• November 13, 2014
• At Home, Family, Music

Having grown up with the soundtrack to Mary Poppins in my little record collection, I learned the film’s fabulous songs long before I ever saw the movie. When it...

• November 11, 2014
• Adventure, At Home, Family, Fantasy

It is five years after the events of How to Train Your Dragon (a film I loved so much, it topped my Best of 2010 list). Vikings and dragons now...

• November 7, 2014
• Adventure, Animation, At Home, Family

Our scrappy hero Hiro is a smart but unfocused teen. He gambles with his creations on the robot-fighting circuit, while his idolized elder brother Tadashi excels in college. Just...

• October 13, 2014
• At Home, Comedy, Family

Picking up exactly where The Muppets left off (as in, the final song and dance number just ended, and “The End” flashes on screen), the Muppets decide that with...

• July 17, 2014
• Action, Animation, At Home, Family

I admit, after seeing Planes: Fire & Rescue, I kind of wanted a toy of one the retro park-ranger trucks, à la Glacier Park’s tourist buses from the 1930s. I...

• April 2, 2014
• Adventure, Animation, At Home, Family

There is a type of kid that I’ll call a dinosaur kid. Dinosaur kids LOVE dinosaurs. There obsession is admirable for a person of any age, and they can...

• March 6, 2014
• At Home, Comedy, Drama, Family, Television

By now, most of us are well-versed in the premise of the ABC Family drama, The Secret Life of the American Teenager.  Regardless of whether you’ve actually seen the...

• February 8, 2014
• Adventure, Animation, At Home, Family

101 Dalmatians is what I consider to be one of Disney’s Dodgy Classics. It’s cute and familiar, but it doesn’t have the substance of the Classic Classics, which offer...

• December 21, 2013
• At Home, Family, Television

It’s easy to imagine a little child passing a quiet afternoon in the company of The Beatrix Potter Collection. It smacks of rainy days spent with toys strewn over...

• November 25, 2013
• Animation, At Home, Family

Anyone who grew up in the 70s or 80s has a soft spot for the educational cartoons Schoolhouse Rock! Now that complete sets of all the original shorts have...

• November 23, 2013
• At Home, Comedy, Family

Every single Christmas, schools and churches throughout the Western world put on a Nativity play.  You can expect sloppily-costumed tots singing sincerely, flubbing lines, and generally bungling their way...

• November 19, 2013
• At Home, Comedy, Family, Fantasy

Remember those Fridays before the start of Christmas break where your teacher would basically plan a whole day of fun stuff to do, usually including festive art projects, baked...