Originally a part of the PBS Kids schedule from 2002-03, and since in near-constant cable syndication, DiC Entertainment’s “Liberty’s Kids” attempted to boil down 16 years of early American history (from the Boston Tea Party in 1773 to George Washington’s inauguration in 1789) into a 40-part series of cartoons. In this respect, it isn’t terribly different from any of a number of like-minded projects, and in fact, it suffers from shades of the same embarrassing pandering that seems to go with the whole ‘take a dry subject and make it cool’ subgenre of children’s entertainment – but “Liberty’s Kids” has a lot going for it, too. Knowing they’d have to scrub out most revisionist perspectives (and all of the stories’ naughty bits), the filmmakers did their best to present our founding fathers’ tales from several points of view, and although it doesn’t always work – a number of the featured characters feel like token attempts at multiculturalism – it’s still a lot better than the rote, bone-dry (and often inaccurate) retellings most of us got as kids.
They often seem shoehorned into parts that don’t really make sense, but “Liberty’s Kids” boasts a tremendous celebrity voice cast, including Walter Cronkite (as Benjamin Franklin), Annette Bening, Whoopi Goldberg, Dustin Hoffman, Billy Crystal, Ben Stiller, Liam Neeson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Norman Schwarzkopf, and – in a performance for the ages – Sylvester Stallone as Paul Revere. None of this will matter to the show’s target audience, but it speaks to the studio’s dedication to the finished product – which is bundled up beautifully by Shout! Factory in this six-DVD set, along with an array of bonus features, including featurettes and a 40-page booklet. None of it will take the place of a well-written textbook and a good teacher, but as a gateway into American history, it works surprisingly well. If you’re looking for a gift you can feel good about for the preteen in your life, you could do worse than this.
