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HAPPY DAYS: SEASON 5 (DVD)

May 9, 2014

James Plath, Family Home Theater Entire Family, G rated, TV Comedy Leave a comment

HappyDays5coverGrade: C+/B-
Entire family: Yes
1977-78, 662 min. (26 episodes), Color
CBS Home Entertainment
Not rated (would be G)
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Featured audio: Dolby Digital Mono
Bonus features: C (4th Anniv. Special)
Theme song

Entertainment is one thing, but there are times when, if something out of Hollywood has become part of our vocabulary or is frequently alluded to, you need to see a film or TV show just to be culturally literate.

That’s the case with Happy Days: Season 5. Maybe you’ve heard of the expression “jumped the shark”—the precise moment when a TV series gets a little too wonky and begins to go downhill? That phrase comes from a triple episode that launched the fifth season of Happy Days, a popular series created by Garry Marshall and set in Milwaukee, circa the 1950s and early ‘60s. This season in California, Fonzie (Henry Winkler)—whose trademark catchphrase “Heyyyyyy” had already become a part of pop culture—is faced with a water skiing challenge and must jump over a man-eating shark that’s penned in an enclosure near the beach.

For most of America, Happy Days felt like the TV version of American Graffiti, especially because Ron Howard also starred in that coming-of-age film about teenagers cruising around on the eve of their separate departures for college. This series from Garry Marshall is a fun, wholesome one that hit its stride in Season 2 and, as many believe, started to decline in Season 5 when Fonzie paraded around the beach in his leather jacket, shorts, and motorcycle boots.  More

THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW: SEASON 1 (Blu-ray)

April 28, 2014

James Plath, Family Home Theater Entire Family, PG rated, TV Comedy Leave a comment

AndyGriffithShow1coverGrade: B+/A-
Entire family: Yes
1960-61, 820 min. (33 episodes), black and white
CBS Home Entertainment
Not rated (would be PG for adult drinking and smoking)
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Featured audio: Dolby digital Mono
Bonus features: B
CBS restoration trailer

It’s no secret. Kids today are turned off by black-and-white movies and television shows. They’re so BORING, is the common refrain. But there are exceptions, and The Andy Griffith Show is one of them. This series, which ran on CBS from 1960-68, was ranked #9 on TV Guide’s list of 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. Now Season 1 is out on Blu-ray, and that’s good news for fans and families wanting to watch a wholesome, timeless, homespun comedy together.

How wholesome is it? Well, the Town of Mayberry, North Carolina is a sleepy little backwater where folksy sheriff and justice of the peace Andy Taylor (Griffith) doesn’t wear a sidearm, doesn’t drink, doesn’t use harsh language, and seldom raises his voice. With an aw-shucks demeanor, a bushel full of aphorisms, and a smile that could disarm all but the most hardened criminals, Andy spends most of his time dispensing common-sense advice to family, friends, and residents of Mayberry, and also proving to “big city” law enforcement officers and visitors that small town residents have a wisdom all their own. Heck, they were smart enough to choose that pace and lifestyle, weren’t they?

Our kids’ favorite black-and-white TV series is still I Love Lucy, but The Andy Griffith Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show run a close second and third. The source of the appeal is pretty easy to pin down, starting with the situation. Andy is a widower who lives with his precocious young son, Opie (Ronnie Howard) and the aunt who raised him—Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier). Those two appealing characters get into enough “pickles” that the entire show could have been based on their mishaps and Andy’s always gentle intervention.

But when you add Andy’s job, with comic genius Don Knotts playing over-eager and bumbling Deputy Barney Fife, you create a whole other range of possibilities for humorous problems that Andy can solve. Mayberry isn’t just a backdrop, either. The citizens get a lot of air time, and their stubborn, provincial ways constitute yet another group of patients in need of Sheriff Taylor’s magic tonic—always a blend of common sense, insights into human nature, and Solomon-like judgment. And Andy’s morals are within easy grasp of youngsters, too.   More

I LOVE LUCY: ULTIMATE SEASON 1 (Blu-ray)

April 26, 2014

James Plath, Family Home Theater Entire Family, TV Comedy Leave a comment

ILoveLucy1coverGrade: B+/A-
Entire family: Yes
1951-52, 908 min., black and white
CBS Home Entertainment
Not rated (would be PG for adult drinking and smoking)
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Featured audio: Dolby Digital Mono
Bonus features: B-
CBS restoration trailer

In 2002, TV Guide named the 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. On May 6, CBS Home Entertainment will bring three of the Top 10—at least the first seasons—to Blu-ray. Soon we’ll post reviews of The Andy Griffith Show and The Honeymooners: Classic 39 Episodes, but since I Love Lucy ranks 2nd behind Seinfeld on the list, it seems like the logical place to begin—though logic and Lucy have little in common.

Lucille Ball set the gold standard for physical comedy and character comedy playing opposite real-life husband and band leader Desi Arnaz in a sitcom that revolved around only four characters: Ricky Ricardo (Arnaz), his wife Lucy, and their neighbors, Fred and Ethel Mertz (William Frawley and Vivian Vance). That is, two housewives prone to get into trouble, one fuddy-duddy who wore his pants up to his chin, and a Latin lover whose love for Lucy was sorely tested in just about every episode.

This past school year my ‘tween daughter would start her morning with an episode of I Love Lucy, which, remarkably, is still in syndication more than 60 years after Season 1 was first broadcast. Even more remarkable is that she enjoys the show as much as I did when I watched it on days I was home from school, “sick.” What makes it so timelessly appealing? The slapstick and the situations. Things that happened to Lucy on a quiz show are still happening to unsuspecting kids on a Nickelodeon game show, for example, and while the writing was decent, it was really the four stars that made the show work.

I Love Lucy was one of the early TV series that made the leap from vaudeville and radio to television. It began as My Favorite Husband, a radio program starring Ball and Dick Denning. But Lucy suggested that her TV husband be played by her real husband, who was then appearing as a panelist on the game show What’s My Line? The rest is TV history. I Love Lucy was an immediate fan favorite, finishing #3 in the Nielsen ratings its first year, and #1 seasons two through four, #2 their fifth season, then back to #1 again for the sixth.

Season 1 includes one of the all-time greatest I Love Lucy episodes, “Lucy Does a TV Commercial,” in which she plugs a tonic called Vitameatevegamin. The only trouble is, the commercial requires multiple takes, and the product is 23 percent alcohol. Other memorable episodes include ones in which Lucy gets locked in a walk-in freezer, goes to great lengths to convince Ricky that growing bald isn’t so bad, and, with Ethel, tries to make it as “Pioneer Women” by not using any modern conveniences.   More

COWGIRLS ‘N ANGELS 2: DAKOTA’S SUMMER (Blu-ray)

April 20, 2014

James Plath, Family Home Theater Drama, Entire Family, PG rated Leave a comment

CowgirlsnAngels2coverGrade: B
Entire family: Yes, though some boys might resist
2014, 91 min., Color
20th Century Fox
Rated PG for mild thematic elements and brief language
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 widescreen
Featured audio: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Bonus features: D
Trailer

Competition TV series are popular now, but they’re mostly dance-, song-, or pageant-related. I can’t think of a single series or film that uses the rodeo as a backdrop for light family drama, and there is something mesmerizing about watching horses move—especially the mini-horses that appear in this sequel, ones that scamper rather than gallop, and that are not much taller than an adult’s waist. They’re just so darned CUTE.

Cowgirls ‘n Angels 2: Dakota’s Summer is a Dove-approved sequel that features an all-new cast and is aimed mostly at girls ages six through 16. But the acting is solid, the trick riding captivating, and the situation interesting enough to where it might appeal to the whole family.

Dakota’s Summer stars Haley Ramm (X-Men: The Last Stand) as a teen who’s teamed with her more talented sister in a trick-riding duo for Sweethearts of the Rodeo. Early in the film she wonders aloud why the granddaughter of a famed rodeo trick rider would have such a hard time with it, compared to her sister. It’s like we’re totally different, she says. “You don’t know the half of it,” her sister remarks, and that leads to Dakota’s discovery that she is really adopted.

Now, everywhere across America there are adopted children who wonder who their birth parents are, and it’s never as easy as leaving your family to go to stay with Rodeo Grandpa, who was behind the adoption, and finding the names of the parents in a clearly marked file in his desk drawer. And finding birth parents is never as easy as just going to the address on the form, and there they are.

When Rodeo Grandpa (Keith Carradine) uses his mini-horse ranch for a program to benefit troubled children in foster care, not one of those children appears genuinely troubled. No one tests the boundaries of authority or pushes to see whether an adult will reject him/her again, and when one of them leaves with a mini-horse and buggy and Dakota arrives on the scene where there are flashing lights and an ambulance, the cart is trashed but neither the runaway girl (Jade Pettyjohn, American Girl: McKenna Shoots for the Stars) nor the little horse are in any way harmed. The whole foster care/adoption cycle is also less than realistic.

But realism isn’t the goal here. Dakota’s Summer is a feel-good family film that doesn’t pretend to be anything more—and it’s tough to walk away with a good feeling when the same old garbage that happens in real life happens as well in the movies. My daughter likes happy films, and she liked this one. I did too, and so did my wife.  But I am perplexed as to why this earned a PG rating. It’s as wholesome as can be. More

THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (Blu-ray combo)

April 19, 2014

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, Comedy, Entire Family, PG rated Leave a comment

WalterMittycoverGrade: B
Entire family: Yes, but . . . .
2013, 114 min., Color
20th Century Fox
Rated PG for some crude comments, language, and action violence
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Featured audio: DTS-HD MA 7.1
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, UV Copy
Bonus features: B
Trailer

Literary purists won’t like it that director-star Ben Stiller strayed so far from the plot of James Thurber’s original short story, or the 1947 film adaptation starring Danny Kaye. Meanwhile, fans of action comedies may think Thurber’s fantasy elements the weakest part of this film. But somehow, out of a no-win situation, Stiller manages to make a likable movie that entertains while also providing a little get-out-of-the-basement inspiration.

Thurber’s Walter Mitty was a meek and mild-mannered proofreader who lived a life so dull that he was prone to daydream elaborate scenarios in which he would always emerge the hero—the guy who gets the girl. As a child, I remember liking the film in spite of those fantasy sequences, and apparently some things never change. Even though Stiller severely dialed back on the number and length of the daydreaming episodes, inventively passing them off as Mitty’s propensity for “spacing out,” my teen and pre-teen still hated those parts, as I once did. What’s more, our world has become so much more aggressive that they also didn’t care much for the Mitty character—even though he isn’t nearly as bumbling or hapless as Kaye once played him.

Stiller’s Mitty is more of a work-a-day schlepper who toils in the negative archives of Life magazine and really has no life outside of that. In fact, a dating site he joined recently keeps checking up on him to see if he’s actually done something to add to his blank and not terribly appealing or effective profile.

Adam Scott is entertaining as the “terminator” who bluntly tells Life staffers that this next issue will be the magazine’s last, and that most of them will be let go as they downsize to an online-only format. It’s a nice situational updating that lends new credence to Thurber’s story, actually.   More

THE GABBY DOUGLAS STORY (DVD)

April 10, 2014

James Plath, Family Home Theater Biopic, Entire Family, G rated Leave a comment

GabbyDouglascoverGrade:  B
Entire family:  Yes
2014, 86 min., Color
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Rated G
Aspect ratio:  1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen
Featured audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Bonus features:  F
Trailer

The Gabby Douglas Story seems tailor-made for families with little girls who have big dreams.

This biopic about Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas, who quickly rose from obscurity to compete in the 2012 London games, aired on Lifetime and has that golly G-rated Lifetime feel to it—maybe a little too direct in its plotting, and a little too ready to tug at the heartstrings. But darn it, teenage role models for little girls aren’t all that easy to come by, so it’s easy to overlook a cultivated wholesomeness when the underlying message is so positive.

Besides, Lifetime or not, this 86-minute drama is a good one. It proves that it’s possible to create a successful film that doesn’t have smart-mouthed kids, sex, drinking, drugs, or swearing. There’s only a little mean-spirited talk from some of the gym rats, but even that’s mild. Meanwhile, the virtues showcased here are as clear and crisp as Douglas’s phenomenal routines: hard work, dedication, sacrifice, family togetherness, perseverance, and a toughness that enables you to play through the pain and get past your own self-doubts. In that respect, it’s like so many other athlete biopics. The hurdles may look different, but the track is essentially the same, which is why this film will appeal to more than just little girls.  More

THE PIRATE FAIRY (Blu-ray combo)

March 29, 2014

James Plath, Family Home Theater Animation, Entire Family, G rated Leave a comment

PirateFairycoverGrade: B+
2014, 78 min., Color
DisneyToon Studios
Rated G
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Featured audio: DTS-HD MA 7.1
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, DigitalCopy
Bonus features: C
“The Frigate That Flies” clip

My daughter, who’s part of Disney’s target audience for the CGI animated Tinker Bell series, says that she likes all the direct-to-video offerings—Tinker Bell (2008), Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure (2009), Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue (2010), Secret of the Wings (2012) and this fifth installment in the series, The Pirate Fairy. They’re all good, she says, but the last two are her favorites.

For me, it’s no contest. Secret of the Wings offered wonderful graphics and animation, but I found the ending too pat and the logic strained throughout an uncomplicated and emotionally shallow narrative. Like the other sequels, it felt formulaic to me as it hit all the familiar notes—BFFs, opposites joining forces, mess-ups being vindicated, etc.—without adding anything terribly new. The Pirate Fairy, on the other hand, feels much more honestly energetic and exuberant, and maybe that’s what the addition of a scurvy (but comical) bunch of pirates does for a film.   More

LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE: SEASON 1 (Blu-ray)

March 25, 2014

James Plath, Family Home Theater Entire Family, PG rated, TV Drama, Western Leave a comment

LittleHouse1coverGrade: B+
1974-75, 1,260 min. (24 episodes), Color
Lionsgate
Not rated: Would be PG for moments of peril and some drinking
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Featured audio: DTS-HD MA 2.0
Includes: Blu-ray (5 discs), UV Copy
Bonus features: C-
Trailer

If your children like historical dramas and love imagining what life would have been like during pioneer times, there’s no better place to start than the Little House on the Prairie TV series. So many ‘70s shows feel dated or corny now, but this series—loosely based on the children’s books by Laura Ingalls Wilder—still plays well. It’s a deftly written, convincingly acted series that’s not afraid to tug at your heartstrings, but also tosses in a dose or two of reality. Not everyone rides a horse or drives a buggy, for example. There is a sizable population that walks everywhere—even great distances—because they aren’t affluent enough to do anything else. And when a hailstorm wipes out all the wheat, farmers everywhere have to leave their families and look for work in faraway places, or they’ll lose the farm and the family will starve.

Little House on the Prairie stars Michael Landon in his post-Bonanza and pre-Highway to Heaven role as the patriarch of a family of females who move from Wisconsin to Kansas and finally end up in Minnesota. The emphasis in this series is on family and family values before such a term came into existence. It’s wholesome, heart-warming, and full of life lessons.

The two-hour pilot, included here, is the most potentially traumatic, so if your family has small or sensitive children I’d start with Episode 1 instead and watch the whole season before suggesting, “Hey, would anyone like to see how the Ingalls came to Plum Creek?” after the children already know that everyone’s okay. There’s a time in the pilot when a family member is thought drowned, as well as several moments of menace that come as a result of wolves and Caroline Ingalls (Karen Grasse) and the girls’ encounter with Indians while Charles is off hunting.

More

FROZEN (Blu-ray combo)

March 10, 2014

James Plath, Family Home Theater Animation, Entire Family, PG rated 1 Comment

FrozencoverGrade:  A-
Entire family:  Yes
2013, 102 min., Color
Rated PG for some action and mild rude humor
Disney
Aspect ratio:  2.24:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 7.1
Includes Blu-ray, DVD, UV DigitalHD Copy
Bonus features: C-
Trailer

Disney’s latest animated adventure is a Frozen delight. You children will want to watch this over and over again, and the good news is that the film is creative enough, clever enough, and with solid enough animation and music that you won’t suffer one bit from the repetition. In fact, you’ll come away from it appreciating the Disney magic more with every viewing.

That’s because Frozen is a princess movie that doesn’t feel like a princess movie—even though there are two of them in it, as well as a handsome prince. It feels more like an adventure, and a fun one at that. Given the strength of animation, the memorable characters, and a killer soundtrack that’s collectively the most impressive I’ve seen from Disney since Beauty and the Beast, it may well be one of Disney’s most accomplished animated features from the past 20 years.

Frozen is loosely based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, but makes more sense than the tale that inspired it, and it’s full of great visual effects, memorable music, and heart-warming moments—check that. Small moments that make you smile, laugh, or marvel at how clever the scene is.   More

THE JUNGLE BOOK (Blu-ray combo)

February 1, 2014

James Plath, Family Home Theater Animation, Entire Family, G rated Leave a comment

JungleBookcoverGrade:  B+
Entire family:  Yes
1967, 78 min., Color
Rated G
Disney
Aspect ratio:  1.75:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 7.1
Includes Blu-ray, DVD, DigitalHD copy
Bonus features:  A-
Trailer

Many people point to Sleeping Beauty (1959) as the last film in the Golden Age of Disney Animation and consider the seven full-length animated features that the House of Mouse made over the next three decades to be lesser accomplishments.

But I think you can build a pretty good case for The Jungle Book and 101 Dalmatians rising to the top of that second tier of Disney animated films. Both were directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, one of Disney’s Nine Old Men—the original animators who were with Disney from the very beginning—and film each has its positives. With 101 Dalmatians it was a terrific villain, 101 dogs, and an exciting narrative. With The Jungle Book it’s the great songbook, characters, and voice talents that elevate it above some of the other films made during this period.

An enchanting soundtrack from George Bruns and memorable songs by the Sherman brothers and Terry Gilkyson add pep to the narrative and even seem to give the animators a shot in the arm. The plot and pacing may be nearly as lazy as the sloth bear Baloo (Phil Harris), but animators use that to their advantage, developing the characters so that even minor ones seem majorly entertaining.  More

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