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Location: VHS
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Feature Films for Families. Can Sam open up enough to let love's warmth melt the ice around his heart? If he can, he might just discover that family and loyalty are the best friends money cannot buy. |
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This multilevel class is safe for and accessible to beginners, and just right for intermediates. Three of Fonda's able and motivating instructors teach the 45-minute step class. Half the room does lower-intensity moves; the other uses higher steps and higher-intensity techniques. The teaching technique is excellent: a pattern is taught on the floor before taking it up on the step. One participant does the routines totally without the step to guide beginners or others who don't feel comfortable using the step. The patterns never get very complex, but they are varied enough to keep you interested and energized, and you can adjust your step height to make the workout harder if you wish. The instructors cue seamlessly. Fonda herself teaches the 10-minute abdominal segment, with enough variations of the standard crunch to keep your abs contracting and your mind engaged. --Joan Price |
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Imaginatively rendered but slightly chilly, this 1951 Disney adaptation of the Lewis Carroll classic is also appropriately surreal. Alice (voiced by Kathryn Beaumont) has all the anticipated experiences: shrinking and growing, meeting the White Rabbit, having tea with the Mad Hatter, etc. Characterization is very strong, and the Disney team worked hard to bring screen personality to Carroll's eccentric creations. For a Disney film, however, it seems more the self-satisfied sum of its inventiveness than a truly engaging experience. --Tom Keogh |
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Much closer to Hello, Dolly! than your usual Christmas special, Mrs. Santa Claus joins two distinct genres: holiday family fare and the Broadway musical. This song-studded extravaganza was especially designed for TV by Broadway legend Jerry Herman, whose songs are just as incorrigibly catchy on the small screen as they are on the stage. Herman uses one of his favorite leading ladies from the theater, Angela Lansbury, in a tale of Santa's "invisible wife," who takes the reindeer off for an impulsive week-long adventure in New York City. Unexpectedly becoming a suffragette and labor organizer (it's set in the early 20th century), Mrs. Claus twinkles merrily at all who cross her path. This is a problem, dramatically speaking, because what's compelling about someone who twinkles all the time? The costumes are by Bob Mackie (duh), the choreography by Chicago director Rob Marshall. And just try to get the melodies out of your head. --Robert Horton |
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Interval workouts incorporate a variety of activities that are powerful and short in duration. These intervals create an anaerobic workout that forces the body to adjust to variations of intensity and motion. Interval training has the real potential to burn fat and build strength. The Firm: Body Sculpting Basics utilizes these same aerobic and anaerobic components to create a 60-minute workout that promotes strength and stamina. Instructor Susan Harris presents simple dance-style aerobic combinations and weightlifting techniques that are sure to make you break a sweat. This video is somewhat dated (lots of '80s-style leg warmers and traditional dance aerobic movements), but the content is so stellar that it would more appropriately be coined as a fitness classic. Pliés, squats, and split-leg lunges work the major muscles of the lower body, while lateral raises, curls, and push-ups concentrate on the upper body. Light weights (5 to 8 pounds) are used throughout this workout, and a set of ankle weights may be helpful if you are looking for a challenge. Cueing comes quickly and Harris does not give much information on form or body alignment. Therefore, beginners should watch the informational portion of this video (the segment immediately before the workout) in order to train as confidently and safely as possible. This is a brilliantly designed program that merges weight training and cardio in an effective and approachable (not to mention quick) package. --Olivia Voigts |
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The African Queen
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CBS/Fox VIdeo
List Price: $14.98
Lowest Price: $9.82
You can save: $5.16 (34%)
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The 1951 John Huston classic, set in Africa during World War I, garnered Humphrey Bogart an Oscar for his role as a hard-drinking riverboat captain in Africa, who provides passage for a Christian missionary spinster (Katharine Hepburn). Taking an instant, mutual dislike to one another, the two endure rough waters, the presence of German soldiers, and their own bickering to finally fall into one another's arms. This is classic Huston material--part adventure, part quest--but this time with a pair of characters who'd all but given up on happiness. Bogart (a longtime collaborator with Huston on such classics as The Maltese Falcon and Key Largo) and Hepburn have never been better, and support from frequent Huston crony Robert Morley (Beat the Devil, also featuring Bogart) adds some extra dimension and color. --Tom Keogh |
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Description Charles Dickens' classic holiday story sparkles with humor and whimsy in the hands of the always hilarious Muppets! Michael Caine stars as penny-pinching Ebenezer Scrooge in a performance that's anything but "bah humbug!" Alone on Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by ghosts who transport him to his past, present, and future -- and it's not a pretty sight! But along the way he comes upon poor, kind, humble Bob Cratchit (Kermit the Frog) and his family, including Tiny Tim who teaches Scrooge the true meaning of Christmas. Complete with original music and dazzling special effects, this heartfelt holiday movie is exceptional entertainment your family will enjoy for every Christmas to come. Amazon.com Brian Henson directs his late father's creations in the Charles Dickens classic, the best known (and most oft-filmed) Christmas story of all time. Michael Caine plays the old miser Scrooge with Kermit as his long-suffering but ever-hopeful employee Bob Cratchit, Miss Piggy as Cratchit's wife, and a host of Muppets (including the Great Gonzo as an unlikely Charles Dickens) taking other primary roles in this bright, playful adaptation of the somber tale. Or at least it starts brightly enough--the anarchic humor soon settles into mirthful memories and a sense of melancholy as the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future take Scrooge on a journey of his lonely, wasted life. Michael Caine makes a wonderful Scrooge, delightfully rediscovering the meaning of life as fantastic creations from Henson's Creature Shop (developed specially for this film) take the reins as the three ghosts. While the odd mix of offbeat humor and somber drama undercuts the power of Dickens's drama, this kid-friendly retelling makes an excellent family drama that adults and children alike can enjoy. --Sean Axmaker |
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Finding Nemo
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Walt Disney Video
List Price: $24.99
Lowest Price: $6.49
You can save: $18.5 (74%)
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A delightful undersea world unfolds in Pixar's animated adventure Finding Nemo. When his son Nemo is captured by a scuba-diver, a nervous-nellie clownfish named Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks) sets off into the vast--and astonishingly detailed--ocean to find him. Along the way he hooks up with a scatterbrained blue tang fish named Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), who's both helpful and a hindrance, sometimes at the same time. Faced with sharks, deep-sea anglers, fields of poisonous jellyfish, sea turtles, pelicans, and much more, Marlin rises above his neuroses in this wonderfully funny and nonstop thrill ride--rarely does more than 10 minutes pass without a sequence destined to become a theme park attraction. Pixar continues its run of impeccable artistic and economic success (their movies include Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, and Monsters, Inc). Also featuring the voices of Willem Dafoe, Geoffrey Rush, and Allison Janney. --Bret Fetzer |
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A Disney "classic" that actually is a classic, Dumbo should be part of your video collection whether or not you have children. The storytelling was never as lean as in Dumbo, the songs rarely as haunting (or just plain weird), the characters rarely so well defined. The film pits the "cold, cruel, heartless" world that can't accept abnormality against a plucky, and mute, hero. Jumbo Jr. (Dumbo is a mean-spirited nickname) is ostracized from the circus pack shortly after his delivery by the stork because of his big ears. His mother sticks up for him and is shackled. He's jeered by children (an insightful scene has one boy poking fun at Dumbo's ears, even though the youngster's ears are also ungainly), used by the circus folk, and demoted to appearing with the clowns. Only the decent Timothy Q. Mouse looks out for the little guy. Concerns about the un-PC "Jim Crow" crows, who mock Dumbo with the wonderful "When I See an Elephant Fly," should be moderated by remembering that the crows are the only social group in the film who act kindly to the little outcast. If you don't mist up during the "Baby Mine" scene, you may be legally pronounced dead. --Keith Simanton |
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