Let’s talk about the movie, though. Adapted from the YA novel written by Mark Peter Hughes, Lemonade Mouth stars Brigit Mendler (Disney’s Good Luck Charlie) and Adam Hicks (Disney XD’s Zeke and Luther) as Olivia and Wen, two high school freshmen who become acquainted while serving detention. Together they meet Mo (Naomi Scott, featured in this fall’s Terra Nova), Stella (Hayley Kiyoko of Cartoon Network’s Scooby Doo prequels) and Charlie (Blake Michael, formerly of Cartoon Network’s Fried Dynamite). Stuck together doing cleaning chores, the five kids quickly learn that they all have a passion for music.

Before you know it they form their own band, settling on the name “Lemonade Mouth” after Stella sprays the resident school jerk with a mouth full of canned, organic lemonade, her favorite drink. The five kids play their own instruments (in the movie, anyway), write their own songs and come up with an anthem, “Determinate,” that all of their classmates start singing around the school halls. This last one is much to the chagrin of the school principal, Mr. Brenigan, played by Christopher McDonald (who will never outlive being “Shooter McGavin” in my book). Moreover, this anthem also pisses off the resident “it” band, Mudslide Crush, whose music sounds is a mix of Red Hot Chili Peppers funkiness and Scott Weiland cockiness.

Each of our heroes has their own issues at home. Olivia lives with her grandmother because her mom has died and her dad is MIA. Wen is distraught that his father is about to remarry a woman he doesn’t like. Mo’s parents do not approve of her rock and roll diversion and want her to focus on her studies. Stella is the school’s resident misfit. And Charlie is kind of mousy, turning his fears and aggressions into some fine drumming skills.

As the movie progresses, the main characters overcome their fears and shortcomings, eventually realizing that it’s not the music that makes the band special, it’s the friendships they’ve formed between the five of them. Additionally, they all learn that they are talented, have worth and that kid’s voices can create change.  As corny as this sounds, everything about Lemonade Mouth is executed superbly and there is an excellent message of empowerment at the core of the story. Lemonade Mouth seems clearly geared as a coming out movie for Mendler to be the next Disney “it” girl, yet all of the young actors do fine work.Like all Disney films, this is a safe one for the entire family and one worth watching multiple times.

since the movie originally aired and I can’t say that I’ve wanted to rip my hair out. The songwriters hired to compose the songs for this one did a great job. And what can be better than walking by your kids’ rooms and watching them lip sync to music?

The DVD has the limited bonus features. There is the option to sing along with the songs in the movie (the lyrics run along the bottom of your screen).There is also an extra scene and song that did not appear in the film. While the song is good (it also appears on the soundtrack) the scene is a waste of time and seems to have been thrown together just for the DVD. The tone and acting do not fit the film at all, so if it was actually a part of the original movie, it’s obvious why it was cut.

This latest iteration, which follows 25th and 30th anniversary reissues, is dubbed the “Enchanted Musical Edition,” and packs some new bonus content onto the expanded 25th-anniversary print, which added 20 minutes to the film itself. New buyers will now get a featurette entitled “The Wizards of Special Effects,” hosted by Jennifer Stone, an actress who just so happens to be one of the stars of the Disney Channel’s very popular Wizards of Waverly Place series. (Synergy!) You’ll also get a number of small features that look at the music of the film, footage from a recording session, and a deleted song, as well as theatrical trailers. The whole kit and caboodle retails for $30, but you can get it at Amazon for $17.99, which is a decent price for the package.

The movie itself, as you might recall, is a sort of silly, Disneyfied hybrid of The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins, in which three British children are placed in the reluctant care of an apprentice witch (Lansbury) during World War II. Even if you’ve never seen it, you know there will be songs, hammy acting, and squads of bumbling soldiers, and Broomsticks doesn’t disappoint on any front. But aside from the usual (and, it must be said, impeccable) musical routines, the movie also includes some state-of-the-art special effects, including some animation/live-action sequences, that were good enough to win an Oscar in their day (and still look pretty sharp now). I wasn’t exactly foaming at the mouth to watch this, and I doubt there are many people who consider it one of Disney’s finest, but all things considered, it’s really a pretty entertaining movie. I don’t think it benefits from the extra 20 minutes — it’s actually sort of slow in spots — but if you have a fondness for Silver Age live-action Disney, this will definitely hit the sweet spot.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks has been given yet another remastering for this edition, and it looks better than ever — which sort of says something unkind about Disney’s engineers, because it really wasn’t all that long ago that the last reissue came out, but there you go. The extra content is all well worth watching, too. If you already own a copy, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend going out and getting the “Enchanted Musical Edition,” but if you’re considering adding Broomsticks to your library, then this is certainly the version to own.

The Tigger Movie: Two-Disc 10th Anniversary Edition (2009, Disney)
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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 a timeless classic. Which is why you shouldn’t raise your eyebrows (but probably will anyway, if you’re anything like me) at the double-disc 10th anniversary edition of The Tigger Movie, an enjoyable trifle that Disney sort of half-heartedly shooed into theaters roughly a decade ago. Part of a sort of low-profile renaissance for A.A. Milne’s beloved characters at the studio, The Tigger Movie is a kissing cousin to Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, a more fleshed-out (and less Tigger-centric) adorable lesson in things like acceptance, friendship, and personal identity. Where Tigger Too mainly revolved around Rabbit’s perennial annoyance with Tigger’s brain-damaged antics, The Tigger Movie puts the bouncy-tailed wonder in pursuit of the family he’s certain is out there — despite his famous (and, it must be said, joyous) earlier insistence that he was the only one of his kind.

The Tigger Movie was greeted with mostly positive, albeit lukewarm, reviews when it was originally released, and for good reason: Although it recycles pretty much every element of the earlier Pooh films, from the cuddly animation style to bits and pieces of the plot, it’s awfully hard to argue against something so wonderfully sweet and innocent, particularly in an era when the obnoxious, hypercaffienated ‘toon fare kids watch on Nickelodeon makes the Tom & Jerry and Road Runner shorts our parents were up in arms about look positively staid and quaint. There’s no violence here, no gross humor, no quick cuts or loud sound effects — just a short, gentle romp through the Hundred Acre Woods. At 77 minutes, it’s just about the perfect length for little ones who haven’t already been desensitized by Spongebob Squarepants and his ilk.

Ultimately, even though Disney’s resources would surely have been better allocated on something more original, the expanded Tigger Movie — which adds games, a Kenny Loggins music video, episodes of the Disney Channel series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and more, in addition to a digital copy embedded on a second disc — is still just as enjoyable as it was a decade ago, and even if it’s difficult to recommend spending $21 on such a needless reissue, if you’ve got a Pooh-a-holic in your home and plan to purchase The Tigger Movie, this is the version to own.

Hatching Pete/Dadnapped: Double Feature (2009, Disney)

Are you old enough to remember The Absent Minded Professor? What about the original The Shaggy Dog? Kurt Russell in The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes? The Love Bug? That Darn Cat? Although I never saw any of those films in theaters (I’m actually not that old), I vividly recall watching them on The Wonderful World of Disney back in the ’70s. They were innocent films intended for the whole family. The danger was never too dangerous, and the romance never too steamy. When I watch the current crop of made for TV films the Disney Channel produces, films like High School Musical, Jump In! and Minutemen, I recall those simple, well-made movies of long ago (i.e. the ’60s). While the mouse house has all but abandoned high concept, low budget films for theatrical release (instead remaking the low budget affairs into massive budgeted extravaganzas like the recent Race to Witch Mountain), on television Disney has been churning out three to four movies a year, all to great success. With a cadre of young talent from their plethora of sitcoms, every movie is an event that seems to capture big ratings. The latest of these movies are Dadnapped and Hatching Pete, which have been conveniently/economically released on one double feature DVD by Disney.

Dadnapped stars Emily Osment, coming into her own as an actress and stepping out of the shadow of Hannah Montana, as Melissa, a 14-year-old girl competing for her father’s attention with the main character from his best selling novels, Tripp Zoome. Her dad, Neil (Father of the Bride’s George Newbern), spends so much time with the character and his exploits that a special father-daughter getaway is interrupted by a promotional event for his latest novel. Just what Melissa needs, hundreds of crazed Tripp Zoome fans. Making matters worse is that Melissa has begun seeing Tripp (Jonathan Keltz) and the two of them have a nagging, sibling rivalry. When things couldn’t get any worse, Neil is abducted by some overzealous fans and it’s up to Melissa to solve the caper.

Filling out the cast of Dadnapped are other Disney Channel stars. Moises Arias (Hannah Montana) and David Henrie (Wizards of Waverly Place) are a couple of eager fanboys, Phill Lewis (The Suite Life of Zack and Cody) gets to let loose his inner slimeball, and Jason Earles (Hannah Montana) is a smarmy hotel employee. As the film progresses, it takes on a kind of It’s A Mad, Mad Mad Mad World feel, with everyone in pursuit of finding Neil. In the end, Neil is never in any real harm and he and his daughter are able to mend their relationship with no harm done. It’s a fun movie for kids and not all that annoying for the parents sitting down to watch it with them. Osment is a smart, good actress and I hope she is allowed to break out of the Disney fold and stretch sometime in the future. Henrie has a nice charm, something sourly missing from his TV show. Lewis is always great (he’s appeared in “grown up” sitcoms like Scrubs) and I’ve always felt that Earle is a fine comedian. Overall, Dadnapped is a nice family movie that fits right into the mold of all Disney films.

Hatching Pete has an interesting premise. Poole (Mitchel Musso of Hannah Montana) is the high school mascot, the Chicken, a longstanding tradition in his family. Unfortunately, he’s allergic to the costume. So he asks his introverted best friend, Pete (Jason Dooley from Corey in the House) to stand in for him. Pete agrees, but only on the condition that his identity remain a mystery. Once in the suit, Pete discovers a freedom to act wild and crazy, something he’s never been able to do when just a regular student in the school. Pete’s outrageous behavior makes the Chicken a celebrity in the school. People start showing up to basketball games to see the mascot and not the pitiful team coached by The Suite Life of Zack and Cody’s Brian Stepanek. Poole reaps the benefits of his friend’s talent until a parade mishap reveals that Poole actually isn’t the Chicken. Afraid of getting in trouble for lying, Pete panics and steals a police car. Pretty soon there’s a manhunt for the Chicken and Pete must decide whether to reveal his identity or not.

Of the two films, Hatching Pete is the weaker one. Beside the fact that Mitchel Musso can really grate on your nerves, the relationship and the pressure between the two friends came off as just mean at times. I never felt as if Poole was being a good friend Pete. Furthermore, he constantly pressured him into donning the suit while gaining popularity with the cheerleaders. The one aspect I did buy was Pete’s crush on Angela (Josie Loren), a brainy cheerleader who is one of his best friends. Unable to tell her how much he likes her, Pete ends up working out his aggression in the suit. Dooley and Loren are very sweet together in their scenes and I was happy that their characters wound up together in the end (of course they did!). Since you get both movies for the price of one, it’s up to you to decide which you like better, Dadnapped or Hatching Pete.

The DVD comes with plenty of bonus features, including music videos, a feature on what it takes to be a mascot, an extended ending to Dadnapped, and an animated Trip Zoome comic book. This DVD is a bargain. It’s nice to see a huge corporation like Disney packaging the two films together and offering a good deal to the fans that support them.

Bunnytown: Hello Bunnies! (2009, Disney)
purchase this DVD (Amazon)

If you’ve been wondering why it seems to take three years for the folks who make Jack’s Big Music Show to get a season’s worth of new episodes together, this might be your answer. Disney’s Bunnytown, assembled by some of the same talent behind Jack’s, has been entertaining Disney Channel devotees since the last few weeks of 2007, and now, with Hello Bunnies! it makes its first leap — er, hop — into the home market.

Jack’s fans will instantly recognize the same visual aesthetic (and some of the same voices) behind Jack, Mary, and Mel; Bunnytown is a brightly colored world of foam and fuzz that fairly leaps off the screen. Here, take a gander:

This isn’t a carbon copy of Jack’s Big Music Show, however; it’s more of a Disneyfied version of The Muppet Show, complete with skits by human actors (including a pair of Laurel and Hardy-type characters). There really aren’t any storylines in any given Bunnytown episode; although you might see a gag repeat with slight variations, they mostly consist of bite-sized bits, light on dialogue and heavy on visual humor. A lot of it seems more suited to between-show bumpers on a network like Noggin than a full-length television series, but that works well with the short attention span of Bunnytown‘s target demographic (such as my daughter, who immediately pronounced it her new favorite series, ranking it higher than Yo Gabba Gabba! or The Wonder Pets — a change I suspect will be exceedingly temporary, but there you go).

The Hello Bunnies! DVD includes four episodes of Bunnytown, as well as a few small bonus features — one of which is, naturally, an advertisement for an upcoming Disney program. It’s all appropriate for young children, although it’s worth noting that some skits, such as “Superbunny,” are drawn along the same black-and-white moral lines that will be familiar to any longtime Disney viewers, and if you aren’t ready for your kids to digest the concept of “good” and “bad” bunnies — or people — then you may need to do some skipping around.