This twenty-seven minute DVD illustrates Mary, Joseph and the twelve year old Jesus going to the temple for Passover. (Luke 2:42-2:52) The young Jesus is carrying a young lamb and Mary and Joseph shopping around and haggling for a clay pot and some bundles of wood. The family present their offering (no blood is shown) and Jesus impresses rabbi's with his knowledge of the law and wisdom. As Mary and Joseph are packing up to leave they discover that Jesus is not with them and assume that he's with his cousins. When they discover otherwise, they search all of Jerusalem only to find him at the temple doing his Father's work. As a parent I'm impressed with their attitudes and grace as I would have been an angry and emotional wreck.

As the movie progresses it has some beautiful singing and shows Jesus growing older and preparing for his Father's work. They depict Jesus comforting Mary after Joseph’s passing (but never show any children between Mary and Joseph as mentioned in Matt 13:55). The orchestral music is very emotional and tugs at your heart strings a bit. The voice acting is pretty solid and has aged well. While you can tell the animation is older, it still looks decent. Some of the artists that made this movie used to work for Disney and I can recognize some artistic similarities. My children enjoyed this video and I highly recommend it for children of all ages.

This video was sent to us from Nest Entertainment and is available for purchase at their website for $15.95 (retail price is $29.95). You can download a free activity book to accompany the DVD from their site as well.   

Episode List:

• Mean Isn't Your Color
• Russel Up Some Fun
• Eve of Destruction
• Frenemies
• Summertime Blues

This DVD collection features five episodes, a sing-along, a Zoe toy and collector card, all for the reasonable price of less than $15. Each episode is around twenty minutes long and they are entertaining, informative and teach some good lessons. One of the episodes has Blythe coming to grips

with the concept of her father starting to date. Other episodes encourage teamwork, getting along, expressing, believing in and being yourself. Not every message is a positive one though. There's a bonus sing-along to the song Fun Being Fun. While it is silly, it's promoting rebellion.

For the most part this show is family friendly and isn't obnoxiously girly. All of my kids (including my son) enjoyed this DVD and went back and watched Petacular Escapades after finishing this one. There's plenty of humor and the pets each have their own personalities and quirks. If your children like the toys or TV series, this is a worthy addition to your DVD collection.

Mary Poppins is a timeless classic that reminds parents not to get too caught up in their jobs and ambitions and to spend some quality time with their children.  The movie begins as the Banks family is losing yet another nanny and they inadvertently place two advertisements for a replacement.  The children's advertisement draws the attention of the ideal nanny Mary Poppins and her competition is literally blown away.  Mary Poppins is polite yet stern and practically perfect in every way.  She treats the kids to whimsical adventures and brings the family closer together.  

This is the first time the movie has been released on Blu-ray and it comes bundled with a DVD and a digital copy so you can play it on many devices.  There are tons of extras including behind the scenes footage of the movie Saving Mr. Banks which tells the true story of the twenty year journey to make the Mary Poppins movie a reality.  

We had the 40th anniversary DVD and were glad to see all of the special features including the making of documentary were still included in this edition.  In addition to those features, there's a Mary-Oke Sing Along that features many song favorites including Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Chim Chim Cher-ee.  While the text effects are nice, they are hard to follow so knowledge of the lyrics is still pretty much a given. 

The special effects in the movie still hold up well to today's standards.  I honestly can't see much improvement in the video quality, but this movie still has its charm.  My whole family loves Mary Poppins and I highly recommend adding it to your collection if you haven't already. 

This is the final action packed season of Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters. This season starts off with the Autobots scattered and badly damaged after losing their base to the Megatrons. Can they unite and defeat the Megatrons, Predacons and Insecticons? Not only do they have to save earth, but Cybertron is in danger as well. There are thirteen episodes in total which offers nearly five hours of robotic smashing fun. There is plenty of violence and robotic experimentation going on, and this show is best suited for grade school boys. My kindergartner son was sort of interested in this show, but his older cousin loved it. After you finish watching this season, make sure you check out the finale Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising. You won't be sorry!

The main show on this nearly two-hour DVD is about Mickey and his Friends being granted super powers to transform their town back to normal after Power-Pants Pete shrinks everything.  With the help of each other, the mouseketools, and input from your child, they can conquer any obstacle!  I expected my five year old son to be comfortable with talking back to the television, but I was surprised to see my seven and nine year old daughters chiming in as well.  In fact, they asked to watch it multiple times.  My kids love all four episodes on this disc.  The included trading cards are a nice bonus too! 

I remember seeing this movie when it first came out in 1989.  My cousin owned the VHS copy with the controversial cover art and we watched and enjoyed it many times.  The story remains unchanged and is about a teen-aged mermaid that's in love with the outside world and a prince whom she rescued.  Despite her father's orders, she makes a deal with a witch to exchange her voice for some legs and must woo him in three days or be turned into a hideous sea creature.  There's plenty of humor to be seen as Ariel tries to understand the outside world.  Her crab friend Sebastian is close to her side and sings some pretty catchy tunes including the popular "Under the Sea" and "Kiss the Girl".    I like how the Diamond Edition includes a "Crab-E-Oke" sing along when ever the movie is paused for the inevitable potty breaks.  The voice for Sebastian is different but sounds close enough.  Another new extra is Carly Rae Jepson's music video and rendition of "Part of Your World".  All of the previous DVD extras are bundled in as well.  The video quality has been further restored compared to the 2006 platinum DVD copy we own and the 7.1 speaker support is another welcome feature. For those who have not owned the Little Mermaid in disc format, this is a worthy purchase.   

All of my kids, including my son enjoyed this five episode DVD collection.  While my kids are too young to understand crushes and how embarrassing parents can be to teenagers, they still enjoyed the silly slapstick humor.   The first episode focuses on Sunil's psychic abilities to help Blythe reunite with her crush to give him his keys back. The rest of the episodes were harmless and taught lessons like being yourself and not envying another's person's life/blessings over your own.  

My son was excited that we finally got a sent a boy friendly bluray to review.  While he has not seen the Transformers TV show or movies, my husband and I are familiar with the movies.  We were happy to hear the familiar voice of Optimus Prime once again.  This movie introduces some new enemies that are threatening Cyberton and the autobots.  An alliance is formed between the Autobots, Decepticons and the Predacons to defeat the risen Zombicon army. There's plenty of action and clashing metal.  In the end, some tough decisions have to be made and a valuable lesson of self sacrifice is learned.  Any Transfromers fan will not want to miss out on seeing this finale.    

Disney princesses have been inspiring girls for a long time with their radiant beauty and grace.  Sofia has humble beginnings and is adopted into a royal family.  She wears a magical amulet that enables her to talk to animals.  While we can't relate to speaking with animals, we can understand Sofia's insecurities and we can learn many valuable lessons from her.  The Ready To Be A Princess collection has five episodes that teach lessons about lying, gossiping, keeping promises, kindness and overcoming your fears.  As a parent this is my favorite princess and my kids enjoyed the show as well.

This was my family's first time watching the cartoon series Regular Show.  Rigby the Hyperactive raccoon and Mordecai a six-foot tall blue jay, are grounds keepers at a park and find their jobs incredibly dull.  They'll often make up games like roadkill bingo to make it fun or avoid their work altogether. Since this is a Halloween themed collection, there are many scary stories shared like the one about a possessed ventriloquist doll that desires to draw on it's owner's face.  My kids were more entertained than scared so I didn't have to worry about them getting nightmares or anything.  My kids now walk around jinxing themselves, fortunately without actually punching each other when they speak.  Like many cartoons there is violence and since this is a fright pack, references to zombies and the undead are plentiful.  When it comes to language there is one instance of "friggin" and one of the characters says "What the H!" without completing the word. Overall my family enjoyed this 176 minute bundle.  While the retail price is $19.82 I have seen it selling for $11 or less.    

The buddies are back and this time they're in for a galactic adventure!  While my family hasn't seen the previous Disney Buddies movies, my kids quickly fell in love with the talking puppies.   The movie begins with Budderball's owner, Bartleby, celebrating his 12th birthday with his friends and grandfather (John Ratzenberger).  While on a treasure hunt, the puppies stumble upon some rings that give them mysterious powers - Eerily similar to some rings mentioned in the Captain Canine comics.  Could this series be based on actual events? Real or not, the puppies learn some very important lessons including helping those in need despite how you feel about them, and that you don't need super powers to be a hero.  While those lessons are praise worthy, Super Buddies does portray the town's sheriff as a bumbling fool and there are some references to Buddhism.  There is plenty of humor and silliness that my kids enjoyed and the action kept them at the edge of their seats.  While I found the movie a bit over the top, my kids enjoyed it quite a bit.  I guess we'll have to catch up on the previous Buddies movies we've missed.    

While most Christian films are low budget and show it, Red Line has great special effects, actors and is quite the thrill ride.  Unlike other Christian films, this movie is not preachy or tacky.  While it does praise virtue, the message it's trying to share is the insecurity of today's subway systems.  Red Line is about a terrorist attack on a subway that blasts apart a train taking many lives in the explosion and impact.  The survivors are left to fend for themselves and doubt each other's intentions when they realize that the bomber is among them.    I'd say more, but I don't want to spoil anything.  This is a movie you have to experience for yourself.

http://www.redlinethefilm.com/

However...my two daughters really enjoyed My Little Pony Equestria Girls. The story teaches about the power of friendship as Twilight Sparkle ventures out to a new world and tries to reclaim her crown that was stolen from her in the Crystal Empire. The humor is good as Twilight Sparkle tries to adjust to becoming a human and fitting into a new school with human like versions of her pony friends. There's plenty of singing and dancing with catchy pop music and the voice acting is well done. The artwork is similar to the cartoon series which I'm sure my daughters will now want to see more of. If you have girls, they'll love this movie.

I was recently sent a BluRay of The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec

While I'm not familiar with the books that this movie is based on, it does make me curious about them. Instead of introducing the main character (or plot) right away the movie starts off slowly by introducing the supporting characters and their roles in this early 1900's adventure. The special effects and visuals are top notch though I find many of the characters have exaggerated features. The audio is a mixed bag with the obvious dubbing and the narrators volume should have been normalized to make it blend in with the movie a bit more. The background music is enchanting and makes me wish I could understand the French lyrics. The voice acting is good and the English translation is spot on with swearing and all. The movie is rated PG and has some (fully clothed) passionate scenes and violence. Younger kids may get frightened with the walking and talking mummies, but those were the highlight of the film.