Tag Archives: Jeff Giles

DVD Reviews: Scholastic Storybook Treasures

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The ever-expanding Scholastic Storybook Treasures library just got even bigger, with the three latest DVDs — Giggle, Giggle, Quack, Runaway Ralph, and He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands — adding 14 stories and roughly three and a half hours to the already formidable stack of books that have been given the “read-along DVD” treatment.

If that sentence made you feel a little funny, you’re not alone. Given that some kids already need quite a bit of encouragement to read instead of watch TV, and given that many of the DVD segments in the series don’t do much besides add voiceovers and karaoke-style text overlays to still art from the books, it can be hard not to wonder just what purpose they really serve, other than helping exceptionally lazy parents avoid reading to their children.

Maybe that’s just cynicism, though. As parents, we’re so used to being inundated with pitches for more crap, and so accustomed to being disappointed by people who are supposed to have our children’s best interests at heart, that something like the Scholastic Storybook Treasures series can seem like a dirty trick even when it isn’t. There’s definitely something a little off-putting about a book publisher porting children’s titles to DVD, but that doesn’t really take away from the fact that these are wonderful books, and if you’re the type of parent who doesn’t see anything wrong with television in moderation, then having the option of letting your kids watch literature instead of Cartoon Network is fairly appealing. Continue reading →

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DVD Review: “The Great Mouse Detective: Mystery in the Mist Edition”

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The resurgence of Walt Disney Animation is usually traced (get it?) back to The Little Mermaid, but as with most pop history, that’s not 100 percent accurate — though its efforts weren’t necessarily rewarded at the box office, the studio started its uphill climb years before Ariel longed to be part of our world. Case in point: 1986’s The Great Mouse Detective, which used a nifty voice cast and some early CGI/hand-drawn hybrid work to bring the Sherlock Holmes classics to kids.

Adapted from Eve Titus and Paul Galdone’s Basil of Baker Street books, The Great Mouse Detective uses a neat conceit — a sleuthing mouse named Basil who happens to share an address with Sherlock Holmes — to take advantage of the Holmes mythos without turning human characters into talking animals, a la Disney’s Robin Hood. (In a neat touch, cinema’s most famous Sherlock, Basil Rathbone, voices Holmes here, via some cobbled-together audio from an earlier film.) Detective isn’t a mystery in the traditional sense, given that the audience knows pretty much right away who the bad guy is — but that’s a forgivable sin, since the villain in question is voiced by a perfectly ominous Vincent Price. Nothing against Broadway vet Barrie Ingham, who plays Basil, but this is really Price’s show; it’s a shame there weren’t any sequels, because he could have turned the dastardly Ratigan into one of Disney’s top-tier villains. Continue reading →

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CD Review: Sugar Free Allstars, “Funky Fresh and Sugar Free”

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My daughter wasn’t much older than three when she strolled down the hallway after a bath one night, turned around, dropped her towel, and instructed me to “look at the rump” while she danced around. Moral of the story: Kids love to dance.

Most kids’ musicians know this, and most albums of kids’ music include at least a song or two about getting up and moving around — but most of them are lacking that crucial groove thang that hits you in your funky bone. The best music made for children is many things — fun, educational, smart, tender, catchy — but generally speaking, it does not bring the funk.

Unless it’s made by the Sugar Free Allstars, that is.

The Allstars (a.k.a. vocalist/Hammond player/saxophonist Chris “Boom!” Wiser and drummer Rob “Dr. Rock” Martin) continue their winning streak with their second album for kids, Funky Fresh and Sugar Free. Not only does the new set expand the band’s spartan aesthetic (one track, “SFA Disco Dance Party,” even includes disco strings), the songs make it clear Wiser and Martin have picked up a few lessons at their gigs, because the album is stuffed with tracks that leave room for audience participation. Right from the start of the first track, “Rock Awesome,” you can tell the Allstars want to get kids on their feet. “How we gonna rock?” shouts Wiser, and a crowd of kids’ voices comes back with the only appropriate response: “We’re gonna rock awesome!”

Also begging for singalong status are “Hey Now, It’s Your Birthday” — which even makes room for your own birthday boy or girl’s name at one point — and “Tiger in My Backyard,” which concludes with a nod to James Brown that will get a grin from funky fresh parents. Other highlights include the strutting “In My Pocket,” the very funny (and inspirational) “6th Grade Band,” and the Allstars’ cover of “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da,” although to only name those three is a little misleading, because there aren’t really any lowlights. It’s fun stuff, all of it — music that not only fills a rump-shaking void in a mostly quite groove-deficient genre, but that families can enjoy with their own SFA dance parties. If you haven’t experienced the Sugar Free Allstars yet, it’s time to get on the good foot.

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