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Review Cinema Club / Muppet Babies - The Next Generation [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Howie Mandel
  • John Gibbs (II)
  • Greg Berg
  • Katie Leigh
  • Dave Coulier
  • Bob Richardson
  • Laurie O'Brien
  • Hank Saroyan
Release date: 2000-09-11
Run time: 69 min.
Price: £3.99

Review Muppet Babies - The Next Generation [2000] / Cinema Club:


Review Acorn Media / The Magician's House - Series 2 [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Stephen Fry
  • Neil Pearson
  • Ian Richardson
  • Graeme Lynch
  • Sian Phillips
Release date: 2000-12-27
Run time: 174 min.
Price: £19.99

Review The Magician's House - Series 2 [2000] / Acorn Media:


Review Tiamat / Clouds
Release date: 2001-07-30
RRP: £10.99
Price: £7.95

Review Clouds / Tiamat:


Review Acorn Media / The Magician's House - Series 1 [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Neil Pearson
  • Sian Phillips
  • Ian Richardson
  • Jennifer Saunders
  • Paul Lynch
  • Stephen Fry
Release date: 2000-10-30
Run time: 174 min.
Price: £19.99

Review The Magician's House - Series 1 [1999] / Acorn Media:


Review Warner Home Video / Pokemon TV Series - Vol. 1 - I Choose You! Pikachu! [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Jim Malone
  • Pokemon
  • Michael Haigney
Release date: 2001-02-12
Run time: 68 min.
Price: £9.99

Review Pokemon TV Series - Vol. 1 - I Choose You! Pikachu! [1997] / Warner Home Video:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Noddy In Toyland - Noddy And Friends
Actors & Directors
  • Maclean Rogers
  • Peter Elliott
  • Colin Spaull
  • Leslie Sarony
  • Gloria Johnson
  • Richard Huggett (II)
Release date: 1999-06-07
Run time: 85 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £8.53

Review Noddy In Toyland - Noddy And Friends / 2 Entertain Video:

Traditionalists were of course scandalised enough when the stop-motion animated Noddy TV series featured regional accents and (gasp) positive black characters. God only knows what they'll make of this. Try to keep up: what you have here is an Anglo-American co-production in which stories from the stop-motion series are sandwiched between frantic scenarios featuring live-action children and adult characters and puppets-a kind of Sesame Street in total overdrive. This, of course, seems hopelessly incongruous to everyone except the show's intended audience, which simply takes the whole thing in its stride. Individually, the two elements are commendable anyway; the first live-action episode-involving a parrot and an unstoppable vacuum cleaner-is a particularly fine piece of slapstick, while the original stop-motion stories are as gently rewarding as ever. This DVD is guaranteed to meet with approval from the jingly-hatted one's many young fans. -Roger Thomas.

Run time: 44 min.
Price: £7.99

Review Famous Five - Five Go To Demon's Rock [1983] / Carlton Visual Entertainment Ltd:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The Simpsons Collection - Dancin' Homer / Old Money [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Bart Simpson
Release date: 1994-05-03
Run time: 46 min.
Price: £8.99

Review The Simpsons Collection - Dancin' Homer / Old Money [1994] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Fremantle Home Entertainment / Edward And Mrs Simpson [1978]
Actors & Directors
  • Marius Goring
  • Peggy Ashcroft
  • Cynthia Harris
  • Maurice Denham
  • Waris Hussein
  • Edward Fox
Release date: 2002-02-25
Run time: 360 min.
RRP: £16.99
Price: £4.50

Review Edward And Mrs Simpson [1978] / Fremantle Home Entertainment:

Produced by Thames Television in 1981 (the video opens with that immortal logo), Edward & Mrs Simpson was made at a time when the "Royal Wedding" of Charles and Diana had revived interest in the monarchy's past. As well as topicality, the series benefited greatly from the quality of the script and casting. Frances Donaldson's biography, with its many insights into a still-controversial period of recent British history, was sensitively adapted for the screen by Simon Raven. As Edward VIII, Edward Fox gets to the heart of the urbane but emotionally vulnerable heir to the throne, unable to reconcile the callings of state with the promptings of his heart. Cynthia Harris is wholly plausible as the charming but scheming Wallis Simpson-part-femme fatale, part-social climber-who dupes herself into misjudging the protocol of the British aristocracy. The supporting cast, including Cherie Lunghi as the flirtatious Lady Thelma Furness, Peggy Ashcroft as the formidable Queen Mary and David Waller as the long-suffering Stanley Baldwin, uphold the highest standards of TV drama, while Ron Grainer's theme-song effortlessly evokes the glamour of the era. Both videos in this boxed set contain three episodes and the credits are retained at the beginning and end of each episode, as-more surprisingly-are the mid-episode breaks. Considering its age, the picture quality of the series has survived remarkably well. As the winner of BAFTA and Emmy Awards, this series certainly does its subject justice, and the story is unlikely to ever be told more stylishly. -Richard Whitehouse.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Home Alone 2 - Lost In New York [1992]
Actors & Directors
  • John Heard
  • Catherine O'Hara
  • Tim Curry
  • Macaulay Culkin
  • Chris Columbus
  • Brenda Fricker
Release date: 2003-10-20
Run time: 115 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £0.49

Review Home Alone 2 - Lost In New York [1992] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

This somewhat unpleasant 1992 sequel to the blockbuster Home Alone revisits the first film's gimmick by stranding Macaulay Culkin's character in New York City while his family ends up somewhere else. Again, the little guy meets up with colourful people on the margins of society (including a pigeon woman played by Brenda Fricker) and again he gets into a prop-heavy battle with Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. The latter sequence is even worse than the first film in terms of violence inflicted on the two villains (director Chris Columbus, who also made the first film, can't seem to emphasise the slapstick over the graphic effects of the fight). The best running joke finds a concierge (Tim Curry) at the swank hotel where Culkin is staying trying and failing to prove that the boy is on his own. -Tom Keogh.

Actors & Directors
  • John Ringham
  • Liza Goddard
  • Christopher Biggins
  • David Cobham
  • Sarah Smart
  • Edward Fidoe
Release date: 1992-05-11
Run time: 90 min.
Price: £6.99

Review Woof! The Tale Wags On [1991] / Cte Video:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Playdays - Animated Alphabet [1988]
Actors & Directors
  • Robin Fritz
  • Philip Hawthorn
  • Will Brenton
  • Helen Sheppard
  • Iain Lauchlan
  • Liz Watts (II)
  • Frances Dodge
Release date: 1995-02-06
Run time: 43 min.
Price: £6.99

Review Playdays - Animated Alphabet [1988] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review MGM Entertainment / Kes [1969]
Actors & Directors
  • Ken Loach
  • Colin Welland
  • Brian Glover
  • David Bradley (II)
  • Freddie Fletcher
  • Lynne Perrie
Release date: 2000-08-07
Run time: 106 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £13.88

Review Kes [1969] / MGM Entertainment:

This was only Ken Loach's second cinema feature but it still ranks as one of his finest and most moving films. Billy, a disaffected young lad living on a soulless Barnsley estate, finds a fledgling kestrel and, for the first time in his life, feels his imagination gripped. With infinite patience-and a book on falconry nicked from a local bookstore-he starts to train the bird. There's no boy-and-his-pet sentimentality here: the relationship between Kes the bird and the puny, taciturn Billy is the kinship, full of wary respect, between two wild creatures, and when Kes for the first time flies free and returns to Billy's wrist, the sense of exhilaration is overwhelming. Although Loach never rams his message home, it's clear that Billy stands for a whole generation of youngsters whose potential, barring some such chance event, will never be even fractionally realised. Chris Menges' photography brings out all the austere beauty of the Yorkshire locations, and Loach draws believable performances from his largely non-professional cast-especially the 14-year-old David Bradley, stunningly convincing as Billy. And anyone who has ever suffered under a bullying, self-satisfied sports teacher will squirm with recognition at the brilliant cameo from the late Brian Glover. -Philip Kemp.

Review 2 Entertain Video / Thomas The Tank Engine And Friends - Rock 'n' Roll And Other Stories [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Alec Baldwin
  • Michael Brandon
  • George Carlin
Release date: 1994-11-07
Run time: 44 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £24.99

Review Thomas The Tank Engine And Friends - Rock 'n' Roll And Other Stories [1994] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Columbia Tri-Star Home Video / Labyrinth
Actors & Directors
  • Jennifer Connelly
  • David Bowie
  • Christopher Malcolm
  • Jim Henson
  • Shelley Thompson
  • Toby Froud
Release date: 1999-09-20
Run time: 94 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £10.99

Review Labyrinth / Columbia Tri-Star Home Video:

Sarah (a teenage Jennifer Connelly) rehearses the role of a fairy-tale queen, performing for her stuffed animals. She is about to discover that the time has come to leave her childhood behind. In real life she has to baby-sit her brother and contend with parents who don't understand her at all. Her petulance leads her to call the goblins to take the baby away, but when they actually do, she realises her responsibility to rescue him. Sarah negotiates the Labyrinth to reach the City of the Goblins and the castle of their king. The king is the only other human in the film and is played by a glam-rocking David Bowie, who performs five of his songs. The rest of the cast are puppets, a wonderful array of Jim Henson's imaginative masterpieces. Henson gives credit to children's author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, and the creatures in the movie will remind Sendak fans of his drawings. The castle of the king is a living MC Escher set that adults will enjoy. The film combines the highest standards of art, costume, and set decoration. [+]
Like executive producer George Lucas's other fantasies, Labyrinth mixes adventure with lessons about growing up. -Lloyd Chesley There are only two human actors in Jim Henson's Labyrinth: a teenage Jennifer Connelly and glam-rocker David Bowie (who performs five of his songs). The rest of the cast are puppets, a wonderful array of Henson's imaginative masterpieces set within a film combining the highest standards of art, costume and set decoration. Henson gives credit to children's author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, and the creatures in the movie will remind Sendak fans of his drawings, while the castle of the Goblin King (Bowie) is a living MC Escher set that adults will enjoy. Like executive producer George Lucas's other fantasies, Labyrinth mixes adventure with lessons about growing up. -Lloyd Chesley.

Review STABLECANE HOME VIDEO / COME NEXT SPRING (VHS) DELETED
Actors & Directors
  • ANN SHERIDAN
  • STEVE COCHRAN
  • R.G. SPRINGSTEEN
Run time: 91 min.

Review COME NEXT SPRING (VHS) DELETED / STABLECANE HOME VIDEO:

Matt Ballot has returned home after 12 years of hard drinking in all 48 states. His wife has managed to raise their 14 year daughter and 12 year old sun nicely without his help. Matt is considered a disgrace to the town he came from and now he finds himself trying to win the love of his children, his wife and the respect of the towns people. Set in Arkansas in the 1920's.

Review Universal Pictures UK / Raymond Briggs' The Snowman
Actors & Directors
  • David Bowie
  • Dianne Jackson
  • Peter Auty
Release date: 2000-11-13
Run time: 26 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £8.47

Review Raymond Briggs' The Snowman / Universal Pictures UK:

Two Raymond Briggs' animated classics, The Snowman and Father Christmas are here sensibly paired for maximum yuletide delight. Based on Briggs's classic children's book and crafted in a coloured-pencils-on-paper look, like fluffy, hand-drawn illustrations, The Snowman is a gentle fable of friendship and the power of imagination. It's the story of a small boy whose lovingly constructed snowman comes to life and takes him flying over the white-blanketed landscapes, in a beautiful rotoscoped (traced) sequence based on live-action flying footage. Part of the charm of the film is the gentle, everyday quality of its fantasy adventures: the snowman is invited in to try on clothes and play with the Christmas decorations, then plays host to the boy at a party in the woods, at which his snowy relatives do country dances. -David Chute In Father Christmas, an irreverent Santa breaks from tradition in many ways. He has no Mrs, owns only four reindeer and decides to convert his sleigh into an airborne motor home for a pre-Christmas holiday. He finds France too snooty, Scotland too cold and Las Vegas just right. Tanned and rested, he returns to the North Pole in time to sort through the mail, pack up the toys and hit the skies. He also narrates his own story (splendidly voiced by Los Angeles stage actor William Dennis Hunt), but fans of the 1973 book will find the animated version far less cranky than the original. Although the book was aimed at children between the ages of 4-8, this may have a wider appeal, depending on how you feel about the children seeing Santa gambling at the casino tables, dreaming of bikini-clad babes and suffering a bout of diarrhoea. [+]
-Kimberly Heinrichs.

Review Children's Video Library / Gobots-Auto Madic
Price: £8.99

Review Gobots-Auto Madic / Children's Video Library:

Auto Madic,Crime Wave,Cold Spell. Running Time 70 Minutes.

Review Walt Disney Home Video / Muppet Treasure Island (1996) (Disney)
Actors & Directors
  • The Muppets
  • Kevin Bishop
  • Brian Henson
  • Tim Curry
  • Jennifer Saunders
  • Billy Connolly
Release date: 1996-11-18
Run time: 95 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.98

Review Muppet Treasure Island (1996) (Disney) / Walt Disney Home Video:

Kids love Muppet Treasure Island, a take on Robert Louis Stevenson's pirate classic, about the pirate Long John Silver (Tim Curry) and his takeover of a ship in order to track down buried treasure. His friend and then nemesis is earnest cabin boy Jim Hawkins (Kevin Bishop), who teams with the captain of the ship (Kermit the Frog) and several shipmates (including Gonzo, Ratso, and Fozzie) to foil Long John's nefarious plot. An odd subplot finds Captain Kermit stopping at a desert island to find his long-lost love (Miss Piggy-who else?). The Muppets have not lost their wild sense of humour, which works on enough levels to amply entertain children and their parents in imaginative fashion. -Marshall Fine Muppet Treasure Island was the fifth big-screen Muppet adventure and the second directed by the late Jim Henson's son Brian. Robert Louis Stevenson's tale has been filmed in a variety of ways, but this is the first to feature a Caribbean cruise for rats, pirates who bemoan their reputations by song and Billy Connolly. The Scottish comic is just about upstaged for high camp larks by Tim Curry, who as Long John Silver is clearly having the best fun since Rocky Horror. Newcomer Kevin Bishop rounds out the human cast, but of course what everyone wants to see is which of the Muppet gang plays which part. Kermit is Captain Smollett, with Fozzie as Squire Trelawney and Miss Piggy as long-lost love Benjamina Gunn, who's held captive by the Zanzibarbarians. All the pirate movie trademarks are to be found: treasure maps, swordfights and the drinking of rum. [+]
But it's in the truly wonderful songs that this version comes alive. "Cabin Fever", "Sailing for Adventure" and "A Professional Pirate" are among the most dazzling pieces of puppet choreography ever attempted by Henson Productions. The subsequent Muppets from Space didn't manage to scale the same heights of hilarity, probably because it dared to reveal where Gonzo came from. So this is definitely the highlight of his and Rizzo's screen career. On the DVD: Muppet Treasure Island includes the excellent 23-minute documentary "The Tale of the Story Beyond the Tale", heavily featuring Gonzo and Rizzo. The comic duo are all over this DVD: in the animated menus, introducing all the extras and featuring in the commentary from director Brian Henson. Between all these additional features there's plenty of new (and old) jokes as well as amazing insights into the technical wizardry at work. We also learn this movie featured the very first CGI Muppet (surely a contradiction in terms?) The movie hasn't arrived in the most pristine of transfers, but even in the sing-along feature for a couple of the best songs, the sound is still excellent. -Paul Tonks.

Review 2 Entertain Video / Postman Pat's Favourites
Actors & Directors
  • Postman Pat
Release date: 2000-10-02
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £11.65

Review Postman Pat's Favourites / 2 Entertain Video:


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Models & Brands:
Muppet Babies - The Next Generation [2000], The Magician's House - Series 2 [2000], Clouds, The Magician's House - Series 1 [1999], Pokemon TV Series - Vol. 1 - I Choose You! Pikachu! [1997], Noddy In Toyland - Noddy And Friends, Famous Five - Five Go To Demon's Rock [1983], The Simpsons Collection - Dancin' Homer / Old Money [1994], Edward And Mrs Simpson [1978], Home Alone 2 - Lost In New York [1992], Woof! The Tale Wags On [1991], Playdays - Animated Alphabet [1988], Kes [1969], Thomas The Tank Engine And Friends - Rock 'n' Roll And Other Stories [1994], Labyrinth, COME NEXT SPRING (VHS) DELETED, Raymond Briggs' The Snowman, Gobots-Auto Madic, Muppet Treasure Island (1996) (Disney), Postman Pat's Favourites

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