Aliens in the Attic - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
A kids movie that came out during the latter part of last summer earning poor reviews and went nowhere at the box office. Granted, kids movies rarely earn good reviews and kids movies rarely do well that late in the summer season. But even so, this film struggled. Was is fare? Or is this an undiscovered gem?

The movie starts with Tom Pearson (Carter Jenkins) being dragged off by his parents for a family vacation. Once there, he have to deal with his older sister Beth (Ashley Tisdale) and her obnoxious boyfriend Ricky (Robert Hoffman) his annoying younger sister Hannah (Ashley Boettcher) his cousin Jake (Austin Robert Butler) and the twins (Henri and Regan Young). If that's not enough to ruin his summer, he discovers there is a group of aliens that are preparing to lead an invasion. Now it up to the kids to battle these diminutive aliens, because the adult can't seems to figure out there's something wrong. Despite their small size, the aliens easily outclass the kids, but when one of the aliens, Sparks (Josh Peck) befriends Hannah, perhaps that's the event that will turn the tide in the battle? And perhaps the kids will learn to work together to save the Earth.

Looking at the reviews over on Rotten Tomatoes and the reviews are a lot more mixed than its Tomatometer Score would otherwise indicate. Most of the critics who gave the film a negative review said that the film was harmless entertainment for kids. And really, it's hard to describe it as anything more or less than that. The script is functional, but hardly brings any originality or charm to the whole enterprise. There are a couple morals jammed into the movie (being smart isn't a hindrance and of course the family bonding) but form the most part it's just goofy action scenes being a bunch of child actors and some CG bad guys. If you are a kid of the right age, it's a perfectly acceptable way to waste away an afternoon, while if you are a parent of a kid of the right age, there are at least a few jokes that you should be able to appreciate. (For instance, it was funny watching the kids look at the rotary phone as if it was a piece of alien technology.)

Looking at the extras on the DVD we find the normal selection, mostly. There are deleted scenes, alternate ending, outtakes (many of which are also seen in the end credits), etc. There's an introduction to the movie by Ashley Tisdale, who also does an introduction to the special features. Ashley Tisdale and Ashley Boettcher are the focuses of the behind the scenes featurette called The Ashley Encounters. Behind the Zirkonians is a 15-minute prequel to this movie that shows how the four aliens were selected for this mission done in a limited animated fashion. Meet the Zirkonians is an interaction featurette on the four aliens that gives a series of facts while showing some behind-the-scenes clips. Finally, Kung Fu Grandma is a fake commercial for the alien mind control device seen in the movie.

As for the Blu-ray, I don't know if there are any High Definition exclusives, because the screener hasn't arrived yet. Normally Fox doesn't ship these till street date, so hopefully I'll be able to update the review for next week. That said, given the relative price between the two versions, it's nearly impossible for the Blu-ray to not be the better deal.

Aliens in the Attic is worth checking out if you have kids of the right age, but even then I'm not sure the replay value is high enough to be worth anything more than a rental. If you are intent on buying, then the Blu-ray appears to be the way to go.

Christmas Story - Buy from Amazon
A Finnish film telling of the story of Santa Claus's childhood. The film, which cost nearly $4 million to make, was the highest grossing Finnish film of 2007 earning $2.6 million, as well as a couple Jussi Awards. But how well does it translate to North American audiences?

The film starts with a seven-year old Nikolas learning that his parents died after falling through the ice-- A film about Santa Claus starts by killing off his parents? They do things differently in Finland. Since he lives in a small fishing village in Finland, no family is able to take him in, but one family, the Thomases, come up with a plan, each family in the village will take care of little Thomas for a year to spread the cost around. (Another person, crazy Isaac, comes up with an alternate plan, throw him in the lake with his family. By the way, this is being discussed on Christmas day. Merry Christmas.) Each Christmas he moves in with a new family, while he carves little wooden toys for all of the Children of his previous families as gifts. At first he misses this works out well, but a poor harvest and lack of fish means no one can take care of him. No one except crazy Isaac, who considers his woodcarving talent competition. So he takes in Nicolas, but not as family, only as labor. Will this harsh treatment break Nicolas's spirit, or will his kind-hearted nature rub off on Isaac?

I'm of two minds on this film. On the down side, it is quite depressing for a holiday film. Then again, so it A Christmas Carol, which deals with a lot of crushing poverty. The film won an award for its cinematography, but the video quality of my screener copy is weak, so I can't judge that aspect accurately, but there are some shots that still look fantastic, even in non-anamorphic widescreen, with a slightly fuzzy feel, and the words, 'For promotional use only' stamped in the corner. The story is a little predictable, after all it is a Christmas Story, so you know that Nicolas will turn Isaac from a misanthrope to a caring father-figure by the end of the movie. Also, the dubbing in this movie is terrible at times. I really wish I had the option to watch the movie in the original Finnish with English subtitles. Perhaps the DVD will have that option, but all I have is the press screener, which doesn't even have a menu. (You pop it in your play and the trailer plays automatically followed up the movie.) There are a lot of issues with this movie, but by the end, I was drawn into the film. Depending on the extras, including the audio options, this could be a solid rental, or a solid purchase. Sadly, not even the studio site gives that information.

If you enjoy the Charles Dickens' classic story of Christmas, then I think you will also enjoy Christmas Story. The DVD is definitely worth renting, but I would hesitate recommending purchasing unless you can get the original language track.

Dora the Explorer - Dora's Christmas Carol Adventure - Buy from Amazon
A not-quite a feature-length Christmas adventure starts with Santa telling the elves about his naughty and nice lists. He's happy to report there are a lot more boys and girls on the nice list than on the naughty list, but there is a someone on the naughty list that Santa has a story about, Swiper the Fox. He has warned Swiper that if he doesn't stop swiping gifts on Christmas, he will get on the naughty list. (Does that mean he's allowed to swipe things the other 364 days of the year?) But when he swipes the Chirstmas Star from Dora's tree, it is up to Dora and the rest of the travel with Swiper to the past, present, and future to discover the true meaning of Christmas. But it could be a problem trying to convince Swiper to not swipe anything.

Obviously this is an adaptation or the Dickens' tale, A Christmas Carol, which has been adapted about a billion times. There's a reason for this; it is a classic story and even a mediocre adaptation will still have a lot going for it. Fortunately, this story is better than the average Dora the Explorer episode in a number of ways. For one thing, it is far less repetitive than the average episode. I understand the repetitive nature of the show is what helps draw in its pre-school demographic, but it's what drives me nuts the most. I don't like hearing the same few songs multiple times in nearly every episode. The music here is much better than the music we hear on the average episode, which is key.

It is a little short to be the only episode on the DVD with a running time of just over 50 minutes. But there are a couple music videos and a behind-the-scenes featurette on the creation of the theme song.

Dora the Explorer - Dora's Christmas Carol Adventure is an adaptation or the classic Christmas story from Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. It should entertain kids, while not driving their parents nuts. There are a few extras on the DVD, but the price per minute is still a little high. If you don't have Dora's Christmas on DVD, then the Two-Pack is an excellent deal, on the other hand.

Ice Age - Dawn of the Dinosaurs - Buy from Amazon: DVD, DVD with Scrat Pack, or Blu-ray
The Blu-ray arrived this week, so this is just a quick update with regards to the high definition treatment of the movie.

First a quick recap of last week's review... The movie is good, for a kids movie, but not great. Technically impressive, the story is weak, but I did like the introduction of Buck. The DVD has only an audio commentary track in terms of extras, and it is only worth a rental. The DVD with Scrat Pack has plenty of extras including making of featurettes, animated shorts, music video, etc. Solid purchase, if you have kids.

As for the Blu-ray. It has all of the extras, plus a few Blu-ray exclusives. This includes a storybook maker that allows the user to capture images from the movie and use pre-selected text to create and save storybooks. You can choose different age groups for more challenging reading material. There are a few featurettes that are exclusive to this release, including one of the cast of creatures from the movie and some of their relatives that are alive today, which I found quite interesting, and a series of short interviews with the main cast members, which was a little fluffy, but that's to be expected. As for the film's technical presentation, both the audio and the video are immaculate. Practically flawless, which is not surprising given the source material the studio had to work with. Additionally, the Blu-ray is currently 50 cents less than the DVD with Scrat Pack on Amazon.com and it comes with DVD, so your kids can watch it on their DVD player when you are using the Blu-ray player for another movie. There is literally no reason to not buy the Blu-ray if you are interested in this movie.

Like I said last week, Ice Age - Dawn of the Dinosaurs is the weakest in the franchise, but still worth picking up if you have kids of the right ages. Additionally, the the Blu-ray is by far the best deal of the three releases.

Mickey's Magical Christmas - Snowed In at the House of Mouse - Buy from Amazon
Mickey's Magical Christmas debuted on DVD about this time in 2001. This release is that DVD. And I don't mean they are re-releasing a new edition of that DVD for 2009. This is the identical DVD right down to the trailers that play automatically. So if you own the previous release, you can skip the rest of this review and move on.

Mickey's Magical Christmas is not 'A full-length holiday adventure' as the DVD cover claims, but an anthology of Christmas shorts presented with a wrap-around story. Here the wrap-around story has cast of Disney character snowed in at the House of Mouse. Most are not too upset, because at least they will be able to spend Christmas with their friends. However, Donald Duck is lacking in the Christmas spirit, so the gang takes turns telling stories trying to cheer him up. There are two 'new' shorts, Donald On Ice and The Nutcracker, both from 1999, as well as two classic shorts, Pluto’s Christmas Tree from 1952 and Mickey’s Christmas Carol from 1983. Donald On Ice is merely an average example of the Donald vs. his nephews formula, while The Nutcracker has a great performance from John Cleese as the narrator but kind of runs out of steam quickly. Maybe running out of steam isn't the right term, as it has plenty action throughout, but storywise there's not enough here to sustain its running time. As for Pluto’s Christmas Tree and Mickey’s Christmas Carol, these are both worth owning on DVD, but both were part of the recently released Volume 7 of the Disney Animation Collection series, which I reviewed here.

Extras on the DVD include an episode of House of Mouse, a short featurette on sound design, and two sing-along music videos.

If you have Mickey's Magical Christmas - Snowed In at the House of Mouse on DVD already, then there is absolutely no reason to grab the latest releases. On the other hand, if you don't have it, I think Disney Animation Collection - Volume 7 is the better deal.

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