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Blu-ray Review: “Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Collection”

Boasting wonderfully silly storylines, a maddeningly addictive theme song, and distinctive stop-motion clay animation in the CGI era, Aardman Animation’s Wallace and Gromit have gone to the moon, won Academy Awards, and even gotten their own full-length motion picture — but they’ve never gone to Blu-ray until now. Timed to coincide with the DVD release of the new Wallace & Gromit short A Matter of Loaf and Death, the expansive... Read More

DVD Review: “The Tigger Movie — Two-Disc 10th Anniversary Edition”

The Tigger Movie: Two-Disc 10th Anniversary Edition (2009, Disney) purchase from Amazon Nobody raids the vaults like Disney. Even now, in the era of the DVD’s death spiral, most studios refrain from pathologically reissuing catalog titles — particularly those that were never terribly popular in the first place — but Uncle Walt’s house has always treated everything it’s ever done (or almost everything, anyway) like... Read More

CD Review: Ben Rudnick and Friends, “A Frog Named Sam”

Ben Rudnick and Friends – A Frog Named Sam (2009, Bartlett Avenue) purchase this CD (Amazon) As kids’ entertainment characters go, “a frog named Sam” isn’t the most original concept in the world — and neither is the story at the heart of this album’s title track, about the titular amphibian and his journey from backwater pond to the big city and back again. Heck, even A Frog Named Sam‘s artwork is... Read More

DVD Review: “Bolt”

Bolt (2009, Walt Disney) purchase this movie from Amazon: DVD | Blu-ray I don’t care whether it’s animated or not — any time I see the words “starring John Travolta and Miley Cyrus,” I feel confident in assuming that the film in question is going to be 100 percent awful. For this reason, I watched Disney’s latest entrance into the world of chatty CG-animated animals, Bolt, with no small degree of trepidation —... Read More

CD Review: The Laurie Berkner Band, “Rocketship Run”

The Laurie Berkner Band – Rocketship Run (2008, Two Tomatoes) purchase this album (Amazon) A year or two ago, Jack’s Big Music Show was my daughter’s favorite thing to watch on TV. It was one of the first shows she really got into, actually, and I liked it too — it offers plenty of bright colors, with nifty-looking puppets designed by Sesame Street vets, positive messages, and a parade of cool guest stars (my personal favorite:... Read More