Posted on July 5, 2010 at 8:00 am
Just in time for summer vacation, Front Row Fun has a free download of more than three hours of selections from children’s programming including Sid the Science Kid, Pocoyo, Hopla, Hermie and Friends, Hurray for Huckle, WordWorld, Will & Dewitt, Animal Atlas, Tiny Planets and Dive Olly Dive. It can be played on For PC, Mac, DVD Player, or PlayStation 3.
Posted on July 2, 2010 at 3:59 pm
Gareth Malone is a choir director who brings music to people who never thought they could be a part of something so purely glorious. This award-winning series comes to American television on July 7. Guaranteed to produce laughter, goosebumps, and a couple of tears, and very likely to inspire you to try some singing, too.
Posted on July 1, 2010 at 3:51 pm
I’ve got something very special for the first teacher to write me — directions below. At the American Library Association’s annual conference in Washington DC last weekend I attended a reception in honor of The Cat in the Hat and his new television series about science for PBS, starting this fall. 
Dr. Seuss revolutionized books for early readers with his riotously entertaining stories, classics that are beloved by generations like The Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, The Lorax, Yertle the Turtle, Horton Hears a Who, and many more. Now, in partnership with PBS, The Cat in the Hat will help preschoolers and early readers learn about science. The Cat’s voice will be provided by the perfectly appropriate Martin Short. He will guide best friends Sally and Nick through stories that will teach children vocabulary, science facts, and the fun of curiosity. And he will have help, of course, from Thing One and Thing Two, the red Fish, and a Thinga-ma-jigger vehicle that adapts to become whatever transportation the group needs to explore the world. PBS will make resources available for parents and educators to provide support, encouragement, and coordinate with curriculum.
I have a beautiful Cat in the Hat canvas tote bag with two Dr. Seuss science books and some information about the show to give to the first PreK-1st Grade teacher who writes to me at moviemom@moviemom.com to tell me your favorite Dr. Seuss character and why. Good luck and thanks for all you do for your students and their families!
Posted on June 28, 2010 at 8:00 am
A| Lowest Recommended Age: | 4th - 6th Grades |
| MPAA Rating: | PG |
| Profanity: | Colonial oaths |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking, smoking |
| Violence/ Scariness: | References to battles |
| Diversity Issues: | A theme of the movie |
| Date Released to Theaters: | 1972 |
Happy Independence Day!
This rousing musical about the Declaration of Independence makes the Founding Fathers vivid, human, and interesting characters, and is so involving that you almost forget that you already know how it all turned out. William Daniels is the “obnoxious and disliked” John Adams, Ken Howard is Thomas Jefferson, who would rather be with his wife than work on the Declaration, and Howard da Silva is a wry and witty Benjamin Franklin. As they debate independence, we see the courage that went into the birth of the United States, and as they compromise with the South to permit slavery in the brand-new country we see the tragedy. Outstanding family entertainment.
Posted on June 21, 2010 at 3:23 pm
A| Lowest Recommended Age: | All Ages |
| MPAA Rating: | G |
| Profanity: | None |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Alcohol at festival, god of wine |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Characters in peril, scary monster, dinosaurs die out |
| Diversity Issues: | None |
| Date Released to Theaters: | 1940 |
| Date Released to DVD: | 2010 |
| Amazon.com ASIN: | B0040QTNSK |
Disney’s glorious “Fantasia” and its sequel, “Fantasia 2000” are out for a limited time in a spectacular 4-DVD blu-ray package.
Considered a failure on its original release, “Fantasia’s” eight-part combination of images and music is now indisputably a classic. Musicologist Deems Taylor explains that there are three kinds of music: music that paints a picture, music that tells a story, and “absolute music,” or music for music’s sake, and then shows us all three. Highlights include Mickey Mouse as The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, whose plan to save himself from a little work by enchanting a broom to carry the buckets of water gets out of control, the Nutcracker Suite’s forest moving from fall into winter (with the adorable mushroom doing the Chinese Dance), Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, with characters from Greek mythology celebrating at a festival and seeking shelter from a storm, and the Dance of the Hours, with ostrich and hippo ballerinas dancing with gallant (if overburdened) crocodiles.
It concludes with the scary Night on Bald Mountain followed by the dawn’s Ave Maria. The movie is perfect for blu-ray — it’s as though we can finally see the colors the way the artists could only dream of. The flying Pegasus family soars through the sky, the thistles kick like Cossacks to the Russian dance, the dinosaurs lumber to the Rite of Spring. This is one of the greatest movies in cinematic history, groundbreaking and timeless.
And there’s more. Disney planned another musical segment designed by famous surrealist artist Salvador Dali, who came out to the Disney studio for eight months to work on it. But it was canceled due to financial setbacks at the company at the time, and Disney always regretted that it was not completed. It has become a legend, much speculated about and sought after. This splendid set includes Destino, with Roy Disney at long last completing Dali’s original vision, 58 years after he began it.
Roy Disney also supervised “Fantasia 2000,” the sequel, which includes a charming Al Hirschfeld-inspired Manhattan saga set to George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and a wildly funny flamingo/yo-yo mix-up (more like a pile-up) to the music of Saint-Seans.
Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 
