  Depp is terrific as the lizard, and the rest of the voices are great as well.  Kids will like it for the slapstick humour and the jokes, adults will appreciate the references to other films, but I like it because I like westerns.  And Rango is a good western.

Year:  2010
Genre:  TV series, Cartoon, Kids
Country:  United States
Language:  English
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     On July 5th, Paramount Home Entertainment releases the Team Umizoomi DVD.  It’s another one of those kids shows, like Dora The Explorer or Go Diego Go, where they want ME to help them do things.  They use their Mighty Math Skills, you see (which involve patterns and shapes) but their skills are apparently not as good as mine, since they always need my help.

     See, this silly kid lost his toy lion on a string when it rolled down a hill.  It was then apparently dismantled by local animals and spread all over the park.  There’s even a creepy squirrel that steals the lion’s wheels.  Yeah, this lion has wheels.  Whatever.  So the Umizoomi Team is assembled to help this irresponsible kid get his toy back in time for the parade.

     And of course they need MY help.  They ask me which objects on the squirrel’s shelf are circles (and therefore wheels).  And I purposely tried to screw them up.  I pointed to all the triangles instead.  And you know what?  They fell for it!  And they failed in their mission, and the dumb kid never got his lion back, and the two kids and a robot kicked me off Team Umizoomi!

     But then, in the very next episode, where they had to retrieve a kite lost by some other forgetful silly kid, they let me right back on the team!  No questions asked!  Team Umizoomi really is very nice.  Best two kids and a robot I have ever joined in a club.  A Mighty Math club!  I once again sabotaged their efforts, and they were unable to recover the kite.

     I DID help them find the imprisoned Blue Mermaid.  See, her scales light up blue and illuminate the entire ocean!  I wanted a piece of that action.  And with my actual help, we were successful.  Way to go, two kids and a robot.  And me!

Year:  2010
Genre:  Comedy, Cartoon, TV series
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Trey Parker, Matt Stone
Creators:  Trey Parker, Matt Stone
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     As always, Season 14 of South Park is hit-and-miss.  I like the opening episode, about Tiger Woods and sex addiction and the silliness of celebrities who get caught cheating with all kinds of women and then hide behind it.  I like the concept of the 200th episode celebration, where Tom Cruise leads a class action lawsuit against the town of South Park on behalf of all the celebrities who have ever been mocked by the show.  (That episode turns on a very intriguing idea – Cruise agrees to drop the lawsuit if the town will let him meet the Islamic prophet Mohammed – which of course means they would have to draw him.)

     But there are more weak episodes in Season 14 than there are great ones.  The one where Stan’s father intentionally gets cancer so he can obtain medical marijuana is basically one long giant-scrotum joke.  The Intervention episode with Towlie starts strong but degenerates into a silly summer-camp episode of Scoobie-Doo.  The NASCAR one is weak, the Inception spoof is silly, and the three-episode arc where Coon & Friends battle the giant evil being Cthulhu is serious overkill.

     Of course, there are still enough solid episodes to make this TV set worthwhile.  I liked Scrotie McBoogerballs, an episode that already appeared on the Butters box set last year.  Other standouts are a terrific skewering of social media where Stan battles with his own profile inside facebook like Tron, and one where the casts of Real Housewives of New Jersey and Jersey Shore invade the town, who must turn to Osama Bin Laden and Al Quaeda for help.  Season 14 may not be as good as it has been the last few seasons.  But South Park still rocks.

Year:  2010
Genre:  Kids, TV series, Cartoon
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Phillip Corlett, Claire Corlett, Erika-Shaye Gair, Ian James Corlett
Run time:  100 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     The Dinosaur Train group is growing on me.  Normally, my eleven-year-old turns up his nose at shows aimed at very small children.  Just about every Nick Jr show makes him scrunch up his face and make fake-vomiting sounds.  Dora, Diego, Blue’s Clues.  For some reason though, PBS shows work better.  Martha Speaks, Word Girl and Dinosaur Train seem to resonate with him.  I think it’s because they’re better shows.  Where Dora and Yo Gabba Gabba and shows like them rely on repetition, silly jingles and simplistic stories, the PBS shows work more on facts and education.  And my kid likes to learn stuff.

     On Dinosaur Train, he learned nothing about trains, but a fair amount about dinosaurs.  Now, I don’t really remember being eleven, but I do remember being a dinosaur fanatic at that age.  And from what I recall, pteranodons didn’t fly, or flap their wings.  They were strictly gliders.  So I would quibble with the fact that the pteranodons flap their wings and fly around on this show.  Other than that, I assume their facts are solid. 

     In Pteranodon Family World Tour Adventure (a cumbersome name to be sure for this DVD, out March 15th from Paramount Home Entertainment), I learned about confuciusornis birds (which understandably have Chinese accents), Amargasaurus (who had a big sail on his back), iguanodon (who was great with directions – and at hitchhiking), and kentrosaurus (which was apparently also a stegosaurus).  I also learned about velociraptors.  The velociraptors did not eat the pteranodons, even though I assumed they would.  I think Jurassic Park may have coloured my opinion of these dinosaurs, who turn out to have been extremely friendly and speak impeccable English.

     Dinosaur Train really works only for kids who are into dinosaurs.  Of course, most kids around the age of ten ARE into dinosaurs.  I think.  Whatever.  I was once into dinosaurs.  This show brings back good memories.

Years:  1969, 1972
Genre:  Kids, Cartoon, Classic
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring (voices):  Johanna Baer, David Carey, Linda Ercoli, Christopher de Faria, Robin Kohn, Linda Mendelson, Hilary Momberger, Stephen Shea, Chad Webber, Bill Melendez, Peter Robbins, Pamelyn Ferdin, Glenn Gilger, Andy Pforsich, Sally Dryer, Anne Altieri, Guy Pforsich, Erin Sullivan
Director:  Bill Melendez
Run time:  166 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang are so familiar to most of us that watching them in an animated movie is not much different than reading the old Charles M. Schultz comic strips.  And since all the jokes and scenarios are exactly the same, it actually IS just like that.  Charlie Brown is bad at baseball.  His team loses all the time, and every pitch he throws comes right back up the middle and knocks all his clothes off.  He can’t fly a kite and trees want to eat his kites and his kites attack him and break all the time.  He gets psychiatric advice from Lucy at her booth for the low low price of a nickel.  Lucy takes the football away when he’s about to kick it.  Linus carries a blanket, Schroeder plays piano, Pigpen is messy.  You know how it goes.

     That familiarity both helps and hurts the first movie on this 2-disc double feature from Paramount Home Entertainment.  A Boy Named Charlie Brown is the first Peanuts feature length film, from 1969.  The familiarity of the story works well, as does the homey feel generated by the now-classic Vince Guaraldi theme music.  Really though, the film is just a series of vignettes – Charlie Brown’s kite, Charlie Brown playing baseball – spread out by some filler animated sequences – Snoopy’s record player playing the Star Spangled Banner, Schroeder playing the Pathetique on his piano – and finally, the actual story, which involves Charlie Brown entering a spelling bee.

     Of course, Charlie Brown will fail at the spelling bee, as he does at everything else – that is, after all, the theme of Peanuts.  But he DOES place second overall, nationally, in a televised spelling bee.  He returns home with the stench of failure all over him, and gets depressed, and hides in bed.  Today, a movie that ends like that would be a success story – if any kids in school made fun of the guy who came in second in the country in a spelling bee, he would just say “oh, yeah, I did lose.  How…did you do in the nationally televised spelling bee?  Oh, you didn’t make it?  You weren’t there?  I see.”  And the movie would be a success story.  Not for Charlie Brown though, of course.

     The second movie in the set is Snoopy Come Home, a surprisingly – no, staggeringly – sad story about Snoopy running off to find his original owner, a little girl who has been hospitalized for some reason.  While the gang pines for Snoopy and worries about where he may be, Snoopy takes Woodstock and his briefcase off on a series of adventures as they try to get to the hospital.  They are kidnapped by a creepy little girl, they sink a raft in a river, they camp out in a giant nest and under an overpass.  Of course, Snoopy and Woodstock don’t speak, so maybe the most interesting thing about the 1972 film is that it operates almost entirely visually.

     For our eleven-year-old, Snoopy Come Home was more interesting.  A Boy Named Charlie Brown is a little more inaccessible for the young ones, although of course he is familiar with the comic strips also, so he found it cool that he knew what was coming next.  Lucy’s gonna take the football away and Charlie Brown’s gonna get hurt!  Just watch!  I was amazed that he wanted to watch these old movies, and even more amazed that he enjoyed them.  And I also admit that I found a good deal of enjoyment in the set as well.