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Scholastic Video presentsI Love You Like Crazy Cakes
(2005)
"Why is baseball like a cake? Because they both depend on the batter!"- Arnie the Elephant, in Uncle Elephant
MPAA Rating: Not RatedRun Time: 00h:32m:36sRelease Date: 2006-02-28
Genre: animation
Style Grade |
Substance Grade | Image Transfer Grade | Audio Transfer Grade |
Extras Grade |
---|---|---|---|---|
B+ | B+ | C | C+ | C+ |
DVD Review
Where's the love? Why, it's right here on this DVD. Our friends at Scholastic have assembled another winning collection of short films based on children's books, loosely yoked together around a common theme—here, it's all about family, and the stories are short and comforting, perfect for soothing little souls before nighty night.Mia Farrow narrates the title story, based on a book by Rose Lewis and with illustrations by Jane Dyer—it's the story of how an unmarried American woman adopts a little Chinese girl, told by mother to daughter. It couldn't be sweeter, as the camera holds tight on Dyer's illustrations, starting in a Chinese orphanage, and ending with the little girl and her new family.
The narrator of the next tale is a little girl, the daughter of Russian immigrants—it's principally about her relationship with her grandmother, and the granddaughter and all the neighbors agree that we should give Three Cheers for Catherine the Great!. Grandma Catherine doesn't want any presents for her birthday this year; the lesson for her granddaughter is that it's not stuff that makes you happy, but rather friends and family. It's entirely counter to the messages about consumer culture with which our children are being constantly bombarded, and is very welcome, though I suspect that the lessons learned will go by the wayside come the holidays.
Finally, a little girl runs an in-house census of sorts in Five Creatures—that would be her, her parents, and their two cats. They're variously divided into groups—who drinks milk, who climbs trees, who's got orange hair, and so on. It's whimsical, and will be especially comforting to those whose counting skills at this early stage don't go beyond the fingers on one hand.
Rating for Style: B+
Rating for Substance: B+
Image Transfer
One | |
---|---|
Aspect Ratio | 1.33:1 - Full Frame |
Original Aspect Ratio | yes |
Anamorphic | no |
Image Transfer Review: The transfer is perfunctory at best—though these stories were produced relatively recently, there's no small amount of scratching and discoloration.
Image Transfer Grade: C
Audio Transfer
Language | Remote Access | |
---|---|---|
DS 2.0 | English | no |
Audio Transfer Review: Clear, more or less, though with a good amount of static.
Audio Transfer Grade: C+
Disc Extras
Static menuScene Access with 3 cues and remote access
Subtitles/Captions in English with remote access
1 Original Trailer(s)
Packaging: Amaray
Picture Disc
1 Disc
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: dual
Extra Extras:
- bonus story
Extras Grade: C+
Final Comments
Reassuring and sweet without being cloying or saccharine, these stories are sure to be favorites, especially at bedtime, for our youngest dOc readers.Jon Danziger 2006-03-07