DVD reviews September 2011
This month we are watching The Lion King, Small Potatoes: Series 1 and Dino Dan.
The Lion King
I have had throughout my life a very long and intense love of B-grade movies. The worse the movie, the greater the chance I’ve seen it, and probably more than once. The trade-off for this obsession is that I have missed watching some truly great movies. While I’ve seen Cujo at least half-a-dozen times I’ve never once seen ET. And while I own a DVD copy of Dude, Where’s My Car? I had not, until this week, seen The Lion King. Luckily for me, and hopefully many more like me, Disney is releasing The Lion King to DVD and Bluray.
The first thing to say is that the Lion King is great – an epic story, frustratingly catchy songs, wonderful heart and humour and amazing animation that may just be starting to show some signs of age. It is no wonder that in my search for B-grade I let it pass me by – but that was my loss. It is obvious that on its release in 1994 The Lion King set a standard that continues to apply today. A noble quest? Check. Loveable side-kicks? Check. Big budget musical scores? Check? Hollywood A-listers such as Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, Whoopi Goldberg, James Earl Jones and Rowan Atkinson? Check, check and check.
For first time watchers this is a great opportunity to look at where the animated feature really took off and be compelled by a beautiful story wonderfully told. For those that saw it the first time round, this is a great excuse to do it all again. The DVD features a memoir from producer Don Hahn as well as deleted scenes and a ‘behind the scenes’ doco. All well worth a look, but the real gem here is the fully restored and remastered feature that will have anyone with a pulse singing “Hakuna Matata”!
Small Potatoes: Series 1
Some genius in the 1960s/ 1970s struck upon the idea that kids really wanted more opportunities to play with potatoes. Hey presto, Mr Potato Head was born and a generation of kids got to have huge amounts of fun with their starchy play-mate. Up to this point I don’t imagine to cute possibilities of potatoes would have been too evident.
The makers of Small Potatoes also rely on the cute factor of potatoes, but with an Ace up their sleeve: their potatoes sing! And have very cute voices, not unlike Lola of Charlie and Lola fame. The series is designed to help young viewers learn about different styles of music. Every episode represents a different phase in the musical growth, from rock through to jazz, reggae, disco an hip hop. This series should appeal to very small kids who will no doubt be hypnotised by the catchy songs from the singing spuds. Parents may find their saccharine cuteness so overbearing that mashing potatoes bring with it a whole new pleasure.
Dino Dan
Kids, and especially boys, love dinosaurs. There is an entire world just waiting to be discovered, from learning the names of some of the greatest dinosaurs to learning about the scientists who study dinosaurs and try to recreate the world they lived in. It is a very rich ground for a young child’s imagination.
Dino Dan mines this rich ground and does a great job in bringing to life the world of dinosaurs. The human character’s that Dan shares his school world with are quirky and interesting, while the dinosaurs he comes across are well animated and give a great insight into how the dinosaurs lived. A great series for any young budding palaeontologist.
