Here are the words that were on the back of Michael’s handprint:

Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small
And always leave my fingerprints
On furniture and walls.

So here’s a little handprint
Just so you can recall
Exactly how my fingers looked
When I was very small.

(For more Wordful Wednesdays, visit Seven Clown Circus.)

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Earlier this month, the timeless tale of Peter & The Wolf was released on DVD from Magnolia Home Entertainment.

I saw the short film twice, once alone at work and the second time with the kids (ages 5 and 3) on our “Night at the Movies.” It was easy to know why this was an award winner last year. The music was tops (Sergie Prokofiev is my favorite composer). The story was classic and intertwined with the music. Historically, this story has been redone over the years periodically by the great voices and directors of the world. It had not been ‘touched’ for a while though (the last I remember was an album with Sting as the Narrator). The animation was realistic, and (wow!) how they get those characters!

This production highlights modern aspects. It is set in a Russian rural area during the cold (but not too cold) weather. You will see the change in the characters that we yearn to see: the oppressed teen breaks out; the kid who needs a lesson, gets one; etc. There is also a nice variation to the ending- a surprise. Don’t look for either subtitles or narration, but the plot is easily understood. My kids understood most of it. My past experience with the story derailed my first view. It was a confused comparison with all that I had remembered. However, my second view was much better.

The animation was vivid – the set/scenery was excellent. I thought it would scare the kids, but only once did I hear them mention being afraid. Many parts were fun while others were cute. The writers must not have liked the original heroism of the hunters though (you will see what I mean!). The musical score has also been stretched to include extra moments which were pretty realistic with good effect.

Bottom line - see it! Turn the lights down low, pick a quiet time and relax. My kids want to see it again. One liked the end the most, and the other liked the whole thing. The DVD also features some good “Behind the Scenes” moments. (Also, be sure to run the intro with the movie.)

(On a side note, we chose roles and sang the themes afterwards in the bathroom getting ready for bed. I was the grandfather, of course!)
-Toby Crane

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Yesterday (December 16th), Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released THE LITTLE MERMAID II: Return to the Sea Special Edition.

As an adult I actually enjoyed the movie. I liked the way it started and ended with music. The kids always seem to enjoy that. There was a great storyline that definitely has some continuity with the original movie. It even brings back some of the old characters. At first my 3 yr old son resisted seeing it (as a “Princess” movie, but whenever the crab (Sebastian) …and sometimes even the shark (Undertow) spoke, both kids would laugh. They love the accent of the crab. The good thing is that the Disney movies always show the good guy winning and the the bad guy losing at the end. That is always a great lesson to the kids. Ariel and Melody appears to have some real to life mother/daughter family issues that we go through in today’s world………..while Melody herself also experience her own personal challenges just growing up on land and loving the sea so much. The credibility of the movie really pulls you into it and my 4 year old daughter was riveted in front of the screen until the movie ended. The movie finally ends with a victory for the family, even though at some points in the movie, there were hard times where the future really looked dim. These hard times however, really kept you at the edge of your seat while you hopefully wait for the victories. Overall both kids enjoyed the movie; however, at times Morgana (Ursela’s sister) scared my 3 year old son.

Bonus (After the Movie) Features:

1) Deleted Song - This was a great song, but it wasn’t missed from the movie. It would have probably been a bit too drawn out if they had kept the song in the movie.

2) Merbabies- The kids loved watching this short film. It has music playing the whole time with different sounds from different instruments. My son said this was his favorite as the Merbabies had funny little scenes going along with the music.

4) Games and Activities
a) Under the Mer-venture Challenge game
This involved three different challenges where you win a pearl at the end. The first one had someone hiding behind the seaweed, and then it was imitating the beat of the music we heard and finally learning to swim safely as a Mermaid. All 3 challenges were good and interesting to the child, except the last one seemed a bit weird where it would say “you are doing well” even when you did not press the remote to complete the challenge.

b) The Little Mermaid ll Trivia game
This consisted of questions about the actual story itself, which was a good game. It reminds me of being in school and learning to understand what you just read like “reading comprehension”.

c) The story narrated - I loved listening to this as a story and listening to it made some things a bit more explicit when narrated.

d) “What am I?” Game
Questions/Answers about things under the sea. This was also good for the child to learn and understand the story, similar to “b”

Bonus clips for you!:
Q: How many merpeople are swimming in Morgana’s magic bubble?

Q: According to the penguin, what is Melody probably allergic to?

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I know many moms whose families love watching Animal Planet. Their Growing Up series is especially popular. That is why I am recommending their Growing Up 5 DVD Gift Set that I was recently sent to review. This five-disc collector’s set features every episode from the popular series broken down in five categories: “Growing Up Arctic,” “Growing Up Wildcats,” “Growing Up Safari,” “Growing Up Wilderness,” and a bonus disc, “Growing Up Primates”.

“Growing Up Arctic” covers an orphaned baby walrus, a lone surviving polar bear cub, stranded baby seals and an endangered penguin chick. “Growing Up Wildcats” shares experiences about lion, tiger and cheetah cubs as well as an African black leopard. “Growing Up Safari” includes orphaned baby rhinos, baby zebras, an orphaned giraffe and a hyena. “Growing Up Wilderness” deals with a wolf pack, a little deer, a bear cub and a baby moose. Lastly, “Growing Up Primates” involves baby orangutans, a baby gorilla and four orphaned baboons. At 806 minutes combined, animal lovers (children and adults alike!) will be amazed by the wide variety of animals that are followed during this beautifully filmed series.

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Earlier this week (on 11/25), Paramount Home Entertainment released a “wrapped and ready” Kung Fu Panda DVD. (Basically, the DVD is already gift-wrapped for convenient holiday gifting.)

Well, I quickly opened the DVD, because our family had wanted to see this movie for a while. (It’s very rare that we go to see family movies when they’re out in the theater because Michael can’t tolerate the loud sounds.) It was well worth the wait! This movie had us laughing from start to finish and it had a really great lesson (the importance of believing in yourself).

Basically, the film (which is set in China) is about a big, clumsy panda named Po. Though he is in line to be a noodle maker, Po dreams of being a master kung fu fighter who fights with the skilled Furious Five (Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper and Crane). Through a comedy of errors, Po is prophesied to be the Dragon Warrior. He was destined to be the one to defend his community from a terrifying, evil snow leopard warrior Tai Lung who had escaped from prison. As the movie progresses, Po learns kung fu alongside the Furious Five from an initially reluctant red panda Master Shifu. He also learns the secret to being the Dragon Warrior. (I won’t tell you, but it starts with “n”.) Ultimately, there is a battle between Po and Tai Lung. (Seeing that there’s a sequel in the works, you can kind of guess who won…)

The cinematography of the film was beautiful…it’s amazing what they can do with animation these days! The voices for the various characters were also exactly on point. My husband was able to guess most of them: Jack Black as Po; Dustin Hoffman as Master Shifu; Angelina Jolie and Lucy Liu as part of the Furious Five; and Michael Clarke Duncan as Commander Vachir (he was the commander of the prison guard that was initially holding Tai Lung). Our most favorite part of the entire movie though is the line when the tortoise Master Oogway calmly says, “There is no good or bad news, only news”. Then, after hearing the news (that Tai Lung had escaped), he says something to the effect of “Oh, that is bad news.” For some reason, that line just makes us crack up!

In any event, this is a great movie to give as a holiday gift and/or to add to your own family movie collection. (After watching the movie together, you all can pretend to kung fu fight each other. That’s what my family did!)

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Last week, I mentioned the on DVD & Blu-ray release of the hit movie Wall-E. For those of you who like to know a little bit more about movies before going out to buy the DVD, I figured that I’d elaborate a bit more about the movie and share my thoughts on a few of the bonus features.

WALL-E has received consistently great reviews overall. I’m not a big science-fiction fan but the friendship/ romance aspect of the film won me over. I must say that I liked the movie while my husband and son really enjoyed it. WALL-E is one of those movies that I want to look at again by myself so I don’t miss anything. (It’s hard for me to focus completely when watching with my husband and son – they talk during movies!)

Basically, the film follows WALL-E, an endearing little trash compactor robot who is left on Earth to clean up the polluted planet. One of the things that made my family laugh was that the only other thing that existed along with WALL-E was his “pet” cockroach (although he should have died many times throughout the movie!). One day another robot named EVE comes to earth to do some exploring. She and WALL-E become friends (after he prevents her from destroying him) and he later follows her into outer space.

While in outer space, the two robots work together to help the humans return to earth. (After 700 years of living in micro-gravity , the humans are a bit of a mess. They’re fat, lazy and rely on their robots to help them with practically everything!) As the drama unfolds (let’s just say that not every robot wants the humans to return to Earth), WALL-E and Eve fall in love. Their little “kiss” and dance in space around the ship is especially touching. I won’t share everything (like the ending!), but I will say that it’s a happy, hopeful one.

In addition to the movie, the DVD has many bonus features along with the standard deleted scenes. There is a funny little animated short (7:35 minutes) called “BURN-E”. BURN-E stands for Basic Utility Repair Nano Engineer. They are the repair robots that are used to maintain the Axiom (where the humans were living for the 700 years). This particular one was accidentally locked outside of the ship by WALL-E and EVE. It’s a series of amusing “errors” as he tries his hardest to get back inside with varying degrees of success. My favorite bonus feature though is “WALL-E’s Treasures and Trinkets”. In it, WALL-E does a variety of cute/funny things. He hula-hoops around his neck, robot–dances, plays sports, has “encounters” with a fire hydrant and vacuum cleaner and much more — very adorable!

The last thing that I want to write about this 3-disc special edition DVD is that the third disc is actually a digital copy of the movie that you can use iTunes or Windows Media to transfer and watch the movie on your computer, video iPod, iPhone, etc. (Although I’m so non-techy/ don’t have an ianything, I think that’s a really neat addition to the set!)

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The hit movie Wall-E is released on DVD & Blu-ray today (November 18th). This is a little off-topic (and reveals how much I was following the recent election)….but I walked away from watching the DVD thinking “I wonder if that’s where the media got that whole “going rogue” phrase that they kept using in regards to Sarah Palin the last couple of weeks of the campaign…”.

Anyway, back to the movie. My husband had taken my son Michael to the movie theater along with a group of friends to see Wall-E when it first came out while I stayed at home with Sean. They came home all happy and excited because they both enjoyed the movie so much. Now, I can join in on the “inside” jokes.

Basically, the movie is about Wall-E who is the only robot left on Earth until a new advanced robot (EVE) arrives. As the movie unfolds, Wall-E and EVE play key roles in the future of mankind (in part, by being “rogue robots”). In addition to the movie, the DVD also includes several bonus material items including “BURN-E”- a new animated short, “The Pixar Story”- a documentary and much more. I’m sure that your family will enjoy this movie as much as ours.

You can see the the trailer of the movie below:

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I love method! For Halloween, they sent me their smarty dish detergent in pink grapefruit as a TREAT.

Alas, the trick’s on me though – I don’t have a dishwasher (unless you count my husband). If you do have a dishwasher, I recommend checking it out. I have read great things about the product (it is non-toxic; biodegradable, works as well/better than comparable products; etc.).

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11/10 Update: Congratulations to April R. and Gina T. who won the Tinker Bell DVD & fairy wings giveaway!

Tinker Bell is being released on DVD & Blu-ray today (October 28th). I’m so excited! Two lucky Mom in the City members will win not only the DVD but also some very cute fairy wings to go along with it.

Mom in the City newsletter subscribers can enter to win one of the DVDs by leaving their name in the “Comments” section below or by sending an email to contests@mominthecity.com with “Tinker” in the Subject line by November 7th.

This is the first time that we get to hear Tinker Bell speak. The movie revolves around a variety of fairies who try to help Tinker Bell embrace her gift rather than trying to get a new one/someone else’s. This is a really great movie overall, but I think that it is especially helpful for girls. The theme of being happy with who you are/what you have is one that we all (kids and adults) need to be reminded of! In addition to the movie (I won’t give too much away, because I really think that you should see it for yourself), the DVD includes various bonus features including a behind-the-scenes “making of” featurette.

Earlier this month, several Mom in the City members were able to see a Free Advanced Screening of TINKER BELL. Here are a few of their comments:

-My wife and sister-in-law took the kids and they had a great time

-It was great! My daughter who is 2.8 years-old had on her little fairy purple tutu, braided head band with long purple fairy-like hair, and wings which I bought the night before. (See picture below…)

For everyone else, you can get a sneak peak of the DVD by watching the trailer below:

(To see other contests & giveaways around the web, visit Bloggy Giveaways.)

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We’re giving away five copies of The Flight Before Christmas to Mom in the City members.

“A young reindeer with silly ambitions of becoming an expert flyer like his father sets off on a fantastic adventure when the CGI animated tale The Flight Before Christmas lands on DVD October 28th from Genius Products and The Weinstein Company. When Niko sneaks out beyond the safety of Home Valley to practice his flying, he unwittingly endangers the herd as the notoriously mean Black Wolf follows him home. Before it’s too late, Niko must join forces with his forest animal friends to save Santa and the reindeer from the Black Wolf and become a Christmas hero…just like his father! Featuring all-star voice talent including teen sensation Emma Roberts (Nancy Drew, Aquamarine) and funny-man Norm MacDonald (“The Norm Show,” “Saturday Night Live”), The Flight Before Christmas is a heartwarming yuletide tale filled with colorful endearing characters such as Julius the flying squirrel and Wilma the cheeky weasel. A festive addition to the holiday library that the entire family can enjoy, The Flight Before Christmas DVD will be available with special packaging for the suggested retail price of $19.97.“

Mom in the City newsletter subscribers can enter to win one of the DVDs by leaving their name in the “Comments” section below or by sending an email to contests@mominthecity.com with “Flight” in the Subject line by November 30th.

(To see other contests & giveaways around the web, visit Contesting Monday.)

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