Yes, yes, we know: the delay between “Bullz-Eye for the Kiddies” entries just keeps getting longer and longer. Look, all we can say is that if you’ve got a kid, we’d like to think you’d be a little understanding about how much trouble it is to find the time to watch something on TV that you want to watch when it in no way matches what your kid wants to watch.
What’s that? You’d think it’d make a difference if what you wanted to watch was actually intended for kids…?
Yeah, you would think that…but, unfortunately, it only makes a difference if it catches their interest within the first five to ten seconds. If it doesn’t tickle their fancy in that amount of time, however, their first line of defense is to repeatedly tell you what they’d rather watch, then getting progressively more loud and more anguished with their clarification until you finally realize that even by winning the battle and watching what you want to watch, you’ve still lost the war because you can’t possibly get anything out of the viewing experience with all that racket going on.
End result: it always takes longer than anticipated to pull these columns together.
So sue me.
Curious George: Rocket Ride and Other Adventures! – It’s only appropriate, I suppose, that I begin with the item which my daughter and I most enjoy watching together. “Curious George” first started on its road to becoming a childhood staple in 1941, when H.A. Rey and Margret Rey released the little monkey’s self-titled adventure, and since then, he’s been involved in plenty of other escapades, not only on the printed page but in other mediums as well. A full-length animated feature in 2006, however, was what led to the animated television series which currently airs on PBS. This DVD features eight adventures from that show – what you’re getting here are four episodes, with two adventures per episode – plus two games and several printable coloring pages which can be accessed via the DVD-ROM. It’s actually a very cute, clever series, with narration from William H. Macy and usually at least a couple of lines per adventure that are clearly intended for the parents rather than the children; plus, most parents have fond memories from their own experiences with George, so it’s hard not to smile along. Most importantly, though, “Curious George” is educational for the kids without making adults feel like they’re losing IQ points while watching it…and, boy, does that go a long way with parents.
Baby Looney Tunes, Volume 3 / Volume 4 – And, now, on to something that my daughter has fallen in love with but that I…well, I can’t muster enough dislike for it to actually hate it, but it’s definitely depressing to me that she’ll watch this but has no interest in the original cartoons. I can only presume that her interest in the show lies in the fact that she can relate to baby-fied versions of characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and the Tasmanian Devil because they’re in diapers…just like her! Unfortunately, as someone who was versed in the classics from the get-go, all I can think is, “So, what, she’s never going to like the original versions of the characters because she’s forever going to associate them with stuff that’s for babies?” Actually, I think the absolute worst part about this is that it didn’t have to be so made so disgustingly “kid-friendly”…and for proof, you need look no farther than “Muppet Babies,” an incredibly clever show that totally transcended its concept. I’ll close this write-up by offering my wife’s biggest concern: if all these baby animals are living in a house with a human “Granny,” then how long is going to take for our kid to ask, “What happened to their parents?” If I were a lesser father, I’d give my daughter some really creative answers to that question…
The Best of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Volume 2 – Since I could watch the adventures of Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose and all of their friends for hours on end, I’m not really gonna actively rave about this single DVD best-of which excises all the non-Bullwinkle adventures from the show’s original episodes…but, okay, fair enough, it is convenient to be able to watch all 12 parts of a classic epic like “Wossamotta U” all the way through. I will, however, take this opportunity to rave about the lone special feature that’s on here: the Classic Puppet Intros. When the series originally aired, there were live intros done by a Bullwinkle hand puppet; Bill Scott provided the moose’s voice as per usual, but the humor in these intros could be more subversive than in the shows themselves. There’s the usual stuff like asking kids if they’d like to have their own TV set in their very own room, then explaining that it can easily be done by simply dragging off one’s parents’ set into their room and locking the door, but this one’s my personal favorite by a wide margin: “Now we’re going to play an exciting new game. It’s called the ‘Get Bullwinkle the highest rating on TV’ game…and it’s fun! Here’s all you do: just call one of the major ratings services collect and tell them you’re watching ‘The Bullwinkle Show.’ We don’t even have to be on! Just call any time…and call as many times as you want! Keep it up and, within 2 or 3 weeks, we together will have destroyed the entire TV ratings system!”
Charlie and Lola, Vol. 5: But I Am An Alligator…and More Stories! – As a longstanding Anglophile, I’m a sucker for just about anyone with a British accent, so it’s no wonder I keep trying to force “Charlie and Lola” down my daughter’s throat. It’s about seven-year-old Charlie and his dealings with his three-year-old sister, Lola, and they’re just so darned cute! And, plus, they’ve got British accents!!! (How can you not enjoy a show that focuses on Lola having a “wobbly tooth”? That’s brilliant, that is.) If you’re not bowled over by my argument thus far, let me also add that “Charlie and Lola” is funny, sweet, and utterly charming, and you can’t attribute all of those things to an accent; plus, the collage-styled animation gives it one of the most unique looks of any current kids’ series, which ups the chances that it’ll catch your child’s eye. In closing, let me just say that they’ve got British accents!!!!! I mean, I’m just saying, is all.
DangerMouse: The Complete Series – Surprisingly, however, I’m not nearly as enamored of “DangerMouse.” I remembered the show fondly from its days as a staple of Nickelodeon, but I find that it’s not nearly as quick and clever as I’d recalled. It’s still an amusing parody of the whole James Bond / “Danger Man” British spy genre, with occasional laugh-out-loud moments, but on the whole, it doesn’t have nearly as much replay value I’d anticipated. It does look pretty cool…you can thank Manchester’s Cosgrove Hall Films for that…but looking cool generally isn’t enough to sell people on a “Complete Series” set, so a single-disc best-of will probably suffice in most cases. If you’re a diehard old-school Nick fan, though, this is definitely the way to go, as it also includes a couple of bonus “Count Duckula” episodes for good measure. (The Count first appeared as a “DangerMouse” villain, you know.)
Tex Avery’s Droopy: The Complete Theatrical Collection – While I can’t speak for anyone else, from my personal experience, the magic of Tex Avery’s “Droopy” cartoons are sufficiently magical that they can captivate a 2-year-old girl just as well as men in both their 30s and their 60s. When you think of Droopy, you think of the sad little dog and his trademark phrase, “Hello, all you happy people,” but Avery’s skewed sense of humor makes made for countless classic visual gags that just don’t translate to a review like this one, so let’s just say this: if you thought the wacky cartoonish stuff that Jim Carrey did in “The Mask” was funny, this is where it originated, and it’s about a thousand times funnier here. In addition to the 24 cartoons, there’s also an informative featurette (“Droopy and Friends: A Laugh Back”) which offers up the life and times of both Avery and his animated creation. By the way, you can tell from the design of the women in these cartoons that the intended audience was definitely more old than young, but, hey, no complaints here!
More to come…and, hand on heart, I mean sooner than later this time. I just don’t want to overwhelm you by having, like, a dozen entries in a single column!
