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| Treasury of 100 Storybook Classics |
| Written by Lex Walker | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Saturday, 31 October 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Curious George. Harold and the Purple Crayon. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. Classics each and every one. Call it a babysitter in a box or call it a great tool for educating your children, either way what we have on our hands here is 19 hours of story books new and old converted to a digital medium. Some of these genuinely are treasures reincarnated in an animated medium while others are newer stories that have yet to prove their heirloom mettle. However, your average tot won’t care as much about the legacy of a given story as they will about the presentation. A majority of the stories found on these 16 discs have received the full animation treatment from the humble illustration origins, but there are a few in the collection which are little more than scans of the pages being panned over by the camera. Depending on the age of your child the two different styles will entertain accordingly. What makes the collection worthwhile for the parent with a mind for educating their youth is the feature which on any other film might be more annoying than meaningful: the subtitle. With these stories the subtitles provide a read-along interaction that allows each cartoon to simultaneously entertain and teach; for most parents that’s a dream come true. Turning to the babysitter in a box approach, each disc features a “play all” button (awesome) which allows the parent who needs an hour of peace to flip it on and let the stories enrapture the child. While not the most responsible way to parent the box affords the possibility to the parent – maybe in better occasions like road trips or airport treks. As an odd bonus, when the set says “100 Storybook Classics” it’s misleading the casual consumer – but in a good way for some. In fact, the set is 100 stories with ten of them translated into Spanish (making the grand “total” 110). Additionally, and this will be more of a bonus for the adults, a few actors have lent their voices to the narration including Andy Richter, Michael McKean, Danny Glover, Patrick Stewart, Randy Travis, Hank Azaria, Helen Hunt, Tim Curry, Meryl Streep, Sarah Jessica Parker, John Lithgow, David de Vries, James Earl Jones and Chevy Chase. Before we undertake the grand task of listing each story in the set, there is a minor issue to be considered. No restoration or remastering has been performed on the cartoons meaning some of them definitely show that they haven’t been touched up since originally being created. The stories whose pages were just scanned and not animated are the biggest culprits on this front. When the set says “100 Storybook Classics” it’s misleading the casual consumer. In fact, the set is 100 stories with ten of them translated into Spanish (making the grand “total” 100). The stories: Alligators All Around The Amazing Bone Angus and the Ducks Angus Lost Apt. 3 Arnie the Doughnut The Beast of Monsieur Racine Cat and Canary The Caterpillar and the Polliwog Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Chicken Little Chicken Soup with Rice Chrysanthemum Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type The Cow who Fell in the Canal Curious George Rides a Bike Danny and the Dinosaur Diary of a Spider Dinosaur Bones Dot the Fire Dog Drummer Hoff The Elves and the Shoemaker Emily’s First 100 Days of School Five Chinese Brothers Five Creatures The Foolish Frog Fourteen Rats and a Rat Catcher Frog Goes to Dinner The Great White Man-Eating Shark Harold and the Purple Crayon Harold's Fairy Tale Harry the Dirty Dog Here Comes the Cat! Hondo & Fabian Hot Hippo How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? How do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? How Much is a Million? I Stink! I Want a Dog! I, Crocodile If You Made a Million In the Night Kitchen Inch by Inch The Island of the Skog Let’s Give Kitty a Bath! A Letter to Amy Lon Po Po Make Way for Ducklings Max’s Words Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel Millions of Cats Moon Man Mouse Around The Mysterious Tadpole No Roses for Harry Norman the Doorman Officer Buckle & Gloria One Was Johnny Owen Pet Show! Peter's Chair Pete’s a Pizza A Picture for Harold's Room Pierre Princess Furball Rapunzel The Remarkable Riderless Runaway Tricycle Roberto the Insect Architect The Snowy Day Stanley and the Dinosaurs Stars! Stars! Stars! The Stonecutter A Story—A Story The Story About Ping The Story of the Dancing Frog Strega Nona The Swineherd Sylvester and the Magic Pebble T is for Terrible The Talking Eggs Teeny-Tiny and the Witch-Woman Time of Wonder The Three Billy Goats Gruff Trashy Town The Trip The Ugly Duckling Waiting for Wings Wallace’s Lists A Weekend for Wendell What’s Under My Bed Where the Whild Things are Whistle for Willie Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears Wild About Books Wings: A Tale of Two Chickens The Wizard DVD Bonus Features Well, to be fair, about a quarter of the stories in the list above are considered by Scholastic to be “extra” despite being part of the 100 story collection. If any real extras are to be had at all, it’s the French version of Where the Wild Things Are, the interview with Maurice Sendak (included in the separate DVD release for the Where the Wild Things Are…and 5 more stories by Maurice Sendak) and two paper copies of an activity booklet. The latter is somewhat minor and will maybe keep the kids occupied for an additional half hour; otherwise the entire set is really the prize. |
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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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Lex Walker
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