Disney's Little Einsteins - Our Big Huge Adventure (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)If you are not familiar with the Little Einstein series, you really should take a look. Not like alot of Disney's other banal TV productions, this show really has merits.
I mean how can you not like a show that has your children yelling staccato and legato, adagio and allegro. And knowing what these terms mean!
Children are taught that music has `layers' and that the musical `themes' can be representative of a particular character or action. For example, a crescendo may help the sun rise, or a wave get bigger.
In addition, children are introduced to fine art, architecture, and landmarks from around the world. Examples (not necessarily from this video) include works from Gaughan, Monet, the Seattle Space Needle, the Great Sphynx, Antartica, the Great Wall of China....
Five Stars. A wonderful introduction to fine art and classical music that 'sticks' with young children. The stories combine fun, kid adventures and elements of music and art in a way that seems very natural and memorable.
Plot for this video:
For their first mission, Annie, Leo, Quincy, June and Rocket help a little caterpillar become a beautiful Monarch butterfly.
Music: Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
Artist: Van Gogh, Monet, Hokusai
Real-world destinations: New York City, Oklahoma, and Texas.

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Get ready to blast off with the premiere of DISNEY'S LITTLE EINSTEINS(TM)! Created by Disney and the award-winning Baby Einstein Company, this all-new movie will take your child on a thrilling musical adventure in the real world in order to complete an important mission and learn along the way. In OUR [BIG] HUGE ADVENTURE, Leo, June, Quincy, Annie, Rocket, and your child will blast off on their first whirlwind adventure that will take the team over Niagara Falls, inside a spooky cave in Oklahoma, and finally to the amazing butterfly forest in Mexico. As a member of the team, your child will sing, clap, pat, dance, and laugh right along with the four Little Einsteins and their musical ship, Rocket, to help complete the mission. Featuring a revolutionary blend of animation, stunning live-action footage, famous works of art, and exciting classical music, LITTLE EINSTEINS will have your child eager to solve the next mission!~~(c) The Baby Einstein Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Little Einsteins and the Little Einsteins logo are trademarks of The Baby Einstein Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. EINSTEIN and ALBERT EINSTEIN are trademarks of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. All Rights Reserved. www.albert-einstein.org

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Trailer Park Boys (4Pack) Season 1, 2, 3 , 4 and Xmas Special Review

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(More customer reviews)This show was on BBC America for a while, then the FCC crack down on "on air decency", the show disappeared. You will laugh from start to finish, a very hysterical spoof of a "stereotypical" trailer park. Some channel in America needs to pick this show up, because you don't know what your missing.

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The Shining (1980) Review

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(More customer reviews)I own both the 2001 and 2007 DVDs of this film. I really don't have any interest is who is 'right' with the aspect ratio argument, I compared both versions and found that you're missing some of the video image regardless of which version you buy. I took screenshots of both DVDs and overlayed them on top of each other. I found that with the 2001 release, you get the 1:33:1 aspect ratio where the far left and right of the screen image is clipped. With the 2007 release, you get the 1.78:1 aspect ratio where the top and bottom of the screen image is clipped off. You can see what I mean by viewing the 'customer image' I posted, above. The blue border is for the 2001 release and the red border is the 2007 release.
Both DVDs are 'digitally restored and remastered', however the 2007 release is noticeabley brighter and more vivid. The 2001 image seems faded and dull.
This release has all the other special features of the 2001 DVD release, with the addition of optional commentary by Garrett Brown and John Baxter and three new featurettes.

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The psychic powers of a young boy bring out the evil in an old hotel and drive his father insane, to the point that the father tries to murder everyone with an ax.Item Type: DVD MovieItem Rating: RStreet Date: 09/14/04Wide Screen: noDirector Cut: noSpecial Edition: yesLanguage: ENGLISHForeign Film: noSubtitles: noDubbed: noFull Frame: yesRe-Release: noPackaging: Sleeve

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Emergency: The Final Rescues Review

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(More customer reviews)Warning: some possible spoilers in this review.
After Emergency! finished its 6 year TV episode run, the show then had 6 "made for TV" movies that were released in 1978 (the year following the last season of Emergency!) and 1979. So, technically, this is not "Season 7", although there is about 12 hrs. worth of programming on this set. It would be cool if they released the Emergency +4 cartoons with this final movie set - but I seriously doubt that will happen.
These movies included:
"Survival on Charter 220" - where a small plane collides mid air with a larger passenger jet. They land in a neighbor and the havoc ensues. If I'm not mistaken, Squad 51 is crushed by a part of a plane and Johnny and Roy are trapped inside a house. (2 hr. movie)
"The Steele Inferno" - basically a high rise building fire stretched into a 2 hr. movie.
"What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing?" - Johnny and Roy travel to San Francisco. (2 hr. movie)
"Greatest Rescues of Emergency" - Johnny and Roy are promoted to Captain and reminisce about their days on the squad. The movie is made up mostly of flashback scenes from the TV series, but it is still nice to see Johnny and Roy promoted to Captain (2 hr. movie)
"Most Deadly Passage" - Johnny and Roy travel to Seattle (2 hr. movie)
"The Convention" - Johnny and Roy return to San Francisco (2 hr. movie)
For those who have never seen these two hr. movies, be forewarned that you don't see A LOT of Johnny and Roy in most of these movies (with the exception of "Greatest Rescues of Emergency" - where you see A LOT of Johnny and Roy - but this "movie" consists mostly flashbacks). In fact, there are a number of very long segments in the other movies with no Johnny and Roy. Some of the movies almost come across like they were trying to create a spin off series - because so LITTLE time is spent with Johnny and Roy and so much time is spent with new characters. Further, you won't be seeing any of the other fireman from the series on these TV movies - so no Chet, no Cap, no Marco. You do get to see the Rampart medical staff a bit.
Personally, I am not very fond of these TV movies (with the exception of "Greatest Rescues"). Remember, when I say this, I am a HUGE Emergency! fan. I grew up watching the TV show. I owned a Squad 51 helmet, an Emergency! Jigsaw puzzle, etc. and soon all of the TV seasons on DVD (as soon as Season 6 comes out). I personally met Randolph Mantooth in 2001 (along with other crew members from the show) when Code 3 Collectibles was dedicating their new Emergency! toys at Station 127 in Carson (the station used for the TV series) - got to sit in the refurbished squad. I have visited the station 3 times in the last several years. This is my favorite show of all time (along with the Saint and Mission Impossible) - but these TV movies, honestly, put me to sleep. In my opinion, they are slow moving and have too little of our favorite cast from the series. I will probably buy this set to complete the series, but IMHO, you aren't missing much if you don't own them - but perhaps some of you enjoyed these movies.
While these final movies haven't been released yet, don't expect much in the video quality if the last few seasons are any indication.
Hope this "preview" or review helps. But, remember, at the time I am writing this review, the set has not been released yet.


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Planet Earth: The Complete Series Review

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(More customer reviews)Never have I been so moved by a series to exclaim in wonder and actually shed tears of joy at the beauty that surrounds us on this wonderful planet.
I have been watching it on Discovery HD Theater when it premiered in March. The first episode "Pole to Pole" set the tone by showing the range of life and species that exist on this planet. The subsequent episodes delve into the habitats one by one. Mountains, Fresh Water, Caves, Deserts, Ice Worlds, Great Plains, Jungles, Shallow Seas, Seasonal Forests and Deep Ocean are the subsequent episodes. This is one series that has to be seen to be believed of what the intrepid cameramen of BBC/Discovery Channel have been able to capture through their sheer perseverance in remote locations. The HD technology has captured some scenes and images never seen before and some seen before but never with this clarity and beauty. 5 years, 62 countries and 204 locations is what it took to make this series, and the result is a lifetime TV series.
This is one series that fascinated my kid as much as it amazed me. She wanted to watch her cartoons but the moment the episode began she was captivated. Both of us shared together the wonder that is our Planet and it was she who brought up the subject of what we might be doing to it by our actions. We cried when we saw how polar bears have begun to drown as ice melts faster every year. The image of one lone bear trying to walk on ice but falling into the slushy waters, and having to swim longer distances to capture food and finally dying with exhaustion was heart breaking. The series makes no references to the present conditions, just in passing as with the polar bear. I think the directors and producers of the series just wanted to show us the beauty of the natural world, the fight for survival of several animals even when there is no climactic change. And as we keep watching and are filled with awe and wonderment that we're lucky enough to live on this planet, we begin to appreciate quietly in our hearts how we need to change today to ensure that we save our planet.
That is what my daughter felt on her own, she asked me why we were not doing more to save our natural world and I did not have any good answers. The last 3 episodes, Planet Earth: The Future delve deeper into these issues, which I haven't had a chance to see yet.
I watched a clip of David Attenborough's version video on the web before I started watching the series with Sigourney Weaver's narration, and I was disappointed by her blandness and lack of depth. I bought this set like many others to listen to Sir David's narration. I was torn between the regular DVD set and the HD DVD though. This series is good enough to make me buy an HD DVD player just to be able to watch it in its true form! However, the regular set has the Future series and the Planet Earth diaries which the HD set does not have. I loved the Planet Earth Diaries (or behind the scenes) with cameramen, it made a fascinating documentary on it's own, and wished some were longer. If they had the extra material in the HD DVD set, it would have been my first choice.
I had saved the Discovery HD Theatre epidodes on my HD Cable box and I was able to compare their image quality with this Standard DVD version playing on an upconverting DVD player. The Discovery Theater images were crystal clear, and you could literally see each grain of sand on the sea bed or each crevice on a rock face. The Standard DVD looked pretty good when upconverted to 720p and if I had not seen the HD version I would have been quite amazed with the image quality. Right now I've been spoilt by the Discovery Theater version. If you're considering the HD version it's a great choice if you have an HD DVD/BluRay player. You'll probably not see a better HD disc. This series was shot completely in HD format. From my experience in the media industry I can tell you that this is a very, very expensive format to shoot in especially given the 5 years that it took to make this series. Most television is shot in a regular digital format and then upconverted to the HD format later. That gives great images but they cannot compare to something shot totally in HD. That is the reason the image quality of this series is spectacular. In HD they were able to capture the action which when replayed in slow-motion also stays crystal clear. Therefore you have breathtaking images of a shark capturing its prey (and many others) in slo-mo.
This really is the set to buy. It's like a living documentation of the beauty of our earth, some of which was starting to disappear right as the cameras were rolling. Perhaps, that is why BBC and Discovery spared no cost to produce this series and it is a masterpiece.

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With an unprecedented production budget of $25 million, and from the makers of Blue Planet: Seas of Life, comes the epic story of life on Earth. Five years in production, over 2,000 days in the field, using 40 cameramen filming across 200 locations, shot entirely in high definition, this is the ultimate portrait of our planet. A stunning television experience that captures rare action, impossible locations and intimate moments with our planet's best-loved, wildest and most elusive creatures. From the highest mountains to the deepest rivers, this blockbuster series takes you on an unforgettable journey through the daily struggle for survival in Earth's most extreme habitats. Planet Earth takes you to places you have never seen before, to experience sights and sounds you may never experience anywhere else.

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Lord, All Men Can't Be Dogs (2011) Review

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(More customer reviews)Thank goodness this came on BET and I was able to see it before I purchased it. I understood the concept and what they were trying to do in this play, but it was not good at all.

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An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)Last night on HBO I watched the premiere of this American Girl movie. I enjoyed the Kit movie from last year, they are really on a roll now I have to say!! This movie is a MUST see for students from 3rd or 4th grade and up. The movie is about a 5th grade girl who is new to a school and is soon bullied by a click of 3 girls, one in particular named Tara. This is not a sugar coated movie and you see Chrissa's situation go from bad to worse as she struggles to handle it by herself.
I figured this movie would be like every other typical Disney-style movie where Chrissa will eventually get revenge on the "bad guy", you know with some plot where say she makes some elaborate contraption which will embarrass the heck out of Tara and spill green paint on her or whatever and everyone will laugh at Tara and Chrissa will be the hero. That is NOT how this story goes at all, and I am very impressed American Girl (who is in the DOLL business) did not fantasy candy-coat the story. Rather, as you will see, it is shown with much more realism and makes you think about what you would do if you were in Chrissa's (or her parents') situation.
I actually have someone who has been bullying my 10 year old daughter over the past few months and ironically I got a few pointers from this movie last night, it made me think a little different about how to approach the situation. It also reinforced some of my beliefs on what makes someone a bully as well as providing some tips on ways to keep Chrissa staying strong.
Like other viewers, I bet you will be curious to see what bully Tara's parents look like - in every other movie (e.g. Camp Rock) the snobby/mean girl's mother is usually some self-centered witch who is nasty with her daughter and thus the chain continues....in this movie, you never get to see her parents. I think that is a good thing because it really let me focus on the rest of the story. I am seriously considering buying a copy for my local school and/or library to donate it, it was that good. The acting was fantastic and Chrissa is absolutely charming, I would love to have a friend like her for myself or my daughter!

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Meet Chrissa Maxwell. She and her family have just moved, and she has to start at a new school mid-year. Will she fit in? Can she find new friends? On her very first day, Chrissa is seated with three girls who greet her with teasing and tricks. The Mean Bees really know how to stingthey bully her in class, on the bus, online, and even at swim club. Chrissa cant seem to make any new friends; not even with the girl who seems to need a friend the most. When the biggest bully becomes Chrissa's swimming rival, the taunting finally goes too far. Now its up to Chrissa. Will she find a way to stand strong and stop the bullying?

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