Madeline’s Christmas & Other Wintery Tales (Shout! Factory Kids DVD) + Ni Hao, Kai-Lan – Princess Kai-Lan (Nickelodeon DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D/C- Episodes: C+
Two of
the most child-friendly animated TV series, especially for young girls have new
single DVDs arriving at about the same time.
Both are pretty much what we have seen from both respective series, but
they are at least consistent. First we
get Madeline’s Christmas & Other
Wintery Tales (yes, the word wintry is misspelled no the cover and
otherwise) delivering five adventures with a holiday theme tying them
together. This is not much different
than what the Halloween DVD offered and is just fine, but the fact that there
are no extras is unfortunate.
Ni Hao, Kai-Lan delivers three more adventures
including Princess Kai-Lan, the
title of the main show in which our heroine goes to another dimension and
suddenly becomes royalty. Like Madeline,
it is very amusing how these things just simply “happen” in their respective
worlds, though Kai-Lan has special magical powers that Madeline does not
have. Still, they both have charm and
deserve the sustained success they have been having since the beginning. A “Walking
On Sunshine” Music Video is only extra.
The 1.33
X 1 image and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo are the same on both DVDs, exactly like
their predecessors with some flaws and limits, but professional enough and
clean enough to enjoy. These shows (in
comparison to each other and installments in their own series) are not formulaic
and interchangeable, but they do follow certain guidelines with enough room for
new ideas to be introduced.
- Nicholas Sheffo
