Review, buy Family Favourites: Wind In The Willows - Lord Toad And Other Stories [1987], Care Bears - The Gift Of Caring [1987], Bananas In Pyjamas - Show Business, Flubber [1998], Rainbow: Sing Song And Other Stories [1991], Rosie And Jim - Learn To Read And Write With Rosie And Jim - Stories And Rhymes, Denver The Last Dinosaur - Bumper Pack, Care Bears - Vol. 3, Care Bears - Home Sweet Homeless / Sleeping Giant, Rosie And Jim - Learn To Read And Write With Rosie And Jim - Games And Songs, Oliver Twist [1948], Care Bears - Over The Rainbow [1987], The Fiddley Foodle Bird [1991], Free Willy / Free Willy 2 [1995], Jimbo And The Jet Set 1 [1987], Adventures Of Tintin - Tintin And The Broken Ear, Adventures Of Tintin - Red Rackham's Treasure, Care Bears - The Cloud Of Uncaring / Big Star Roundup, Zorro, California Raisins

Disney couldn't resist the temptation to remake 1961's popular comedy The Absent Minded Professor, so they cast Robin Williams as Professor Philip Brainard (a role vaguely related to the character originated by Fred MacMurray), and the result is a comedy that, frankly, doesn't fully deserve its modest success. It's admittedly clever to a point, and certainly the digitally flubberised special effects provide the kind of movie magic that's entertaining for children and adults alike. The professor can't even remember his own wedding day (much to the chagrin of his fiancée, played by Marcia Gay Harden), and now his academic rival (Christopher McDonald) is trying to steal his latest and purely accidental invention-flying rubber, or. flubber. The green goo magnifies energy and can be used as an amazing source of power, but in the hands of screenwriter John Hughes it becomes just another excuse to recycle a lot of Home Alone-style slapstick humour involving a pair of bumbling would-be flubber thieves. There's also a floating robot named Weebo and some catchy music by Danny Elfman to accompany dancing globs of flubber, but the story's too thin to add up to anything special. Lightweight fun, but, given the title, it lacks a certain bounce. Of course, that didn't stop Disney's marketing wizards from turning it into a home video hit. [+]

-Jeff Shannon Disney couldn't resist the temptation to remake 1961's popular comedy The Absent Minded Professor, so they cast Robin Williams as Professor Philip Brainard (a role vaguely related to the character originated by Fred MacMurray), and the result is a comedy that, frankly, doesn't fully deserve its modest success. It's admittedly clever to a point, and certainly the digitally "flubberized" special effects provide the kind of movie magic that's entertaining for kids and parents alike. The professor can't even remember his own wedding day (much to the chagrin of his fiancée, played by Marcia Gay Harden), and now his academic rival (Christopher McDonald) is trying to steal his latest and purely accidental invention-flying rubber, or. Flubber. The green goo magnifies energy and can be used as an amazing source of power, but in the hands of screenwriter John Hughes it becomes just another excuse to recycle a lot of Home Alone-style slapstick humor involving a pair of bumbling would-be flubber thieves. There's also a floating robot named Weebo and some catchy music by Danny Elfman to accompany dancing globs of flubber, but the story's too thin to add up to anything special. Lightweight fun, but, given the title, it lacks a certain bounce. Of course, that didn't stop Disney's marketing wizards from turning it into a home-video hit.

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Rainbow: Sing Song And Other Stories [1991] (Thames Video)

Actors & Directors

Zippy
Bungle

Run time: 60 min.
Price: £9.99

Review Rainbow: Sing Song And Other Stories [1991] / Thames Video:

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Rosie And Jim - Learn To Read And Write With Rosie And Jim - Stories And Rhymes (2 Entertain Video)

Actors & Directors

Rosie And Jim

Run time: 53 min.
RRP: ~~£9.99~~
Price: £24.99

Review Rosie And Jim - Learn To Read And Write With Rosie And Jim - Stories And Rhymes / 2 Entertain Video:

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Denver The Last Dinosaur - Bumper Pack (Video Gems (Defunct))

Actors & Directors

Townsend Coleman
Cam Clarke
Adam Carl
Jack Angel
Pat Fraley

Release date: 1992-05-05
Run time: 184 min.
Creator: Peter Keefe
Price: £9.99

Review Denver The Last Dinosaur - Bumper Pack / Video Gems (Defunct):

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Care Bears - Vol. 3 (2 Entertain Video)

Actors & Directors

Marla Lukofsky
Stevie Vallance
Linda Sorenson
Terri Hawkes
Terry Sears

Run time: 45 min.
Creator: Jack Olesker
RRP: ~~£9.99~~
Price: £24.99

Review Care Bears - Vol. 3 / 2 Entertain Video:

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Care Bears - Home Sweet Homeless / Sleeping Giant (Vision Video Ltd.)

Actors & Directors

Terry Sears
Marla Lukofsky
Linda Sorenson
Terri Hawkes
Stevie Vallance

Release date: 1991-10-07
Run time: 94 min.
Creator: Jack Olesker
RRP: ~~£10.99~~
Price: £12.99

Review Care Bears - Home Sweet Homeless / Sleeping Giant / Vision Video Ltd.:

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Rosie And Jim - Learn To Read And Write With Rosie And Jim - Games And Songs (2 Entertain Video)

Actors & Directors

Rosie And Jim

Run time: 52 min.
RRP: ~~£9.99~~
Price: £6.49

Review Rosie And Jim - Learn To Read And Write With Rosie And Jim - Games And Songs / 2 Entertain Video:

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Oliver Twist [1948] (ITV DVD)

Actors & Directors

Robert Newton
David Lean
Alec Guinness
Francis L. Sullivan
John Howard Davies
Kay Walsh

Release date: 2001-10-29
Run time: 136 min.
Creator: Stanley Haynes
RRP: ~~£10.99~~
Price: £14.04

Review Oliver Twist [1948] / ITV DVD:

There have been many film and TV adaptations of Oliver Twist but this 1948 production from director David Lean remains the definitive screen interpretation of the Charles Dickens classic. From the ominous symbolism of its opening storm sequence (in which Oliver's pregnant, ill-fated mother struggles to reach shelter before childbirth) to the mob-scene climax that provokes Bill Sikes's dreadful comeuppance, this breathtaking black-and-white film remains loyal to Dickens while distilling the story into its purest cinematic essence. Every detail is perfect-Lean even includes a coffin-shaped snuffbox for the cruel Mr. Sowerberry-and as young Oliver, eight-year-old John Howard Davies (who would later produce Monty Python's Flying Circus for the BBC) perfectly expresses the orphan's boyish wonderment, stern determination and waifish vulnerability. Best of all is Alec Guinness as Fagin, so devious and yet so delightfully appealing under his beak-nosed (and, at the time, highly controversial) make-up. (Many complained that Fagin's huge nose and greedy demeanour presented an anti-Semitic stereotype, even though Lean never identifies Fagin as Jewish; for this reason, the film wasn't shown in the US until three years after its British release. ) Likewise, young Anthony Newley is artfully dodgy as Fagin's loyal accomplice, the Artful Dodger. Guinness's performance would later provide strong inspiration for Ron Moody's equally splendid portrayal of Fagin in the Oscar-winning Oliver! and while that 1968 musical remains wonderfully entertaining, it is Lean's film that hews closest to Dickens' vision. The authentic recreation of 19th-century London is marvellous to behold; Guy Green's cinematography is so shadowy and stylised that it almost qualifies as Dickensian film noir. Lean is surprisingly blunt in conveying Dickens's theme of cruelty but his film never loses sight of the warmth and humanity that Oliver embodies. [+]

-Jeff Shannon An astonishingly good David Lean double-bill featuring his two Dickensian adaptations, Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), this is a reminder that cinema does not necessarily have to debase its literary sources, sometimes it can enhance them. Lean's painterly eye for evocative locations-be they windswept marshes or bustling London streets-provides the backdrop, but his focus on smaller details-the ominous tree in the graveyard with its almost human face, the reaction of Bill Sikes' dog to Nancy's murder-adds the vital ingredient that brings both place and character to life. Starring a youthful John Mills as Pip, Lean's Great Expectations is an unadulterated delight, a serendipitous gelling of screenplay, direction, cinematography and acting that produces an almost perfect film. The cast is exemplary, with Alec Guinness in his first (official) role as Pip's loyal pal Herbert Pocket; Martita Hunt is a cadaverous Miss Havisham; Finlay Currie transforms himself from truly threatening to entirely sympathetic as Magwitch; while the young Jean Simmons makes more of an impact as the girl Estella than Valerie Hobson does as the older incarnation. Perhaps best of all, though, is Francis Sullivan as the pragmatic but kindly attorney Jaggers. The cinematography alone (courtesy of Guy Green) would qualify Oliver Twist as a classic: the opening sequence of a lone woman struggling through the storm is an indelible cinematic image. Fortunately, Lean's film has many more aces up its sleeve thereafter, notably Alec Guinness' grotesque Fagin-a caricature certainly, but a three-dimensional one-and Robert Newton's utterly pitiless Bill Sikes. The skewed angles and unsettling chiaroscuro lighting transform London itself into another threatening character. -Mark Walker.

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Care Bears - Over The Rainbow [1987] (Abbey Home Media)

Actors & Directors

Linda Sorenson
Stevie Vallance
Terry Sears
Marla Lukofsky
Terri Hawkes

Run time: 66 min.
Creator: Jack Olesker
Price: £8.99

Review Care Bears - Over The Rainbow [1987] / Abbey Home Media:

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Review 4 Front Video / The Fiddley Foodle Bird [1991]

The Fiddley Foodle Bird [1991] (4 Front Video)

Actors & Directors

The Fiddley Foodle Bird

Release date: 1994-07-25
Run time: 60 min.
Price: £4.99

Review The Fiddley Foodle Bird [1991] / 4 Front Video:

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Review Warner Home Video / Free Willy / Free Willy 2 [1995]

Free Willy / Free Willy 2 [1995] (Warner Home Video)

Actors & Directors

Jason James Richter
Jayne Atkinson
Keiko
Dwight H. Little
Michael Madsen
Simon Wincer
Lori Petty

Release date: 1998-08-10
Run time: 200 min.
Creator: Keith Walker
Price: £14.99

Review Free Willy / Free Willy 2 [1995] / Warner Home Video:

Free Willy Some of us will never understand why this boy-and-his-whale tale became the hit family film of 1993 and one of the bestselling videos of all time. But it is easy to see how clever marketing and a tear-jerking story could touch the hearts of kids and parents the world over, especially because the endangered Orca whale named Willy is such a majestic creature. The story couldn't be more conventional but as the boy who comes to Willy's aid against the whale's exploitative owner, young Jason James Richter gives an appealing performance with which children can readily identify. After two sequels and an animated television series, this popular film also had a happy real-life ending: Keiko the whale (who plays Willy) recovered from failing health and was gradually trained to survive outside of captivity. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com. Free Willy 2 Psst: don't tell anybody, but this time the whale and all of his whale pals and relatives, are either computer-generated images or old-fashioned miniatures (models). The humans in this film are reasonably real, however, including Jason James Richter, returning to his role as the former delinquent whose advocacy for an imprisoned Orca whale turned his life around in Free Willy. You may recall that Willy jumped the aquarium fence, so to speak, at the end of that 1993 family film and regrouped in open seas with the pod from which he had been cruelly snatched. This 1995 sequel again finds Willy in trouble at the hands of the civilised world, this time due to an oil slick and explosion that may very well kill him or cause him to be locked away again. [+]

Meanwhile, Richter's growing character has other problems, including a troublesome half-brother and the rumblings of puppy love. One way in which this film is superior to its predecessor is a greater range of visual opportunities, namely shooting out on the ocean instead of in the whale hero's old tank. Of course, it helps that master cinematographer László Kovács (Five Easy Pieces) is behind the camera. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.

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