Family Home Theater

Grade: B+
Entire family:  Yes
1983, 26 min., Color
Rated G
Disney
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Featured audio:  Dolby Digital 2.0
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital Copy
Bonus features: B
Trailer

There are so many film adaptations of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol that it’s tough to keep track of them all. But most of them have one thing in common:  they tend to scare the heck out of children—even the 1988 comedy Scrooged and the Disney’s 2009 mo-cap adventure starring Jim Carrey.

The kindest and gentlest Christmas Carols tend to omit Dickens’ Victorian brooding (which makes for a shorter runtime) and tone down the three ghosts that visit Ebenezer Scrooge to shake him out of his miserly bitterness and teach him the meaning of Christmas . . . and life. The 1994 TV special A Flintstones Christmas Carol is one such offering, as is Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol (1962) and Jim Henson’s delightful 1992 adaptation, The Muppet Christmas Carol.

But the best Christmas Carol for kids remains Mickey’s Christmas Carol, which was released in 1983 as a 26-minute cartoon that was shown in theaters with a reissued screening of The Rescuers—the first time a short film starring Mickey Mouse played on big screens since 1953. Though Mickey’s Christmas Carol didn’t win, it was also the first time a Mickey Mouse cartoon received an Oscar nomination since “Mickey and the Seal” (1948).  More

Grade:  B+
Entire family:  Yes
2013, 104 min., Color
Rated G
Disney-Pixar
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1 widescreen
Featured audio: Dolby TrueHD 7.1
Includes: 3D Blu-ray, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital Copy
Bonus features: B+
Trailer

If I were a parent with small children who loved Disney movies (and I was, until they got older), I’d be concerned with an animated feature titled Monsters University—especially when trailers seem to emphasize frat parties and pranks.

But Monsters University is pretty tame by any college standards—even BYU or Wheaton. The core of this prequel is a monster version of Greek Games, with contests to determine whether Mike (Billy Crystal), Sulley (John Goodman), and their brothers at Oozma Kappa can continue in the scarers program or not. It’s like an animated Revenge of the Nerds, but without the vulgarity and compromising situations.

Monsters University isn’t as strong of a film as Monsters, Inc., but it does give you a good sense of how Mike (a one-eyed green monster who’s shaped like a bowling ball with tiny arms and legs) and Sulley (an imposing furry creature with horns) met, how they became best friends, and how they came to work for Monsters, Inc.

But while Monsters, Inc. was an inventive feature, this prequel relies on the tried-and-true format of a contest. That means a hefty burden is placed on the art designers and animators. And they rise to the occasion. Hey, it’s Disney-Pixar. Creating worlds and populating them with fun details is what they do best.  More

Grade:  B+
Entire family:  Yes (but mostly for young ones)
1977, 74 min., Color
Rated G
Disney
Aspect ratio:  1.66:1
Featured audio:  DEHT 5.1
Bonus features:  C-
Includes:  Blu-ray, DVD, Digital Copy
Trailer

Watching The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is kind of like riding on “It’s a Small World” at Disney’s Magic Kingdom. It’s a ride obviously designed for families with small children, but many adults seem to enjoy it as well. However, if you position yourself atop the bridge and watch the little boats return, you’ll see by the faces of the older children that they’re reluctant passengers. So it will be with The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Though Milne said he wrote not for children but for the child within us all, Disney’s “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” is clearly designed for very young viewers, as the bonus features (get up and march along or bounce along) attest. And Pooh is a kinder, gentler cartoon than anything older children are accustomed to seeing on television.   More

Grade:  B-
Entire family:  Yes (but mostly for young ones)
2002, 72 min., Color
Rated G
Disney
Aspect ratio:  16×9
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 5.1
Bonus features:  D
Includes:  Blu-ray, DVD, Digital Copy
Trailer

Return to Never Land played in theaters in 2002 rather than going direct-to-video—an indication that Disney thought more highly of this sequel than some of their others. But it’s so similar in structure that if you’ve recently seen the original 1953 animated Peter Pan, you may wonder why this film was even made.

Instead of Wendy being the skeptic, it’s her teenage daughter, Jane, who finds Mother’s stories of Never Land juvenile and utterly inappropriate, given historical events. It’s around 1940, the men have gone off to war, and the young children are being shipped to the country to protect England’s investment in the future. Jane’s siblings are already out of the picture when she is swept away to Never Land, where she discovers it’s all real and learns a lesson about belief.

But there’s one important difference:  Return to Never Land is a much lighter, brighter film.  Instead of a ticking crocodile in pursuit of Captain Hook, it’s an octopus that’s rendered more comically. Hook is up to his hostage-taking ways again, trying to lure Pan to his demise, and once again he’s foiled. But there’s not the same dramatic intensity here. There’s also less emphasis on the Lost Boys being orphans and needing a mother, so there’s correspondingly less potential trauma for young viewers susceptible to separation anxiety. Pan’s resistance to growing up is hardly an issue. Likewise, Tinker Bell is less jealous and malevolent this time around, a much softer character—as if the studio was laying the groundwork for the Tinker Bell Pixie Hollow series that would be launched six years later. And thankfully missing from Never Land this time around are the less-than-politically-correct (“Uggh”?) Indians.  More