Best Toddler Boys’ DVD

We started to collect DVD for the long road trips or sick days at home. The best Toddler DVDs we saw so far are:

Wall.E A computer-animated science fiction produced by Pixar Animation Studios. It is an environmental friendly movie. The story is about a old rusty cleaning robot, and his adventure to recall humanity of people resides on the space station. People on earth had generated too many trashes and have been forced to move to the space station. They sent back a search, combat robot, Eve, to search for any vital plant on earth. Wall.E fell in love with Eve and followed her back to the space station. There, they revealed the truth of a waste-covered earth to people and they led a journey to change humanity. Wall.E is so kind and sincere; he is a good model for my kids. All the adventures and actions catch the boys' attention and they surely are entertained by Wall.E and his friends. My children got the Wall.E robot from Disney Store, it was O.K. for a couple of days, and then they lost their interests. It may not be worthy getting the toys.

Toy story 1 and 2 Another Pixar production, the third Toy story is coming in June 2010 that likely grosses hundreds of million dollars if it is as good as the other two. The stories are about a little boy's toys coming to life. The main characters are the pull-string stuffed cowboy-woody, the space ranger- Buzz Lightyear, simply Mr. Potato head, the talking plastic piggy bank- Hamm, the sweet porcelain shepherd-Bo Peep, a toy dachshund-Slinky, and the large, green Tyrannosaurus rex-REX etc. The lovable characters and their nonstop surprising action adventures give boys and girls nonstop imagination. We can watch them again and again. Toy story 2 was a bigger hit than Toy story 1. Hopefully, we will see a better Toy Story 3 next year. Although the movies are about the toy characters, it is noticeable that the little boy's father has never seen in the first two movies.

Finding Nemo: Once again, it is a Pixar/Disney production. Personally, I was not too fun about the opening that the Mommy Nemo was eaten by a barracuda. Missing mother in many of Disney cartoon has been making me uneasy. On the top my head, there is no mother in Snow White, Cinderella, Lion King, Pocahontas, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. Snow White and Cinderella have evil stepmothers; they are not counted for being a normal family. Mother is killed or captured in Finding Nemo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Little Mermaid, Bambi, Dumbo and "One hundred and one Dalmatians". It is extremely sad to see Bambi's mother pass away or see imprison of little Dumbo's mother, I do not know why the film makers want to traumatize our little viewers in such drastic fashion. Despite of my complaints on the very graphic opening scene, the kids do like to sea creatures, and actions in Finding Nemo. They even suggested having an Aquarium after watching Nemo.

The land before time: It is series of animated film about anthropomorphic dinosaurs living in the prehistoric earth. Stories are about a group of Dinosaurs living in the Great Valley on their friendship, loyalty, adventures, and various growing up journeys. The little longneck named littlefoot, whose mother is killed by Tyrannosaurus (not again, a reminder of no mother mindset in cartoon markers). His loyal friends are: a sweet but strong will Triceratops (three-horn)-Cera, a devoted Swimmer (Parasaurolophus) named Ducky, a gentle giant Spike (Stegosaurus, spike tail), a flying dino, Petrie (Pteranodon). The characters are big attractions to my little Dinosaur-fans. In addition, the songs are cute and very upbeat. Because they are series of DVDs collection, some are better than the other. For example, The Day of Flyers is much better the Sarurs Rocks. Overall, they are very appealing to young boys for sure and perhaps for young girls as well.

The Incredibles: A 2004 Pixar animated film is distributed by Disney. The story is about a superhero family (the incredible) saving the world to battle with a super villain, Syndrome and his ingenious designs. The superhero family is actually a normal family which is comprised of BOTH PARENTS, Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl and their three kids, Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack. Mr. Incredible, Robert Parr, possesses incredible strengths. Mrs. Incredible, Helen Par, can stretch and reshape her body in a variety of forms. Violet can be invisible and she can generate force field. Dash has incredible speed and the baby Jack-Jack has developed mysterious powder including retransformation. In addition, there are side-kicks, Frozon who has powers to freeze water, and Edna Mode who is a super-eccentric fashion designer. All of them make this movie funny, adventurous, and full of non-stop actions.

Cars: All boys like cars in any form including the movie and DVD. "Cars" is a story about the soul searching journey of a racing car, named Lightening McQueen. Lightening McQueen did not win the race in the end, but he won hearts and support from all the racing fans which is far more important than a single trophy. Paul Newman was the voice behind the Doc Hudson, a retired race car, became judge and doctor. Other characters include, Mater-the funny tow truck, Sally-the shinny Porsche, Sheriff-a Mercury club coupe, Fillmore-a VW bus, Red-a old style fire truck, Guido-a custom forklift and Flo-a motorama show car etc. Every car comes in different shape and color. So many different cars and the competitive story draw boys' attentions and keep them in focus for one hour at least.

Magic School Bus (Scholastic): It is a series of Children books and cartoons. The school teacher, Ms. Frizzle takes her students on various scientific field trips boarding on the magic school bus. The bus can transform into various vehicles for space travel, diving, flying, rock climbing… and the bus and people on board can shrink to a “ cell” size to explore different fantastic topics. It is composed of all the magic elements, science, creativity and fun.

Super Why: PBS kids cartoon series feature Super Why with the power to read, alpha Pg with alphabet pig, wonder red with word power and princess presto with spelling power, as well as a super-duper computer. It increases kids reading and problem solving abilities.

To be continued….