A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving / The Mayflower Voyagers (1973)

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is an annual classic for holiday viewing. It almost doesn't feel like Thanksgiving if I miss it in a given year on the tube. This holiday special is not as iconic and endearing as It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown but the characters are as tried and true and beloved as ever. Our story: Charlie Brown has plans to spend Thanksgiving at his grandma's but his friends invite themselves over for an early dinner at his house; trouble is he only knows how to make popcorn and toast -- but in the end all agree that Thanksgiving is about togetherness and sharing. The Mayflower Voyages is first 24-min segment of the eight-part miniseries This Is America, Charlie Brown that first aired on CBS in 1988 (www.imdb.com/title/tt0307141) and is available on YouTube. It's a kid-informative narrative of the Pilgrim crossing, settlement, and Thanksgiving with the Peanuts characters set as children against the larger tableau (talking about their challenges and fears and participating in the common life). The gang's characters all show through: among others, Snoopy's excitement, Charlie Brown's insecurity, and Lucy's bossiness (being a fussbudget during the crossing and assigning chores upon landing -- "Pretty faces always get put in charge," she purrs). This disc makes a familiar learning unit for children ages 2-9 and a great holiday viewing tradition for the whole family. 4 stars. (11-30-08)

Where the Wild Things Are and Other Maurice Sendak Stories (2002)

I've always watched this disc, of course, to see Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen -- two wonderfully illustrated children's storybooks by Maurice Sendak -- but I also enjoy all the Nutshell tunes save One Was Johnny. (1) Where the Wild Things Are with music and narration by Peter Schickele: The truly classic storybook's delightful illustrations become artfully animated as Max, sent to his room without supper for being "a wild thing," enters a forest and sails to an island of giant "wild things" where he becomes king and leads a "wild rumpus" until he returns home to his room -- and supper. (2) The Nutshell Kids with music and vocals by Carole King (exerpted from the 1975 TV program Really Rosie): Alligators All Around presents an alliterative alphabet in song, Pierre perpetually says "I don't care" until he is eaten by a lion and rescued, One Was Johnny presents a number song with animals, and Chicken Soup With Rice is a duly playful tune. (3) In the Night Kitchen with narration by Peter Schickele: This memorably mysterious storybook's illustrations become animated as Mickey floats, in a dream, naked from his bed to the night kitchen, where Oliver Hardy-lookalike bakers sing and obsess over milk and making "Mickey cake" while Mickey, briefly clothed in a dough jumpsuit, flies a plane made of dough to "get milk the Mickey way" before he floats off to sleep in his bed. 3.5 stars. (11-25-08)

Cliffhanger (1993)

Cliffhanger lives mostly up to its name, serving up a mix of elements similarly found in The Edge, Broken Arrow, and Vertical Limit -- except the bad guys are hunting down GPS-tagged suitcases of money (instead of nukes) and the mountain-climbing heroes don't require oxygen tanks (or jackets, says the villain). The opening scenes are a memorable setup for Gabe (Sylvester Stallone) as a hypermuscular if morose mountain climber who is forced to outrace the bad guys with the help of his mountaineering pal Hal (Michael Rooker) and girlfriend Jessie (Janine Turner). I like Caroline Goodall as a bad-girl copter pilot but esp. John Lithgow's bad-guy histrionics -- he's petulant with a pistol -- including the homicidal steps he'll take to repeatedly level the playing field. You may shiver in your seat if you feel the cold and the heights as Stallone races through his Herculean paces to get to the money first then outwit and outflank the guys with guns. The climax and finale are even more exciting (and explosive); the only thing I didn't like was the movie's raft of expletives. Cliffhanger is a goodie that bears repeated watching -- whenever you feel like it since it's now on IW. 3.5 stars.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008)

If the first Madagascar movie made you a fan of the infectious dance tune that goes "I like to move it move it," then yes, you'll find more of Prince Julian with his lemur cohort and dance tunes to groove by in this second Madagascar movie. If you love the leading cast of zoo animals -- Alex the rockstar lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the crackalackin' zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the hypochondriac giraffe (David Schwimmer), and Gloria the easygoing hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) -- then Madagascar 2 will reveal more about their dreams, motivations, and resolutions -- this time in Africa. (It's almost like The Lion King takes on Woody Allen in the borscht veldt: Oy! Did you hear my son is king of New York?) Of course, if your favorite Madagascar schtick is those wacky penguins, then fasten your seat belts for an in-flight movie that delivers even more penguin schtick (and that's a good thing, despite how it sounds). Madagascar 2 gives us more of all the good stuff we enjoyed in the first movie and it's actually funnier. The lead characters are a little less hyperkinetic than spastic rubber bands (whew!) and more into wrestling with and processing the internal conflicts of their relationships: Alex's need to be the center of attention vis-a-vis his long-lost parents, Marty's individuality vis-a-vis the zebras' herd mentality, Melman's unrequited love vis-a-vis Gloria, and Gloria's attraction to a hirsute (yech!) ladies' hippo named Moto-Moto. (I would have given the movie 5 stars without him.) In the end, all the characters solve their problems in their individually wild and weird ways and the penguins inexplicably ("You didn't see anything") procure the materiel for a celebration. Gotta love those penguins! Flipper slaps all around! 4.5 stars. (11-24-08)

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season 3

Star Trek: The Next Generation really hit warp speed in its strong third season, where we see Capt. Picard and crew drawing on diplomatic and tactical skills in their encounters with entities often faceless and intransigent -- from the nanosymbionts and the Sheliac in the first two episodes to the cybernetic Borg onslaught in the season cliffhanger. [Disk-Episode] 1-1: Evolution (A scientist whose life's work has been to study a stellar phenomenon that occurs once every 196 years takes it personally when a symbiotic life form threatens the ship and his survey), 1-2: The Ensigns of Command (Data must evacuate a proud colony of humans long thought to be lost but found to inhabit a planet that belongs by treaty to the reclusive Sheliac, who will exterminate them), 1-3: The Survivors (Picard faces a puzzle when responding to a distress call from Rana IV to find the entire surface of the planet destroyed except for a single house and two elderly occupants who are not what they seem), 1-4: Who Watches the Watchers (A nascent quasi-Vulcan society turns from science and reason to fear and superstition when it idolizes Picard and nearly sacrifices Troi), 2-5: The Bonding (Picard and crew help a young crew member cope with the loss of his mother, killed on a planetary mission, even as he faces an alien mentality's attempts to comfort him with a surrogate mother in a replica of his home), 2-6: Booby Trap (Chief engineer LaForge finds hope for romance with a holodeck simulation of the ship's designer, Leah Brahms, as he races to free the ship from a seemingly inescapable energy-draining radiation field), 2:7: The Enemy (LaForge and a Romulan officer are lost on a planet of violent storms and must collaborate to survive), 2-8: The Price (Picard hosts negotiations for trade control of a new wormhole as Troi becomes emotionally involved with the unflappable opposing negotiator), 3-9: The Vengeance Factor (hoping to broker peace between two long-warring factions, the crew discovers a devious plan for revenge), 3-10: The Defector (Picard must discern the veracity of a defecting Romulan officer's warning of a planned invasion), 3-11: The Hunted (the crew learns a Federation candidate society has exiled a former warrior caste rather than rehabilitate them), 3-12: The High Ground (Dr. Crusher is taken hostage during a planet's civil war), 4-13: Déjà Q (Q is ejected from the Q Continuum and seeks protection from his enemies), 4-14: A Matter of Perspective (After Riker is accused of seduction and murder, the crew employs forensic simulations to determine the truth), 4-15: Yesterday's Enterprise (After the Enterprise C enters space/time rift and encounters the Enterprise D, Picard and crew enter a state of war with the Klingons and only Guinan discerns what is amiss), 4-16: The Offspring (Data creates his own offspring, Lal, but complications intervene), 5-17: Sins of the Father (Riker and a Klingon commander participate in an officer exchange program that's a model of culture clash but also learning), 5-18: Allegiance (Picard is beamed off-ship and confined with three aliens as a test while his doppelganger causes confusion), 5-19: Captain's Holiday (Picard hopes to vacation on Raisa with books not women but meets Jennifer Hetrick as the roguish Vash on an archeological adventure), 5-20: Tin Man (The crew attempts first contact with a space creature through a highly sensitive telepath), 6-21: Hollow Pursuits (Dwight Schultz as shy engineer Reg Barclay becomes addicted to a holodeck fantasy life), 6-22: The Most Toys (Saul Rubinek is the ruthless Kivas Fajo, who abducts Data as the ultimate priceless collection), 6-23: Sarek (Vulcan ambassador Sarek arrives to negotiate the treaty that will crown his illustrious career but he must mind-meld with Picard, stripping Jean-Luc emotionally, to succeed), 6-24: Ménage à Troi (Lwuxana Troi spurns the rogue Ferengi Daimon, who kidnaps Deanna, Lwuxana, and Riker until Picard feigns love and vengeance if they are not returned), 7-25: Transfigurations (the crew rescues and provides sanctuary for a crash landing's sole survivor who exhibits healing powers before he transforms into a higher state), 7-26: The Best of Both Worlds: Part 1 (the Enterprise flies from ground zero to the defense of Earth as the Borg begins its decimating attack on the Federation). [Bold are best episodes, italic are weakest.] 5 stars. (11-24-08)

Igor (2008)

Igor is chock full of quirky humor and arcane plot twists that look bewildering on paper but are satisfyingly weird on the silver screen. It's perky but too dark for young kids, however, boys aged 10-12 should enjoy it -- with some generous dollops of satire thrown in for parents. In a mashup of congenital deformity and societal stereotyping, Igor (John Cusack) has a one-note career track as the hunchback laboratory assistant to the mad scientist Dr. Glickenstein (John Cleese). You can almost hear the "Yes, Massa" when it comes out as the requisite "Yes, Master." After a freak lab accident, Igor decides to try and change his stars. His master's nemesis, Dr. Schadenfreude (Eddie Izzard), holds King Malbert (Jay Leno) and the town of Malaria in thrall after turning the economy into a mad-scientist-based military-industrial complex. Igor has taken (made) his own assistants in the form of the suicidal yet undead rabbit Scamper (Steve Buscemi is wryly hilarious in the role) and the disembodied and misspelled Brain (Sean Hayes is as funny as Chicken Little's Fish Out of Water). The gargantuan woman, Eva (Molly Shannon), looks less lumpy and frumpy than you'd expect of a Ms. Frankenstein but that's the cutesy grotesque style of the movie -- think Tim Burton meets Disney. Eva wants to become more than Igor intended for her -- and I think she (and the movie) succeeds. 4 stars. (11-19-08)

Garfield as Himself (2004)

Lorenzo Music preceded Bill Murray as the voice of Garfield and he sure pegs the nearly comatose metabolic level of America's favorite feline (who will run to save his tush if he must). This disc has three episodes: Here Comes Garfield (after Odie, his canine sidekick, is taken to the pound, Garfield engineers a breakout for all incarcerated animals); Garfield on the Town (our cat gets lost in a tough neighborhood but right outside the building where his mother and weird relatives still live); and Garfield Gets a Life (Garfield's owner Jon joins a dating service for dweebs that is sincere and pathetic (humorously so). (For the record, a nerd is academically gifted but socially inept. A geek is technically gifted but socially inept. A dweeb is just socially inept.) Garfield even makes an in-joke about the Garfield-on-suction-cups doll people stick on car windows. Cute low-key family fun esp. for the kiddos. 3.5 stars. (11-18-08)

How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? (2004)

How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? is the animated children's story that anchors this seven-story collection. Author Jane Yolen narrates -- bedtime stories are a specialty of hers, I've attended one of her storytimes (and supplied the milk and cookies) -- and the illustrations by Mark Teague are delightfully Edward Hopperesque. It's a creative and colorful depiction of how children's bedtime procrastinations resemble dinosaurs thrashing and gnashing about (even jumping on beds). Think of that kids' macaroni commercial but with T-Rexes and Stegosaurs that eventually kiss their parents night-night and drift off to dreamland. Yolen is a master; her writing tends to become a modern classic and this story fills the bill. Animated stories that follow are In the Small, Small Pond written by Denise Fleming and narrated by Laura Dern (frogs and cranes drawn in colorful splotches explore their aquatic habitat); Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin written by Lloyd Moss with music by Marvin Hamlisch (eleven musicians with instruments drawn in a loose European style gradually compile a symphonic ensemble); All the Colors of the Earth by Shiela Hamanka (a multiracial gaggle of kids celebrates a multicolored world); and for three "bonus" stories Joey Runs Away by Jack Kent (a young kangaroo runs away from "home" -- his mother's pouch -- to avoid cleaning his comically cluttered room); A Weekend With Wendall by Kevin Henkes (a boy mouse, as a selfish houseguest, drives a girl mouse crazy); and Moon Man by Tomi Ungerer (a luminous, scintillating, and phase-shifting man-in-the-moon visits earth and has wacky adventures). The stories are all wonderfully illustrated and pleasingly narrated but the pond, violin, and color stories are educational while the dinosaur, kangaroo, mouse, and moon stories are by far my favorites. The shimmering man-in-the-moon feels ethereal and his revels suggest the work of Winston McKay. (I acquired this disc from the library and a disc error prevented Moon Man's display but it's also available on YouTube.) 3.5 stars. (11-18-08)

Goodnight Moon (2001)

Goodnight Moon and Other Sleepytime Tales is a well-produced storytime program from HBO that includes more than a dozen charming segments during its 30-minute runtime. I would recommend watching it straight through with your child the first time but during the day; afterwards use the chapter selections to let your child view his or her choice of one or more segments from the varied menu before bedtime. (This should help mitigate complaints from adults who have it in for Susan Sarandon or claim Mercer Mayer's story gave their tykes nightmares. In other words, if a parent can't tell the program mixes bedtime stories with lively child interviews that might counter sleepytime, trust the tot to choose.) Every bit of this compilation is a charmer for the child within and is nicely done. Throughout the half-hour, children with the most animated voices and faces speak from their heart about dreams and blankies and more. (Don't miss the final vignette after the closing credits.) Tony Bennett sings Hit the Road to Dreamland. Susan Sarandon gently reads a lightly animated version of Margaret Wise Brown's bedtime classic Goodnight Moon. Lauryn Hill sings Hush Little Baby. Billy Crystal reads a lightly animated version of Mercer Mayer's cute There's A Nightmare in My Closet. Natalie Cole reads Faith Ringgold's dreamlike Tar Beach. Aaron Neville sings Brahms' Lullaby. Patti LaBelle sings Twinkle Twinkle (Little Star). This disc will breathe new life into classic bedtime tales and tunes -- which I hope you already know well -- and, trust me, the children's sweet- and wry-faced reflections are truly wisdom "out of the mouths of babes." 3.5 stars. (11-15-08)