Tag Archives: Disney Channel

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

Leave a reply

61dp8eucgtL._SCLZZZZZZZ_[1]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 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. Continue reading →

SHARE ARTICLE

DVD Review: “Hatching Pete” & “Dadnapped” (Double Feature)

1 Reply

Hatching Pete/Dadnapped: Double Feature (2009, Disney)
purchase from Amazon: DVD

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. Continue reading →

SHARE ARTICLE

DVD Review: “Bunnytown: Hello Bunnies!”

Leave a reply

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:

mailgooglecom

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.


Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
SHARE ARTICLE