LEGO Ninjago: Rise Of The Green Ninja, First 7
Episodes From Season 2 (Masters Of Spinjitzu/Warner DVD)/SpongeBob Squarepants: Extreme Kah-Rah-Tay
(Nickelodeon DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Episodes: C+
Even with
the martial arts trend played out, there are still titles being released,
including these amusing children’s titles that happen to be arriving within
weeks of each other…
First we
have LEGO Ninjago: Rise Of The Green
Ninja, First 7 Episodes From Season 2 (Warner DVD) which is a simple,
amusing, child-safe enough computer animated TV series that is part of a small
cycle of programming connected to the enduring toy line that some feel may be
robbing children of its imagination potential, but I don’t think a few shows or
video games are going to harm the line and as long as they are of enough
quality and the company does not overdo things, it is fine.
Even
though I had not seen previous episodes, the teleplays are very simple and aimed
at young limited attention spans that it is just enough without being too
intense for young viewers. Some may be a
bit disappointed by the limited animation, but that is the point;
simplicity. Not my favorite variant of
the toys in action, it has some fans and more titles are inevitably due in this
series. For more on animated LEGO
programs, try our coverage of the Hero
Factory: Savage Planet DVD at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11260/LEGO+Hero+Factory:+Savage+Planet
With more
laughs is SpongeBob Squarepants: Extreme
Kah-Rah-Tay featuring eight related episodes of the big hit Nickelodeon TV
show. This includes an extreme sports
send up and a spoof of the Guinness Book of World Records. One of the more handy singles, even the cover
is amusing and if you have aggressive and/or hyper children, this might be a
nice distraction.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on both DVDs, plus select SpongeBob programs in 1.33 X 1 look
pretty good for the format, though they can have softness in places and the
latter has better color than the former.
The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on LEGO
and lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix on SpongeBob
are all professionally recorded, but LEGO
is barely better than SpongeBob
because the surrounds are not engaged very much, but I did not expect that to
be so since it is for young children and fans of the toyline.
There are
no extras on either release.
- Nicholas Sheffo