Chuggington:
Brewster Leads The Way
(w/Toy Train/2013/Anchor Bay DVD)/The
Courtship Of Eddie's Father: The Complete Third Season
(1971 - 1972/MGM/Warner Archive DVD Set)/LEGO
Chima: The Lion, The Crocodile And The Power Of Chi!
(2013/Warner DVD Set)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+/C+/C Extras: C+/D/D Episodes: C+/B-/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Courtship Of Eddie's Father
is only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive
series and like the previous seasons, can be ordered exclusively
from the link below.
Here
are three more children-friendly releacontinuesconsidering for
various reasons...
Chuggington:
Brewster Leads The Way
(2013) contiunues the hot streak of the increasingly popular series
with talking trains on adventures that have fun and energy for the
most part that has yet to peak in popularity. We get 6 adventures
running about 64 minutes and that is a decent amount, but I just
thought and wished about 2 or 3 more should have been here. Still,
it is a good single for young viewers and there are two versions
being issued.
You
can get the DVD itself or the Limited Edition with a bonus toy train,
but both versions add a Music Video, PDF DVD-ROM accessible Coloring
& Activity Sheets, a bonus Badge
Quest episode (Brewster's
Carwash) and a Character
Montage of Brewster.
The
Courtship Of Eddie's Father: The Complete Third Season
(1971 – 1972) had the show on top of the world, but Bill Bixby was
having conflicts with producer and sometimes co-star James Komack
(more this season than expected, possibly causing some of the
conflict) bring the show to a close early and making this its last
season. For more on the shows first two seasons, try this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12362/China+Beach:+Season+One+(1988/Time+Life/Star
Needless
to say MGM Television was not happy with this development, but kept
the show in syndication for years, especially as Bixby turned up
again on The Magician (a ratings disappointment now with a
cult following) and The Incredible Hulk (a megahit that
remains the peak of his amazing career). Add how My Favorite
Martian also kept making money in reruns and Courtship
cemented its position as a family classic.
Guest
stars for this season included Vic Tayback, Pat Harrington Jr., Sally
Struthers, Bruce Kirby, Willie Aames, Richard X. Slatterly, Alan
Oppenheimer, Lou Jacobi, Madlyn Rhue, Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara
in the same episodes, Carol Lawrence, Tricia Noble, Hal Cooper and
Sammy Davis Jr. show that talent was not in short supply. By the
last episode, the energy and tone suggest a few more seasons were
possible, especially to see Cruz grow up into his character, but that
was not to be.
Now
the whole series is on DVD belatedly and worth rediscovery and then
some, but there are sadly no extras despite deserving them.
That
leaves us with LEGO Chima: The
Lion, The Crocodile And The Power Of Chi!
(2013) which is the latest CGI animated entry in the toy series that
has us asking the question as to whether such shows kill imagination
and become toy ads to just enhances the fun. It might be a bit of
both, but this double DVD set offers 10 adventures (220 minutes!) and
that is fine if you like the show. However, this is now my least
favorite of all the entries in the LEGO
CGI shows. I like the send-up of the played-out fantasy genre, but
the voice acting is lame, the storylines uneven and unless I am
missing something here, the series just stops short of being really
fun.
Child
fans may disagree, but it would not be my first choice for
recommendation, despite it still being a quality effort. There are
surprisingly no extras.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the CGI shows are a little
soft and color limited (bet they both look better in HD) but are
clean and not bad throughout overall if a little disappointing. The
MetroColor 1.33 X 1 image on
the Courtship
episodes are
more color consistent than the previous sets with better definition
and detail, making it the strongest set visually.
As
for sound, the two CGI shows have lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with
Pro Logic surrounds and specifically state that on their respective
packages, but the LEGO set seems more compressed and small in
stereo mode until you do the decoding for some odd reason, so beware
of playback levels. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on
the Courtship
episodes actually sound better than they did on the previo0us sets
and can more than compete with the newer shows.
As
noted above, you can order The
Courtship Of Eddie's Father
on Warner Archive DVD by going to this link for it and many more
great web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
