Turner Classic Movies is set to conjure up some pure movie magic this December, when the network debuts TCM PRESENTS: THE FAMILY CLASSICS. The festivities will include Sunday movie showcases featuring more than 25 Disney live-action classics, plus an all-new original documentary entitled THE AGE OF BELIEVING: THE DISNEY LIVE-ACTION CLASSICS, to be narrated by Tony winner and three-time Oscar® nominee Angela Lansbury. The showcases will begin each Sunday at noon and feature such films as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Freaky Friday (1976), The Parent Trap (1961), The Love Bug (1968), Treasure Island (1950), The Shaggy Dog (1959) and Swiss Family Robinson (1960), as well as Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), which stars Lansbury.

“With Walt Disney Pictures’ legacy of groundbreaking animated films, it can sometimes be easy to forget that since the 1950s, the studio has also produced an extensive collection of lovingly made live-action films perfect for the entire family,” said Charles Tabesh, senior vice president of programming for TCM. “So it is with great pride that we will present them in all their glory in the tradition of TCM ─ uncut and commercial free. With more than 25 outstanding movies and an insightful documentary special narrated by Angela Lansbury, TCM’s salute to these live-action films is a perfect family programming event for the holiday season.”

THE AGE OF BELIEVING: THE DISNEY LIVE-ACTION CLASSICS, which comes to TCM from FitzFilm, Inc. and writer/producer/director Peter Fitzgerald, will follow the studio’s history as it ventured beyond its animation legacy to develop non-animated family fare. It is slated to premiere at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 14.

The special will feature interviews with a number of people who have contributed to the studio’s live-action oeuvre, including Kurt Russell, Dick Van Dyke, Dean Jones, Tim Conway, Lesley Ann Warren and Michele Lee; former child stars Karen Dotrice and Kim Richards; director Ken Annakin; and songwriter Richard M. Sherman. The special will also feature interviews with Walt Disney Company Board Director Emeritus Roy E. Disney, film critic and film expert Leonard Maltin, film historian Les Perkins, film writer Richard Schickel, author and film expert Paul Sigman-Lowery and author Bill Cotter.

The following is the complete schedule for TCM PRESENTS: THE FAMILY CLASSICS:

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Movie Info:
Writer: Various
Director: Various
Cast: Kim Roberts, Lisa Lennox, Chad McNamara, Jonathan Wexler, John Catucci, Jackie Richardson
Rating: G
Studio: Lionsgate

Release Info:
DVD Release Date: September 9, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon

From all I have seen, parents have either a love or hate relationship with the Doodlebops. I have heard complaints that one of the characters is a homosexual in real life. I have also heard complaints that the show does not offer real educational value. However, despite these claims, which I will address in a moment, small children absolutely adore this show and with good reason!

It is true that Chad McNamara is a homosexual. However, in this instance he is not playing one on television. McNamara plays the role of Rooney Doodle and he does a good job. It should not matter that he identifies as homosexual in his personal life no more than it should matter than Anne Heche kissed Harrison Ford in a movie when she was claiming to be a lesbian. It’s acting. He acts like a character that probably has little to do with his real life. Furthermore, most kids don’t even understand what homosexuality is and even less of them can spot it in a children’s show character that is playing a part, like McNamara is here.

It’s also true that the academic value of Doodlebops is low. However, the creativity value is high. Not only that, but with all the singing and dancing kids are encouraged to get on their feet, which will be good for their health. Kids also learn some type of lesson, a la Barney that may not be educational, but is still important to learn. These lessons vary depending on the episode and range from things like sharing and being a good friend to the importance of being truthful.

I wouldn’t end up watching this all on my own, but with young children it’s an incredibly fun experience. The kids adore the show and dance and sing along with the television. The characters are harmless and good natured, not to mention amusing in many different ways. It makes for a great show for young children.

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Movie Info:
Creator/Writer: Ross Bagdasarian
Cast: Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., Janice Karman, Sherwood Ball, Nancy Cartwright, Tress MacNeille, Frank Welker, Vanessa Bagdasarian, Michael Bagdasarian
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Paramount

Release Info:
Season Episode Air Dates: Two episodes from 1988 and one from 1989
DVD Release Date: September 23, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon for $10.99

I’ve probably already mentioned in a previous Chipmunks DVD release that I grew up watching the chipmunks cartoons. I loved their show. It aired from the time I was almost three until I was ten. This is pretty much the perfect age range for kids to enjoy the show. I still love the Chipmunks though, so I look forward to all of the releases that Paramount (and the various other studios with rights to the Chipmunks) put out. That’s part of why I decided to do the review for Alvin & The Chipmunks: Alvin’s Thanksgiving Celebration.

The Chipmunks have a long and prosperous history. I’ve never really touched on it in a review, but I’d enjoy telling all of you who are reading this about it now. The Chipmunks, Alvin, Simon and Theodore were created by Russ Bagdasarian Sr. in 1958. Originally a music group, the Chipmunks have won a total of six Grammy Awards throughout the years. Bagdasarian was a singer, songwriter, actor and music producer. He went by the stage name of David Seville, which we all know is the name of the chipmunks’ fictionalized guardian. In the early days though, Bagdasarian played that role, later inventing a cartoon version of Dave for Chipmunk-based cartoon specials.

Another interesting tidbit about the Chipmunks I’m sure I shared in previous reviews is that the Chipmunks were named for the executives of the first company that signed the trio, Liberty Records. The three were named after Alvin Bennett, Simon Waronker, and Theodore Keep. While the Chipmunks are all fictional characters and while Bagdasarian spent $190 of his last $200 buying a recorder that allowed him to alter the speed of his recordings, which gave him that patented Chipmunk sound, the trio released several records, starting with the infamous “The Christmas Song”.

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Movie Info:
Writer: Various
Director: Various
Cast: David Joyner, Greg Proops, Finty Williams, Judi Dench, Michael Angelis, Martin Clunes, Jane Horrocks
Rating: G
Studio: Lionsgate

Release Info:
DVD Release Date: September 9, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon for $8.49

As Halloween approaches, it will be the goal of parents to offer their kids some good Halloween themed television shows and movies to watch to get them in the mood. As a child, the quintessential Halloween movie was It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. As an adult that has not changed one bit, but there are some other shows out there that are worth watching.

Halloween Spooktacular is a collection of animated shorts from seven television shows. Kids will get to enjoy episodes of Barney, Angelina Ballerina, Bob the Builder, Thomas & Friends, Fireman Sam, Kipper, and Fifi and the Flowertots. Five of these shows are labeled as an actual part of the DVD and two of them are listed as special features. You can hear more about my thoughts on that in the sections below.

The benefit to a DVD like this is that most kids know some or all of these shows already. It also appears that Lionsgate made an effort to see that both girls and boys would have shows that they prefer. So, if you only have a son you might skip through some of these, then again, he might like all of the shows. Ultimately it will just depend on your child and their likes and interests.

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Movie Info:
Writer: Charles M. Schulz
Director: Bill Melendez
Cast: Peter Robbins, Christopher Shea, Sally Dryer, Kathy Steinberg, Gail DeFaria, Lisa DeFaria, Glenn Mendelson, Ann Altieri, Bill Melendez
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Warner Home Video

Release Info:
Theatrical Release: October 27, 1966
DVD Release Date: September 2, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon for $13.99

I grew up in the 80s, so like every kid who grew up from the 60s on, I grew up with Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang. I remember pouring through the Sunday comics at my grandparents’ house, just to find my favorite comic strips. Among them was Peanuts. Of course, I loved the Peanuts television specials. There was the original special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. Then there were specials for every other holiday including Thanksgiving, Easter, Valentines, and who could forget, Halloween?

Of course, my favorite Peanuts special isn’t one of the holiday specials. Don’t get me wrong. I love all of the Peanuts specials. I’m just partial to my favorite Peanuts special, Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown. Nothing really compares to Peanuts in Europe. Needless to say, I still love the holiday Peanuts. I really can’t say that any of the Peanuts specials are my least favorite. It’s really hard to choose one over the other! That’ brings me back to It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

After the success of the original Peanuts special, the Christmas special, in the mid-1960s, Sparky Schultz and Bill Melendez sat down to come up with the next big blockbuster. It wasn’t just the fact that they wanted people to like Peanuts. They were told if their next Peanuts special wasn’t a hit they might not make any more, ever again. This gave Sparky the idea for It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. This is one of the saddest Peanuts episodes and also the most hopeful. For a while, I even believed in the Great Pumpkin, just so Linus didn’t have to be alone.

You really feel for Charlie Brown in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. I mean, seriously! How much abuse can one child take?! The poor kid not only gets treated like crud by his peers (Lucy ruins his excitement over getting invited to the Halloween party by saying it “has” to be a mistake). He also has to deal with the cruel, evil Lucy Van Pelt. Just once, you hope Charlie will kick that football, but Lucy keeps pulling it out from him.

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Movie Info:
Writer: Various
Director: Various
Cast: John Stocker, Melleny Brown, Chris Wiggins, Billie Mae Richards, Bob Dermer, Dan Hennessey, Jim Henshaw, Luba Goy, Angella Kaye, Terri Hawkes, Marla Lukofsky, Terry Sears, Linda Sorenson, Stevie Vallance, Laurie Waller-Benson, Noam Zylberman
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Release Info:
Original Air Dates: September 1, 1985 – January 1, 1988
DVD Release Date: August 26, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon for $20.99

There is no other way to say what I am about to say. I love the Care Bears. I loved the television show. I love the bears. I love the cousins. I love the whole entire lot of them, every single one. Maybe it’s because I am a 80s child that had a ton of Care Bears or maybe it’s just that they are such a happy, loving kind of toy. Whatever it is, I cannot get enough of them. It makes me happy to have a child and nephew because a grown woman fawning over Care Bears might just seem a little bit odd.

The Care-A-Lot Collection features 22 of the best, heartwarming episodes that ever ran in the multiple seasons of the Care Bears television show. If you have children that are new to the show or the bears as a whole, this would be a great way to introduce them to the phenomenon. If you have kids that already love them then this is an absolute must have.

Each episode manages to teach children something about being a good citizen, a good friend, and a better person as a whole. Through the Care Bears children learn about lying, stealing, cheating and how bad those things are. They also learn about how it’s no fun to be lonely, the importance of being a good friend, and caring for the people that you love be it family or friends. There is plenty more to see beyond the life lessons that kids will learn. There is also plenty of action, with the Care Bears needing to defeat the evil villains that don’t want the world to be a caring place.

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Writers: Various
Directors: Various
Cast: Tim Allen, Patricia Richardson, Zachery Ty Bryan, Taran Noah Smith, Richard Karn, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Earl Hindman, Debbe Dunning, William O’Leary, Megan Cavanagh
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Touchstone & Walt Disney
Release Date: June 10, 2008

Home Improvement is one of those shows nearly everyone has seen, especially if they were alive in the 1990s (or happen to really like Nick at Night). I was a teenager throughout the shows’ eight year run. I watched plenty of episodes of Home Improvement in my youth. I remember when the cast came back to do the eight season of the show. They all knew it was going to be the last season so all of the episodes, especially the last one, were rather bittersweet.

Over the years, some of the humor from Home Improvement had lost its edge. Of course, the show was still worth watching. The last season the episodes were exceptionally well written and even with middle son, Randy (fan favorite, Jonathan Taylor Thomas), gone from most of the episodes, fans huddled around the TV each night the show was on knowing they’d soon be saying goodbye to Tim the Tool Man and his family. This was one of the last great family sitcoms and it holds a place in the hearts of those who grew up with the show, especially with the death of the sitcom, which has become a reality of the 21st Century.

Release Information:
Home Improvement’s first season showed episodes from September 1991 to May 1992. The show ran for eight seasons. This review is of Home Improvement: The Complete Eighth Season. This was the shows’ final season. It ran for 28 episodes. The half-hour long episodes are spread out across four discs and feature all of the latest, greatest moments of the last season for a show that had been nominated for multiple Emmys and Golden Globe Awards (and actually won).

The Home Improvement: The Complete Eighth Season Box Set is released courtesy of Touchstone and Buena Vista Home Entertainment (Walt Disney). This DVD set became available on June 10, 2008. You should be able to find it, and all of the previous seasons of Home Improvement at nearly any online and offline retailer selling DVD Box Sets. At Amazon, you can pick up a copy of the Home Improvement: The Complete Eighth Season DVD Box Set for $19.99 USD.

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