Dora The
Explorer – Dora’s Slumber Party + Max & Ruby – Everybunny Loves Winter
+ SpongeBob Squarepants – 10 Happiest
Moments (Nickelodeon DVDs) + Fraggle
Rock – Scared Silly (Jim Henson/Lionsgate DVD)
Picture: C+ Sound:
C+ Extras: C (D on Max)
Episodes: C+
The latest round of children’s DVD singles we want to look
at are from two different companies and sensibilities. Three come from Nickelodeon and involve three
of their animated series, while the other is a Jim Henson Muppet production
that shows different sensibilities in approaching children’s entertainment.
Dora The Explorer –
Dora’s Slumber Party
is the only one of the animated shows that talk directly to the audience
throughout its six episodes, which is the idea of breaking the fourth wall to
encourage child viewers to directly participate, something we get to a lesser
extent on and only on Fraggle Rock –
Scared Silly, their Halloween entry with three related episodes. Fraggle
is further away from Sesame Street
than Dora, but both are meant to
entertain and enrich the viewer.
That leaves Max
& Ruby – Everybunny Loves Winter and SpongeBob Squarepants – 10 Happiest Moments, which are more
traditional in approach (watch and get lost in the stories of the other characters)
and are just as effective in taking that approach. The SpongeBob
disc is essentially a best of set, while Max
is a charming, basic DVD with 12 adventures in four episodes that work as well
as anything here.
That I did not dislike any of them says something about
their quality, though Fraggle never
totally worked for me and all are hits.
Adult collectors want whole season box sets, but little hands can only
hold so much so these singles will continue to be produced no matter what.
The 1.33 X 1 image has some aliasing errors and smaller
flaws in each set, but all look good enough for the format and Fraggle is the only one definitely
produced in low definition NTSC analog videotape. Each also has Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and
they all sound just fine, no matter what their age. All but Max
have extras, including bonus episodes of other shows in the case of SpongeBob (the Help Wanted pilot) and Fraggle
(an animated Fraggle installment and
Henson’s Animal Show episode), with Fraggle adding a sing-a-long and Dora
only offering more teaching extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
