Mike and Sulley Meet in Monsters University

The folks at Pixar are known for crafting films that tell wonderful stories full of humor and heart. Rarely has the mix been better than in Monsters, Inc., the 2001 movie set in a world in which monsters power their city by collecting the screams of children in our world. These monsters, while wildly diverse in physical traits, are largely average Joes, particularly the huge, blue-haired James Sullivan (John Goodman) and the short, one-eyed Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal). An unusually close encounter with a toddler challenges their world-view and ultimately deepens their friendship, with far-reaching consequences for their society at large.

While I did not expect Monsters University to have the emotional and spiritual depth of the film that preceded it, I was excited to hear that more than a decade after they first appeared, these unconventional buddies would be gracing the big screen again, this time in a prequel. From a purely visual standpoint, I knew it would be great fun, since this particular world offers so many opportunities to exercise artistic creativity. I also relished the thought of seeing these fantastic friends in action again. While I don’t think this will attain the classic status that Toy Story 2 has, I found it a very enjoyable return to familiar territory.

While I would consider Sulley the slightly more main character in Monsters, Inc., Mike moves into greater prominence here. In fact, the movie begins with him as an adorable youngster rejected by his classmates for his small size, braces and overall nerdiness. A trip to the scare factory gives him a sense of direction, and his arrival at Monsters University is the result of intensive study. His passion for the material knows no bounds, but can this rather goofy fellow actually be scary? How will he stand a chance against the raw talent of someone like fellow freshman James Sullivan, a true jock among monsters?

In many ways, this is a typical college comedy about a nerd and a popular person learning from each other. Many of the jokes borrow from other films in that genre, but the creators put a fun Pixar spin on them that makes the movie great fun to watch. As in the first movie, the monsters display all sorts of creative characteristics, and here, the emphasis is on teamwork – finding ways to make those traits come together in productive ways. This is best demonstrated in the members of Oozma Kappa, the uber-dorky fraternity of misfits that Mike and Sulley join so they can enter a campus-wide contest to prove to the austere university headmistress, a dragon voiced by Helen Mirren, that they deserve to be students there.

At first, Mike and Sulley are rivals too blinded by their own pride to form a useful partnership, while their teammates are merely ineffective and lacking in proper leadership. Eventually, however, they learn to develop their strengths and use them to everyone’s benefit. Two-headed Terri and Terry and super-flexible Art are fun, but particularly prominent are the beautifully bland Squishy, his sweetly overbearing mother (in whose home the fraternity is housed) and Don, the fraternity’s middle-aged founder. Together, they make a lovable bunch of underdogs.

While there’s at least one line in the original movie that seems to clash with the storyline presented here, the film generally does a good job of meshing believably with Monsters, Inc., and the nods to that movie are fun, particularly running jokes like Mike’s tendency to get obscured in photographs. Not only do we see the evolution of Mike and Sulley’s friendship, but of their rivalry with Randall (Steve Buscemi), the sneaky chameleon-like lizard who causes them no end of trouble at the factory. His progression is an interesting study in the dark side of desiring popularity.

While neither the movie nor the charming short involving a blue umbrella’s quest to find happiness are the most memorable of Pixar’s efforts, they are thoroughly enjoyable, and the visual spectacle of the film is more pronounced than ever. The backdrops are particularly impressive. While many of the jokes seem to aim more at an adult audience as they draw on previous films, there’s nothing objectionable for parents to worry about, and there’s plenty of slapstick to keep the youngest kids entertained. A tribute to friendship and the value of hard work and overcoming prejudices, Monsters University is a fun and colorful summer flick.

Disney Offers a Nice Mix of Christmas Classics With a Few New Tunes

We've moved into full-on Christmas mode in my house this year, so when I recalled that yesterday was Mickey Mouse's birthday, a Disney Christmas album seemed like a good way to celebrate. So it was that we stumbled upon Disney's Family Christmas Collection, a group of 20 songs befitting the season.

Many of the songs here just have a pleasant, generic feel to them. Some have a peppy kid's chorus and sometimes an adult soloist in the tradition of many classic Disney recordings. Songs in this vein include Frosty the Snowman, Joy to the World and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Most of the tracks are quite short, ranging from about a minute to two and a half minutes, which keeps things moving along quickly and almost guarantees that if you don't like the current song, you'll soon find a song that you do like.

The album isn't especially well mixed, as the first batch of songs generally has a much more upbeat feel, while the second batch is more sedate. Still, this could be handy, as kids might prefer the first half and adults the second. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and Winter Wonderland are both tracks that appear earlier on the album but better fit the tone of the second half, as they are short choral arrangements with plenty of harmony. Other tracks in this style include the serene Bring a Torch Jeannette, Isabella, the madrigalesque Carol of the Bells and the reverent O Come All Ye Faithful.

Then there are the traditional songs that highlight individual singers. My favorite of these is probably Jolly Old St. Nicholas, which is performed by Anndi McAfee, whose childlike voice is sweet, strong and perfectly suited to the innocence of the narrator. Though I didn't realize this initially, she voiced Cera the triceratops in several sequels to The Land Before Time, a staple of my childhood.  Catherine Lucille's lovely version of Silent Night, backed by an "ooh"-ing chorus, is one of the album's longest tracks at nearly four minutes in length. Another is Chris Martin's slightly Celtic-tinged What Child Is This? Meanwhile, Terry Wood's a cappella rendition of Away in a Manger is just over a minute long.

Other songs seem to be new. The album concludes with Martin's touching Angel Time, which has to do with the idea that we are all observed and protected by angels. On the sillier end of things is Rayvon's Santa Rap, a beatbox-heavy rap that deals with the distribution of toys to kids. My definite favorite song along these lines here is Rare Old Christmas, an old-timey, pipe-laden song performed by Ed Miller, who sounds like a charming elderly Irish pub denizen as he offers a benediction to listeners, wishing them laughter and the joy of music.

Of course, it would be disappointing to listen to an album in honor of Mickey if the mouse himself didn't put in a few appearances. He, Minnie and Goofy are an integral part of the bouncy Jingle Bells and Deck the Halls, and they also chime in on Here Comes Santa Claus. Donald is a bit quieter on this album, perhaps because of his poor enunciation skills, but he's right in the thick of things on the sound effects-laden Sleigh Ride. The more prominent duck, however, is Ludwig Von Drake, who sings the only unique Christmas song that involves the Disney characters. That would be the very entertaining The Science of the Season, which attempts to explain such phenomena as flying reindeer and Santa squeezing into chimneys but ultimately chalks much of it up to magic.

This album includes 20 tracks but is only 45 minutes long, so it really is fast-paced. Plenty of certified Christmas classics appear here, though, and most of them are quite straightforward. While I generally prefer a little more personality and comedy in a novelty Christmas album, the more general tone of most of these tracks makes it fitting for background music at a party, and if anyone listening closely happens to recognize Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald or Drake, that should just be more reason to smile.

An Impetuous Princess Learns to Be Brave

When it comes to movies, this year is dominated by The Hobbit, a film I have been eagerly anticipating ever since Return of the King came out in 2003. However, that won't hit theaters until December, so I had to have another release to tide me over in the meantime. Happily for me, another summer meant a new Pixar movie, and one that seemed to go especially well with The Hobbit to boot.

Unlike previous Pixar flicks, Brave is set in the distant past, and it happens to take place in the bonny land of Scotland, which I have always found singularly alluring. When the first trailers began to surface, I was swept away in the majesty of the animation and the lilting score and intrigued by apparent indications of an epic scope with scenes reminiscent of Lord of the Rings. I found myself anticipating this movie more highly than any Pixar film preceding it.

Now that I have finally seen it, I am not prepared to unequivocally state that it is my favorite of Pixar's offerings, but it is an excellent film that does ignite that adventurous side of me. It's the tale of Merida (Kelly MacDonald), a Scottish princess with an unruly mop of fiery red hair that matches her personality. She is a whirling dervish who has always been more interested in archery and running free through the forest with her horse than training to be a proper queen. When her parents announce to her that they have invited representatives of the neighboring clans to a tournament in which the princes will vie for her hand, she is appalled.

Merida has no interest in monarchy or matrimony. All her life, she's felt trapped by the role for which she is being prepared, and she is desperate for a way out. When her cleverness and skill fail to provide her with the chance to carve out her own destiny, she turns to magic in the depths of the forest... and gets more than she bargained for.

Merida is a feisty lass, and while this setting is more antiquated than most, she feels quite modern in her attitudes. Of all the previous Disney princesses, she reminds me most of Ariel in her persistent defiance, though Mulan also comes to mind as she has the heart of a warrior. She also feels younger than most Disney princesses; I didn't catch an age, but she doesn't strike me as much older than 14, so it's little wonder she's freaking out about the adult responsibilities about to be forced on her. She also feels very teenagerish in the snippy way she treats her mother, and that relationship is more central to the tale than any other.

Emma Thompson is perfectly regal as the elegant Queen Elinor (and this Austen geek loves that she shares a name with Thompson's character in the 1995 version of Sense and Sensibility, for which she wrote the exceptional screenplay). Her voice is still recognizable, but there's a bit of a brogue in there. Her accent is not as strong as Merida's, but that is partly because the queen is so refined; that hint of a Scottish lilt felt like perpetual wink to Elinor's wilder side.

By contrast, Billy Connolly's brogue as King Fergus is robust and unrestrained as he weaves his gleefully embroidered tales about his close encounter with a belligerent bear. This peg-legged king is a natural-born storyteller, and while his sweetly unruly spirit leaves him in frequent sympathy with his daughter, it's clear that the queen really rules the roost in this family. As much as I love the journey of understanding that Merida and Elinor take together, this boyish rascal is my favorite character.

The film is absolutely gorgeous to look at, particularly in terms of landscapes, and Patrick Doyle's Celtic score complements that beauty perfectly, as do the songs that are incorporated as background. The central plot is not quite as grandiose as I expected, occurring closer to home rather than taking Merida on a lengthy journey through the Scottish highlands. Nonetheless, this film feels very much in the realm of fantasy and adventure, and as such, it has a slightly somber feel to it that is atypical for Pixar. Consequently, it isn't as funny as most, particularly in terms of dialogue, though it does have its moments, and there is considerable physical comedy, particularly involving Merida's mischievous little triplet brothers and the rather ridiculous neighboring clan leaders and their sons.

Preceding the movie is the short La Luna, which fits in well with the theme of a communication gap between parent and child and a youth's creative way of facing obstacles. In this case, it's a wide-eyed boy helping his father and grandfather complete a wondrous nightly task involving the moon. Though no actual words are exchanged, the inflection in the muttering voices makes it easy to infer the gist of the conversation. It's worth it to stay to the end of the credits, too, as the filmmakers offer a short additional scene as a reward.

In the beginning, Merida is not so much brave as she is impetuous, but by film's end, she has a much better handle on what genuine bravery involves and how best to express it. She, and maybe those in the audience, also come to understand that being brave does not always have to mean going it alone and that learning to work alongside those you love, however deep your differences, may be one of the most courageous acts of all.

Embrace the Magic of Disney's First Soundtrack With Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

When I think of my favorite Disney soundtracks, I tend to gravitate toward the 1990s, with a side trip to the 1960s for the wonderful Mary Poppins. However, great music has been a part of Disney all along, as early as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, so I recently took that first soundtrack, which had been lovingly pieced together and remastered, out of the library and gave it few spins.

Naturally, this 26-track album has a rather old-fashioned sound to it, with lots of woodwinds and strings helping to set the arboreal tone, sometimes beauteous, sometimes perilous. Many of the instrumental tracks, such as the eerie Magic Mirror, ominous Queen Theme and whimsical Let's See What's Upstairs, are quite short, while others, like the half-comical, half-alarming There's Trouble A-Brewing and the dark I've Been Tricked, pass the four-minute mark.

The Overture serves as a lovely preview to the rest of the album, while the organ music in Chorale for Snow White, the last purely instrumental track, is fittingly mournful. One of my favorite pieces of music is Why, Grumpy, You Do Care, the flutey tones of which sweetly accompany a wonderful moment in the film that demonstrates the effect this innocent young woman has had on the grumbly Grumpy.

The relationship among those seven endearing bachelors and the naïve princess is the heart of the movie, even more so, really, than the true love that awaits at the conclusion, and the tracks that explore the dwarfs' personalities and reactions are a lot of fun. These include It's a Girl, the longest instrumental track; the upbeat Hooray! She Stays; and the gentle Pleasant Dreams.

Snow White's instrumental tracks reflect her naivety and the beauty of the woodland that surrounds her. Far into the Forest starts off bucolic before turning panicky, while the harp-drenched Just Like a Doll's House is pure delight. By contrast, the tracks involving the queen are unsettling. A Special Sort of Death prickles with malice, while Makin' Pies goes from pretty to urgent as an innocent activity takes a dark turn that culminates in the short but distressing Have a Bite.

While the score by Paul Smith and Leigh Hairline makes for great listening, it's the songs by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey that really capture one's attention. I'll admit that the extremely high voice of Adriana Caselotti as Snow White grates on me a bit at times, but I still enjoy her songs. Animal Friends / With a Smile and a Song and Whistle While You Work complement each other perfectly, demonstrating her ability to be upbeat in the face of challenges and establishing the tradition of Disney princesses to whom animals are magnetically attracted.

Someday My Prince Will Come is a romantic classic, and I like I'm Wishing / One Song even better, though that's mostly because of Harry Stockwell as the prince, whose melodious ditty returns as part of the lush finale, Love's First Kiss. All the romance in Snow White is incredibly simplistic and idealized, of course; she and the prince fall in love instantly without knowing a thing about each other. Still, for what it is, I like it.

Still, I prefer the songs of the dwarfs, given voice by Roy Atwell, Pinto Colvig, Otis Harlan, Billy Gilbert, Scotty Mattraw and Eddie Collins. The distant, malevolent queen never gets to sing for herself, but the dwarfs express themselves quite freely, and their comical, good-hearted camaraderie is my favorite part of the movie and soundtrack alike.

Heigh-Ho is probably the song that has permeated the public consciousness most completely - not so much the earlier, sound effects-laden discussion of their work in the mines, but the cheery chant that accompanies their departure. The largely instrumental Bluddle-Uddle-Um-Dum (the Dwarfs' Washing Song), led by Atwell as Doc, includes lots of silly noises and a great Grumpy moment as his companions force him to clean up for dinner. More silliness follows in the gleefully nonsensical The Dwarfs' Yodel Song (the Silly Song), which allows most of the dwarfs a moment in the spotlight.

This album also includes two tracks omitted from the movie, both of them involving the dwarfs. Music in Your Soup makes a natural follow-up to the washing song as the dwarfs sing their way through dinner, slurping and clanging all the way. The sound quality is definitely sub-par on You're Never Too Old to Be Young, the last track on the album, which starts with the yodeling from the yodel song. This one is a lot of fun and reminds me of Dr. Seuss's You're Only Old Once! Unlike the other deleted song, however, I really can't see it fitting into the movie. For one thing, it really is geared toward seniors, who will best appreciate all the specific ailments mentioned here; for another, it seems an odd song for them to be singing to Snow White, though I suppose the point would be to assure her that they know how to party despite all their creaks. I think this would have made a fun stand-alone short, and I don't think there would have been much reason to have Snow White in it at all.

While there are Disney soundtracks that rank higher on my list of favorites than Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, this is still an excellent album that captures an essential piece of Disney history.

Pluto Cleans Up in Mickey Mouse and the Pet Show

I have had two dogs in my life, and neither of them has been at all fond of baths. It seems to be a common trait among dogs, and it's certainly the case for Pluto in the Golden Easy Reader Mickey Mouse and the Pet Show, written by Joan Phillips and illustrated by Darrell Baker.

In this silly story, Mickey Mouse sees a sign for a pet show and decides that Pluto should participate, but first he will need a bath. Rounding him up for this beautification will not be an easy task, however. With some help from Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Minnie Mouse and Goofy, will he be able to get the stubborn pooch to cooperate? And will it be worth all the effort afterward?

Most of the stories that I have read from this series are very much on the light-hearted side, even if they may have a lesson attached. If there's a main lesson here, I suppose it's that cleanliness is a good thing, even if achieving it means being inconvenienced. The book also celebrates the persistence of Mickey and his friends as they attempt to accomplish what they have set out to do. There's a further lesson tied in with the book's conclusion, but that's something readers will have to discover for themselves.

This book is designed for early readers, so it uses a lot of simple vocabulary and repetition. The word "bath," for instance, comes up nine times, and "sign" is in the book five times. Words that are especially important to the story resurface again and again, and if the young reader does not yet know how to spell those words, it's a great learning opportunity.

The characters in this book all look good, and Pluto makes some very funny expressions as he dreads the possibility of getting wet. None of the characters is wearing anything specifically associated with him or her. Donald and Goofy wear sweaters, while Mickey is in overalls and Minnie and Daisy are in dresses, having been interrupted in the middle of a tea party by their friends chasing Pluto down the street. They look a little silly later as everyone runs around the yard trying to corner Pluto, but I guess their willingness to wear inappropriate dog-bathing attire and probably get it all dirty just shows what good friends they are.

This story has a bit of a twist ending that makes all the shenanigans leading up to it even funnier. Kids who love the core gang of Disney characters or dogs in general should find Mickey Mouse and the Pet Show to be good clean fun.

Daisy's Secret Could Cause Some Problems

Secrets are tricky things. It can be very difficult to keep knowledge from people you care about, but sometimes there is value in staying quiet. In Daisy's Secret, part of Minnie 'n' Me: The Best Friends Collection, the secret is a surprise party, and the real surprise is that even most of the guests don't know what's going on. They just know that they've been given cryptic instructions to follow, and they're a little irritated that they're not in on the secret. Will the result be worth the hurt feelings, or will this big surprise be a big bust?

Surprise party stories abound in children's books, and usually it's the guest of honor who feels confused and neglected. In an effort to make that person feel special later, the friends usually first make him or her feel abandoned. Here, instead of one person being in the dark, it's several, except they know that something is going on and that eventually they will be in on it. It's an interesting twist on the formula.

This is not a series that I had encountered before. It has a very 90s look to it, particularly when it comes to the clothes that Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse wear as they square off in basketball. More distinctive than the clothes, though, are the characters, who, instead of being adults, as they usually are, now look like kids.

Along with Daisy and Minnie, who are best friends, we have Clarabelle Cow, Lilly Lamb and Penny, who looks to be a dog of some type - Penny Pooch, maybe? Clarabelle, Lilly and Penny dress much more conservatively than Minnie and Daisy, wearing dresses that seem more suited to the first decade of the 20th century than the last, particularly at school. Minnie and Daisy do have comparable dresses, but they only wear them at the party.

The main idea in this story is that suspense increases enjoyment, so it's good to keep secrets on an occasion such as a surprise party, the whole purpose of which is to bring happiness to someone. One definitely gets the feeling that these five girls are good friends who value each other's feelings. I did notice that there isn't a single male character to be found in this book, and I'm curious whether that's true of all the books in this series.

Author Ruth Lerner Perle does seem to be trying a bit too hard to make this book as overtly feminine as possible; I certainly think boys and girls should be able to intermingle freely. Then again, if I were to venture a guess, it seems like these characters are in middle school, which is often a very awkward age when it comes to mixed-gender friendships. Still, I would hope that Mickey, Donald, Goofy and other male characters show up in other stories in this, which evidently was a mail-order series.

Speaking of mail, the book concludes with Minnie inviting the reader to write to her. It's like a proto-PostSecret: "Don't forget to send me the enclosed letter about a secret you had to keep." Of course, that letter is nowhere to be seen in the library copy I read, nor is Minnie's address printed anywhere. Then again, considering that this book is 20 years old, I highly doubt that letters would still be accepted at that address.

Daisy's Secret is a cute story about friendship, trust and patience. While it feels a bit dated and overly gender-specific, it's fun to see these classic Disney characters as kids with a strong network of friends.

A Spooky Adventure Isn't So Scary After All

The Pixar movie Monsters, Inc. is all about monsters who come into the bedrooms of little children at night, initially to scare them. In the level two Step Into Reading book A Spooky Adventure, fears of such monsters and other spookables have another group of Pixar characters all riled up.

Written by Apple Jordan and illustrated by Alan Batson and Lori Tyminski, A Spooky Adventure is set after Toy Story 3, so it includes not only cowboy Woody, space ranger Buzz and several other members of the classic Toy Story gang - namely, neurotic dino Rex, the Potatoheads, loyal Bullseye and Slinky Dog, vivacious Jessie and practical piggybank Hamm - it also features triceratops Trixie, unicorn Buttercup, hedgehog Mr. Pricklepants and clown Chuckles, their new friends from Bonnie's room.

These new friends are very important in this story because, having lived with sweet, energetic Bonnie much longer, they know how things work around her house. Bonnie's vivid imagination leads her to make up the game Haunted Bakery, where prop ghosts figure prominently, and this gives most of the new recruits a case of the willies. They begin to see sinister beings lurking everywhere, especially when they are left alone on a rainy night, and it's up to these longtime residents to reveal the man behind the curtain, whether it's a pair of bunny slippers they mistake for a monster or a mop that resembles a dragon.

This is a story that could help comfort a child feeling anxious about strange noises or shapes that surface at night. Jordan strikes a good balance here, showing that spookiness of the variety that Bonnie introduces can be fun but urging kids not to let their imaginations run wild at nighttime if the result is anxiety and sleeplessness. It's a Scooby Doo kind of ending, but without anyone being villainous. All we have here are simple misunderstandings.

The pictures are a lot of fun to peruse here. Retaining the computer-animated look of the movies, unlike some tie-in books that recreate the characters in a flat, retro style, it feels like it could be an animated short. Granted, it lacks the rapid-fire banter and sight gags of those shorts, but for the format, it's still a funny read, and the pictures are great fun, with the dark shading making it all feel just a bit scary. While that makes it an especially appropriate choice for October, this is really an any-time-of-year book.

The wording in the story is simple without being particularly repetitive, though it does follow a basic formula throughout most of the book. One member of Woody's gang identifies something scary, and one of Bonnie's toys reveals that it actually is something completely innocuous. There's always a picture that gives us the toys' perception first, so kids can have fun guessing what the object might actually be, which makes the book more interactive.

It seems likely that the Toy Story franchise won't include any more feature films, but I'm glad to see that there is a place for new mini-adventures with these wonderful characters, especially when they are done as well as this book is.

Chasing Off Chipmunks Takes Ingenuity in Donald Duck and the Garden

I've always been very fond of chipmunks, so I love the Disney cartoons dealing with a mischievous Chip and Dale squaring off against an increasingly aggravated Donald Duck. Donald Duck and the Garden, a Disney Easy Reader written by Joan Phillips and illustrated by Francese Mateu, tells one of those tales.

In this summery story, Donald is a gardener, and he looks the part in his red plaid shirt and blue vest. All he wants is to grow some fruit and veggies, but that's hard to accomplish with Chip and Dale thwarting him at every turn. It's an epic battle of the wills, and the rascally chipmunks remind me of free-spirited hobbits Merry and Pippin making off with Farmer Maggot's crops in the film version of Fellowship of the Ring. They do it because they are hungry but also because it's fun to cause a stir.

Like other books in this series, Donald Duck and the Garden uses very simple language and plenty of repetition. The book establishes early on that Donald and the chipmunks are old rivals, which makes the repetition feel more natural. This is a game they've played again and again, just not always in this arena. This time around, Donald keeps coming up with new strategies to scare the duo away, while they keep coming back to try again another day.

"Stop! Stop!" "Help! Help!" "Run! Run!" These exclamations appear several times, as do assertions by the characters that they know each other very well and can anticipate what move the other will make next. Despite their bravado, the chipmunks do react with alarm to Donald's devices, but that doesn't stop them for long. This is a book about creative problem-solving and persistence with a resolution that leaves all three characters more satisfied than I would have expected from the madcap tone.

The pictures are cheerful and fun, with the instantly recognizable main characters getting on each other's nerves amidst several distinctive props. I especially like the robotic chipmunk Donald concocts, though I wonder how in the world he managed to construct it. While Donald often comes across as incompetent in his tales, that isn't the case here. His expressions of exasperation are entertaining, but they stem from the determination of his adversaries, not his own shortcomings.

This is a fun story focusing on three beloved Disney characters and featuring cameos by five others. The basic sentence structure and appealing pictures make it a fine fit for young readers, and the zaniness of the backyard battle is good for a laugh any time of year.

The Dwarfs Show Their Love for Snow White in What a Surprise!

Disney's first animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, is a film that continues to delight audiences more than seven decades later. The sweetness of Snow White and the clumsy affability of the dwarfs who shelter her make for a winning combination. That combo is revisited in What a Surprise!, the fifth volume in the Disney Storytime Treasures Library.

Written by Lisa Ann Marsoli and illustrated by Adam Devaney and Diana Wakeman, this story takes place shortly after Snow White's arrival at the dwarfs' cottage. The seven short men want to show the princess how happy they are to have her as their guest, so they decide to surprise her by doing all the chores while she indulges in a nice long nap, dreaming the day away with visions of her Prince Charming.

This is one of the funnier installments in this particular series. Most of the stories have a heartwarming message about friendship and consideration for others, but humor is sometimes lacking. Here, all of the dwarfs, well-meaning as they are, manage to bungle their tasks in comically disastrous ways. The funniest illustrations involve Dopey attempting to bake muffins. There's also a rather alarming pair of pictures showing the chaos that ensues when the dwarfs accidentally bring a swarm of bees into the house with them.

The illustrations feature rustic coloring, with the rosy cheeks of Snow White and the dwarfs heavily accentuated. All of the characters seem to pretty much be themselves, and Doc's spoonerisms are particularly fun. While the woodland animals don't play a huge role in this story, we do see them quietly observing the outdoor tasks of the various dwarfs. The squirrels seem to be especially curious about what is happening.

While Snow White does mention Prince Charming, there is no reference to the queen in this book, so it has a very lighthearted feel to it. The only conflict comes through the dwarfs' clumsiness. How big a mess will they make of things before Snow White wakes up? How will she react to their attempts to keep house on their own? This book emphasizes Snow White's gentle nature, and her tact in the final pages makes me smile as she finds a way to express her gratitude for the dwarfs' consideration.

With seven speaking characters, this is a story with plenty of dialogue, but the narration is well-written as well, with the onomatopoeia on several pages adding a fun touch. In addition to the regular story, this tale, like the others in this series, has a brief poem at the end summing up the main idea of the book. Some of these are better-written than others, and I like this one a lot, as it discusses how touched Snow White is because "she saw how hard they tried / to show her in so many ways / the love they felt inside."

Indeed, there are many different ways to demonstrate love, as the dwarfs' sincere efforts here show. The idea that the end result is less important than the thought put into it is endearing and should encourage children to flex their own creative muscles and not be discouraged if their own expressions of love may be a bit clumsy.

Celebrate Halloween and Christmas With Ichabod and Mr. Toad

The Wind in the Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow are two classic pieces of literature, but I wouldn’t have thought to put them together. Disney did, though, and the result was the 1949 package film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. It’s unusual in that it tells just two stories; the package films typically include several different segments, each of which is shorter than either tale told here. What it amounts to is about half an hour per story, so there’s room for some decent development even though neither one is individually of feature length.

The main thematic tie between the stories seems to be that they are literary classics, one from England, one from America. Other similarities can be found; for instance, both integrally involve a holiday and a horse-drawn cart. Mostly, though, the tie between the two is that these are books that could be sitting on the shelf next to each other. Basil Rathbone is the sophisticated narrator of the first part of the film, which focuses on the reckless Mr. Toad, and his warm voice is perfectly suited to the task. Bing Crosby feels like less of a natural narrator for the second half, which deals with Ichabod Crane, but the role allows him to do some singing, which is the task at which he really shines.

I prefer the first tale, which is much livelier, in part because each of the characters is played by a different actor and there is quite a bit of dialogue. Toads seem to be inherently troublesome creatures, more so than frogs, which have a bit of a reputation in fiction for steady dependability. After all, look at Kermit the Frog (at least, when he’s not blowing a gasket). The contrast is strongest in Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad series, and silly, sulky Toad with his peculiar whims would certainly have a kindred spirit in Mr. Toad. They’re not bad fellows, but trouble seems to follow them, and sometimes they bring it upon themselves.

The story of Mr. Toad is set in the idyllic English countryside, where the eccentric millionaire is constantly wreaking havoc with his dangerous obsessions. It’s up to his faithful, long-suffering friends to keep him out of trouble and to try to prove his innocence after he runs afoul of the law. Toad is rather obnoxious but lovable nonetheless. Severe Angus MacBadger (Campbell Scott), who oversees his affairs, is a fun character, particularly because of his pronounced Scottishness, but he is less prominent than the even-keeled Rat (Claud Allister) or my favorite character, mild-mannered Mole (Colin Campbell). Other characters, including Mr. Toad’s horse and a freakish-looking villain named Mr. Winky, come into the picture, but this is the core quartet. It’s a raucous romp and a touching story of friendship set partially against the beauty of a pristine English Christmas, and it’s quite satisfying.

I’m not quite as fond of Ichabod’s story, partly because it’s just plain creepy. It makes me chuckle that in a film that includes a Christmas story, Crosby, who is so associated with the upcoming holiday, narrates the tale set at Halloween. It also strikes me as funny that the Christmas story comes first. The animation of a fiery New England autumn is quite appealing, but the human characters aren’t quite as enjoyable to look at as the animals in the first story. Ichabod in particular is a bit goofy-looking, though this would not necessarily be a drawback if he were a more likable character. Unfortunately, this gangly schoolteacher is a lazy womanizing glutton who can’t wait to hitch his wagon to the richest girl in town so he can live like a king for the rest of his days. Hence, although he’s the protagonist, he doesn’t exactly inspire a great deal of affection from me. It doesn’t help that there’s so little actual dialogue in this story, and what’s there is mostly voiced by Crosby. This makes the characters in this segment feel much more distant, leading to a definite sense of detachment.

The meat of the story is the rivalry between Ichabod and burly Brom Bones, who both want the pretty heiress Katrina Van Tassel for a wife, though love doesn’t seem to be a factor for either of them. They both appear to see her as more of a prize than a person. Brom reminds me a lot of Gaston from Disney’s much later Beauty and the Beast except that he is not quite so immensely popular. Still, he makes a potent adversary, and his dramatic ghost story is enough to give Ichabod a major case of the heebie-jeebies. Me too. The headless horseman scene that follows is truly terrifying, no matter what your interpretation of the incident is.

I’m not sure that this is the most natural pair of stories to put together, but it works well enough, and each is memorable in its own way. While I personally don’t want anything to do with Sleepy Hollow except around Halloween, I’m happy to pay a visit to Mr. Toad any time of year.

Chaos Ensues With Donald Duck at the Toy Store

There’s a wonderful scene in the Tom Hanks movie Big in which the main character, a 12-year-old kid in the body of a 30-year-old, goes to an expansive toy store and simply basks in the visceral delight of playing with just about everything in sight. The owner is so charmed by his enthusiasm that he not only joins him for an unconventional rendition of Heart and Soul on the giant stompable keyboard, he makes him a special consultant.

In the Golden Easy Reader Donald Duck at the Toy Store, the owner has a much less favorable reaction when Donald Duck decides to start trying out the merchandise. While it’s the same-old-toys malaise of his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie that prompts the excursion, Donald is the one who goes nuts when they arrive at the store, and his idea of testing out the toys seems to involve breaking them and everything in the vicinity. What a calamity for the shopkeeper! What an embarrassment for the triplets! What can be done to make him stop?

This book, written by Joan Phillips and illustrated by Willy Ito, Claudia Mielnik and Roy Wilson, is similar in tone and format to other Golden Easy Readers starring Donald, particularly Donald Duck, TV Star. Basically, it involves Donald making a mess and the boys (or ducklings, I suppose) trying to clean it up. In this book, however, it all starts with him wanting to do something nice for his nephews, so it’s hard to fault him too much. But once he gets to that store, a sort of madness overtakes him. The pictures capture that crazed enthusiasm very well, particularly with the rings in his eyes.

Like other books in this series, it uses a lot of repetition, particularly in the middle section, which involves one of the nephews pointing something out as a good toy, then Donald offering to try it, injuring himself as a result and declaring it a bad toy. It reminds me of the Berenstain Bears book in which Papa Bear takes his son and his fellow scouts on a camp-out and insists on showing them how to do everything, which inevitably leads to disaster and to them using their own expertise to fix the damage he’s done. Donald, like Papa Bear, is a great big kid at heart. While that makes him more lovable, it also makes him more disaster-prone.

The simplicity of the writing makes this book a great one for readers just getting used to a few basic words like “toys” (which appears, in plural or singular form, 15 times) and “try” (which appears eight times). It’s also a bit of a fun challenge to keep the triplets straight; each one is singled out once, and after that, kids can go through the book and point out who’s who based on their clothes. The fact that all of them have both red and blue on them somewhere makes this even trickier.

This is a fun story that doesn’t discourage enthusiasm but does urge a bit of restraint. I think Donald would be a very fun uncle to have – as long as he doesn’t put everybody in traction.

Quirky Castaway Children Seek Their Heritage in Escape to Witch Mountain

Years ago, I saw the Disney movie Escape to Witch Mountain, and it was one of those films I remembered fondly but vaguely. The memory is much fresher now that I just rewatched the 1975 John Hough fantasy about two orphans with strange abilities trying to figure out exactly who they are.

Those children are the adorable and well-mannered Tia Malone (Kim Richards) and her older brother Tony (Ian Eisenmann). Both have telekinetic powers, but Tia’s are keener, and she also has premonitions and a penchant for telepathy. After their foster parents die, they wind up in an orphanage, but their stay is cut short when the sinister Lucas (Donald Pleasence) gets a dramatic demonstration of her powers, which are of great interest to his rich, power-hungry boss, Aristotle Bolt (Ray Milland). However gilded their new cage may be, it is still a prison, and a dangerous one at that. They make their escape from their posh adoptive home, but how long can they evade such determined captors?

Young children with magical powers automatically make for intriguing movie fodder, and the mystery of their origins makes their story all the more compelling. It helps, too, that these are such incredibly nice kids, and you really want the best for them. Their powers provide ample opportunity for slapstick, particularly once Tia forges a peculiar kinship with a large bear, but this is really more of a drama than a comedy. The heart of the tale is the deep bond the children share and the development of their relationship with Jason O’Day (Eddie Albert), a crusty vagabond in whose trailer the kids hide out after making their escape from Aristotle and Lucas. Their black cat also plays an integral role in the story, particularly in terms of bringing the kids and the avowed kid-hater together.

The cast is strong all around, but Albert and Richards are the two standouts, and his gruff cynicism and her gentle innocence complement each other well. Their quest becomes not only escape from a megalomaniacal millionaire but also a journey of self-discovery as the children begin to remember their past and find a map that may lead to important answers about their family. Both Richards and Eisenmann are veterans of episodes of Little House on the Prairie in which they played unusually pure-hearted children, and that is a quality they both bring to this movie, while Albert’s ornery antics ultimately only serve to make his character more endearing.

It had been ages since I saw Escape to Witch Mountain, so I wasn’t entirely sure if it would hold up well after all this time. Happily, I loved it just as much this time around. Yes, some of the effects were a bit cheesy and I didn't focus too much on plot details beyond the basic short-term quest story, but it gave me the same fuzzy feeling it did when I was a kid. I haven’t seen the recent remake, so I don’t know if that does this one justice, but the original is a prime example of the charm to be found in the best of Disney’s live-action films.

The Grasshopper and the Ants Learn From Each Other

In the 1998 Pixar movie A Bug’s Life, the members of a colony of hardworking ants are routinely bullied into giving most of their carefully collected food to a thuggish grasshopper and his cronies. Decades earlier, Disney presented another story about diligent ants and a lazy grasshopper. In the 1934 Silly Symphony The Grasshopper and the Ants, the larger insect is not cruel, just irresponsible. Though the ants warn him to prepare for the harsh winter weather to come, he continues on his merry way until he is forced to concede that they are right and that he should have spent some of his time getting ready.

The book version of Disney’s take on this ancient fable was written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Larry Moore. The paintings have a drab and rather fuzzy look about them. It certainly looks like a throwback to an earlier time in animation. The grasshopper is a jolly soul with bright, enormous eyes and a wide smile. He wears a red shirt and a green jacket that matches his green top hat, and he plays his fiddle merrily, inviting anyone he meets to join in his revelry. The ants are a bit less distinctive; they are black with brown legs, and many of them wear no clothes at all. Those who do mostly wear only a hat or bow; the queen in her regal pink gown and golden crown is the only one fully dressed.

In the original version of the story, after the grasshopper fails to heed the warnings of the ants, winter catches him by surprise and he appeals to the well-stocked ants for mercy, asking them for food and shelter, but they coldly turn him away. The moral appears to be that it is best to prepare for lean times instead of spending all your days goofing off, but the ants’ lack of charity rankles, so it’s hard to really see their industry as a great virtue under the circumstances.

In Disney’s version, the ants have more sympathy for their foolish friend, so instead of simply leaving him out in the cold to freeze and starve to death, they invite him in and he has the opportunity to repent, make amends and turn over a new leaf. In the original version, I think that while the grasshopper is too lackadaisical, the ants are too harsh. Disney offers a better balance, showing that it is important to work hard but that life is also to be enjoyed and that kindness to one’s neighbors is as high a virtue as dedicated self-sufficiency.

The Disney short includes a song that the grasshopper sings, and that appears in the book as well, though of course, you have to imagine the melody as he sings. The World Owes Me a Living is the name of the song, and it’s rather obnoxious, at least until he changes his tune. The lyrics were written by Larry Morey, but most of the words in the book are Brown’s. A prolific writer of children’s books, she moves the story along artfully, a few sentences at a time. The narration and dialogue is set apart in brown boxes, with the illustrations either taking up a full page or a large portion of the page, set against a white backdrop.

With the new year upon us, we are now in the midst of the winter in which this book concludes, or at least I am in Pennsylvania. I can never quite decide if I am the grasshopper or the ant. I’d like to think I have a pretty decent work ethic and that I manage my resources wisely, but I also spend a lot of time in leisurely pursuits. I think the key is to stick to neither extreme. Be more like the cricket, known for its merry music but associated with the making of sound moral decisions. In the end, in this more optimistic version of Aesop’s classic, the grasshopper comes to appreciate the value of hard work and the ants recognize the worth of merrymaking. All of them are able to appreciate that giving of yourself and letting your efforts bless others carries the sweetest rewards of all.

Disney Princesses Celebrate the Season in Winter Wishes

Earlier this fall, I read a couple of books that place various Disney princesses in autumnal settings. Now, with Christmas almost upon us, I perused the level two Step Into Reading book Winter Wishes, which features six of the ten princesses in the midst of wintry activities.

In this book, Apple Jordan writes in rhyme, which gives the story a nice lilt, though the rhythm is not as strong as it could be. The rhyme pattern is consistently ABCB, but some of the lines are short and some are long. While most pairs are pretty close in length, not all are; one that seems particularly clunky is “Cinderella wishes to go on a snowy coach ride. So Prince Charming takes his lovely bride.”

Cinderella is the last princess to appear in the book, as she was in those other Disney Princess books. She seems to have a slightly elevated status among the Disney princesses. She also appears on the title page, as well as the cover, though Belle is more predominant there. Snow White, Ariel, Jasmine and Briar Rose all have a few pages to themselves in this book too.

Ariel’s is a little strange since she’s under the sea, where I don’t think there are seasons as such, but there also aren’t mermaids, so it’s sort of a moot point. At least it isn’t snowing underwater. Jasmine does have snow in Agrabah, but that’s because Genie can do practically anything, including manipulating the weather.

Unsurprisingly, none of the princesses interact with each other. This is not a cohesive story but a series of vignettes. Snow White starts things off with eight pages, and Cinderella finishes them up with five. The rest have four each. Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Cinderella seem to alternate in these books between their pre-prince lives and their Happily Ever Afters, and it’s not always immediately obvious which we’re getting.

Here, though, Briar Rose is still living in the woods with the three kindly fairies, while Cinderella has clearly taken up residence in the castle. Snow White’s section does not mention the prince at all, but given the short time she was with the dwarfs, it seems likely that this Christmas celebration is taking place during a later visit rather than her initial stay.

While Aladdin does not play a part in this book, his presence is implied by Genie, so Jasmine’s portion takes place at least after the first movie, while the Beast is still in his cursed form, so Belle’s takes place before the end of Beauty and the Beast. Ariel, as pretty much always seems to be the case, remains a mermaid, so her segment appears to be a prequel.

All of the sections are pretty similar, with feasting, snow and Christmas trees common to most of the stories. Not everyone has specific winter wear, but those that do look quite elegant, especially Cinderella, the top of whose dress looks like something Mrs. Claus would wear. It’s very fun and festive. While there could have been a bit more variety in the traditions presented, Winter Wishes is a vibrant seasonal choice for young readers who love the Disney princesses.

A Boy and a Goose Need a Miracle in Chester, I Love You

I have spent almost every Thanksgiving at home, usually with a few guests, sometimes with just my immediate family. However, there were a couple Thanksgivings when we celebrated somewhere else. On one of those occasions, we went to my grandparents' house. Oddly, what really stands out from that long-ago year is watching a made-for-TV Disney movie called The Thanksgiving Promise, in which a boy raises a one-legged goose for his neighbor to eat on Thanksgiving. Of course, it doesn't take long for the boy and the bird to bond, and young Travis hatches a plot to teach Chester how to fly before the fateful day arrives. But can it be done?

I couldn't find that special when I looked for it, but I did run across Chester, I Love You, the novel that inspired it. This edition has a photo from the movie on the cover and an acknowledgment to Disney on the inside. Written by brothers Blaine and Brenton Yorgason, this novel, inspired by their own childhood experiences, follows Travis Tilby, a scrawny kid who is always getting picked on by his peers and a bullying gym teacher.

Travis lives on a humble farm with two athletic older brothers and a gentle little sister, but his is a largely solitary life until Chester comes along. He and the goose seem to understand one another, and they soon become inseparable. He's certainly doing a good job of keeping the misfit goose in good health, but his personal goal of helping him escape his fate seems less and less attainable as the months speed onward from May to November. What Travis needs is a miracle.

This book is written with a folksy narrative style, and it is populated with characters who make colorful remarks like "Arid land-o-Goshen!" and spontaneously burst into sermons at every opportunity. The Tilbys are a hard-working, God-fearing family, and matters of faith play an important role in the story. Sometimes of the parents' dialogue comes across as a bit clunky, since it seems that what they are saying is almost aimed more at the reader than the child they are addressing. The book also gets rather repetitive at times, and some of the parental heart-to-hearts slow down the action a bit.

Nonetheless, this is a family you want to root for, and it's particularly easy to sympathize with Travis. Many coming of age stories involve a child killing a beloved pet, and I've always found that rather grotesque. Travis's parents are conflicted as to how to deal with their son's plans. They know that killing Chester will utterly devastate him, but they don't want to teach him to shirk responsibility. I confess I found their sense of honor frustrating, especially after Travis tells Mr. Larson, the landlord who gave him Chester, about his plans and he agrees that there will be no hard feelings if Chester flies away before Thanksgiving. What will really be gained by forcing Travis to kill an animal he has spent months trying to protect?

While Travis is the primary focus of the story, there's also a nice subplot involving his older brother Jason and Sheryl, a sweet girl at school who he believes barely knows he exists. The plot thread showing how they relate to each other demonstrates how easy it is to get signals crossed in matters of romance and follows the theme of not backing away from a challenge, whether it's teaching a one-legged goose to fly or expressing your feelings to a longstanding crush. The youngest Tilby, Jenni, adds sweetness to the tale with her pure-heartedness, while second-oldest child Steve is a fount of unexplained animosity. His main purpose in the tale seems to be so Mrs. Tilby can encourage Travis to try her "kill him with kindness" strategy for winning over adversaries; there's a good lesson in there, but Steve never really feels as fully-formed as the other Tilbys.

Although I occasionally found the writing to be excessively clunky or preachy, I mostly enjoyed this story of perseverance and devotion. It would be interesting to see the movie again; I suspect that this is one of those cases in which I like the movie better than the book, but the novel is still a worthwhile read, especially for this time of year.

Rapunzel and Other Disney Princesses Make a Tasty Treat

When I was a kid, fruit snacks were pretty common inclusions in my school lunches. I don’t often eat them anymore, but every once in a while I’ll feel nostalgic for these little pouches of tasty whimsy. On the latest grocery excursion, I picked up a box of Kellogg’s Tangled fruit snacks, and while the form has changed, the basic gist of these treats remains the same.

The Tangled fruit snacks come in a box containing ten pouches. Each pouch contains several of the small, chewy snacks, which the box proclaims are fat free and made with real fruit, making them a source of Vitamin C. Every pouch will set you back 70 calories. Aside from nutritional information, the box features three simple games on the back. There’s a seek and find, a matching challenge and a small trivia section. It’s quite a lot squeezed into a small space, and it works well aside from the very poorly worded question, “What does Gaston say to Belle to free her father?”

Wait, Belle? I thought this was Rapunzel. Yeah, so did I. The front of the box boldly declares “Disney Tangled,” but that’s really a misnomer. Of the six fruit snack designs, only two – purple Rapunzel (grape) and the orange hairbrush (orange) – relate specifically to Disney’s 50th animated feature. A third, a yellow tiara, is pretty much a Disney princess staple.

Yellow, with lemon flavoring, is also the color of Belle. Like Rapunzel, she’s just a head, and the color works much better for her. Every time I look at a Rapunzel snack, I briefly forget and think I’m looking at Pocahontas. The red enchanted rose looks quite nice too; I think it’s cherry, though the flavor isn’t that strong and I can’t quite tell. Finally, Tiana is green and lime-flavored. Hence, we have three different princesses and three props. The front of the box shows Rapunzel’s pet chameleon and Flynn, but neither of them is inside any of the pouches, which are more accurately labeled Disney Princess.

I prefer fruit snacks that have an unmistakable firmness to them. Super-soft ones don’t do much for me. These ones are a little softer than I’d like, but they’re still fairly firm. While some fruit snacks have different coloring but no real difference in flavors, these are distinct from each other, which makes them a lot more fun to eat. For an occasional snack, they’re pretty good, even though they don’t reflect the movie as much as a quick glance at the front of the box implies.

The Beauty and the Beast Music Box Is a Musical Memory Keeper

When my aunt and uncle took me with them to Disney World earlier this year, I knew that there would be one souvenir I would have to purchase, even if I didn’t get anything else. That was a pair of Mickey Mouse ears, which I would then wear around the parks in order to immerse myself in the experience as completely as possible. I got those ears on the first day, but after that, I found myself pretty overwhelmed by all of the merchandise for sale. How would someone as indecisive as me ever choose?

In the end, I mostly stuck with a few small goodies, and I bought the Belle music box both as a reminder of the trip and an attractive way to store mementos. This box is made of hard cardboard, but it feels more substantive than that. Until I did a little checking, I thought it was plastic or perhaps wood coated with shiny yellow paint. Despite being dressed in blue when we first see her, yellow is the color with which Belle is most readily associated. This shows her in her iconic ball gown twice on the outside of the box and once on the inside, and the box itself is yellow and features a delicate pattern of yellow roses.

For the most part, the outside is flat, but the top of the box is textured, and Belle , visible from about the waist up, stands with a red rose in her gloved hand. Near her is the name “Belle” scrawled in cursive, and it seems we are supposed to see this as her signature. She stands in the middle of a pale yellow heart, and her pose seems rather flirtatious; one side of the collar on her dress is falling down her shoulder as she tilts her head coquettishly. I prefer the head shot on the front, in which she rests her chin on her hand and seems to sigh happily.

On the front of the box is a brass clasp. Lift it up over the knob and open the box, and you will find a yellow interior and a tiny plastic Belle in her ball gown spinning gracefully in front of an oval mirror with brass trim. Three sides of the bottom of the inside of the box are pale yellow with printed hearts. The rest of the box is a brighter shade of yellow and has a slightly fuzzy texture. Assuming that you have turned the key in the back of the box, a tinkly version of Beauty and the Beast will play when you lift the lid. It will also play if you turned the key last time and put the lid down before it wound down again.

This music box is about five inches in all directions, a good size for a jewelry box. I’m sure that there are lots of young girls who use it for that purpose. As for me, I use it to keep trinkets of sentimental significance. I keep the box on my nightstand, so whenever I want to, I can reach over, turn the key and get a snippet of that iconic song. While I actually find the light-hearted Something There to be more romantic, in part because it is more personal, the movie’s title song is definitely the right choice for this music box, and it would make a great keepsake for anyone who loves that Disney masterpiece as much as I do.

Add Some Color to Your Keys With Donald Duck

Keys are very important objects, but they can also be befuddling. Most of them have either a silver or gold color to them, and the general shapes are usually so similar across the board that shuffling through a large set of keys can be a rather infuriating experience. If you’re standing at the front door itching to get in out of the rain, you don’t really want to have to search too hard for the correct key. One thing that has made things easier in my house is buying novelty keys and having them cut into the shape of our house key.

I first ran across these cheerful keys in a hardware store a few years ago. I was so charmed that I had to get one for myself, and with so many different designs to choose from, I encouraged my parents to do the same. Now we have several floating around the house. The spare key hanging above the stove is this particular design, which is Donald Duck.

Donald stands against a backdrop of bright green grass and clear blue sky. In the background are a cozy red farmhouse and a couple of trees. Donald himself is decked out in his traditional sailor suit, and he wears a big smile on his face. I often think of Donald as being frustrated, but that isn’t the case here. In fact, he looks very proud of himself. Given that this is a house key, I might venture a guess that he is proud because he is a homeowner. He certainly looks very satisfied about something as he stands there with his hands on his hips and beams.

The key is sturdy and works just as well as the original for getting into the house. This one simply hangs on the key ring with a couple of smaller keys, and finding the right key amongst them was never really an issue, as it was in with my parents’ much larger sets of keys. In their cases, having a key like this saves time because finding it is so much easier. Here, it just makes me smile to see Donald grinning at me while I turn the key to get into the house. The cheer is infectious.

Since I first came across these keys, I have seen them at multiple hardware stores. Many different designs are available, but Disney seems to be especially well represented. They only cost a few dollars, and getting a copy of your key made with this mold only takes a matter of minutes. Since the main point is making that particular key stand out, I wouldn’t recommend getting more than a couple of them – maybe your house key and car key, if your car key isn’t electronic. Some designs work better with certain key shapes than others, so that is something to be aware of; the person doing the key cutting should be able to tell you whether the design you have selected will be a good fit for your key.

I think that having Donald Duck on that key is a great idea. These snazzy designs make finding the right key in a pinch easier and express your personality and interests at the same time. What a fun thing to have on your key ring!

Enchanted Friends Help With the Beast's Feast

One of Disney’s most iconic scenes is the romantic evening Belle and her hairy host share in Beauty and the Beast as he tries to work up the nerve to confess that he loves her. While what everybody remembers about that scene is the elegant ballroom dance that sends them spinning around the room, it is preceded by dinner, and that is the focus of The Beast’s Feast, a level two Disney’s First Reader written by Gail Tuchman and illustrated by Eric Binder and Darren Hont.

At the end of the story, we see the Beast in his snazzy blue outfit that looks like some sort of Naval dress uniform, and Belle is glowing in her golden gown. Mostly, though, Belle is out of sight, and the Beast wears his purple cape as he consults with his household staff over the particulars of the evening’s entertainment. Both characters are well rendered except when it comes to Belle’s eyes, which appear to be a grayish hazel instead of the rich chestnut brown they usually are. Considering the fact that I am pleasantly accustomed to sharing both hair and eyes with my favorite Disney princess, I find the color change galling.

Other characters featured here include Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, Chip and the canine footrest, and they are all in fine form. It is their presence that builds the structure of the book, since the Beast asks each in turn how he or she might contribute to his special evening. (Well, he doesn’t ask the dog specifically, but the pooch’s waggling enthusiasm is evident.) The repetitive structure reminds me of both The Little Red Hen and The House That Jack Built. Like the first, it is a series of pleas for aid, but in this case the friends are much more helpful. Like the second, it builds on itself so that by the end, we have a long string of things that will help make this elegant date as memorable as possible.

The structure mostly works well, though I feel like it’s trying to incorporate rhyme and rhythm, but only halfway, so the result is a little uneven. Sometimes it rhymes and sometimes it doesn’t, and the rhythm is not very strong. Still, the repetition is useful for early readers, and it can be fun to try to anticipate what will come next. Which character will the Beast consult? What services will he or she volunteer? The gentle enthusiasm on the Beast’s face throughout the story increases the anticipation for the grand finale.

This is just a quick tie-in book to a classic movie. Those who know the characters will find nothing surprising here, and those who don’t are lacking the prior character development that makes this scene so wonderful. Still, reluctant readers who love Beauty and the Beast may find the familiar characters enough incentive to give this book a whirl, and anything that helps kids immerse themselves in the wonders of reading is a beautiful thing indeed.

Strict Barriers Come Down in the Tween Rom-Com Geek Charming

My friend Libbie invited me over to her house recently, in part because she had noticed that the Keisha Knight Pulliam / Phylicia Rashad movie Polly, a made-for-TV musical adaptation of Pollyanna, was among the Video On Demand choices for the week. I’d gushed about the movie before, and she remembered. Unfortunately, when we went to watch it, the movie wasn’t there anymore. Instead, though, we went with a different made-for-TV Disney movie, the much more recent Geek Charming, starring Sarah Hyland from Modern Family as a stereotypical mean girl who gets thrown into a close association with a nerdy classmate.

This is pretty much your average uber-predictable tween movie about an outcast getting in with a popular crowd and briefly abandoning his friends before repenting in a very public manner (usually, as is the case here, at a school dance). There’s a slight twist here as it’s not just about the geek getting in with the popular crowd but also about the popular girl unleashing her inner geek. In other words, it’s about breaking down barriers. While it’s still pretty cheesy and over-the-top, it has many moments of genuine sweetness.

Matt Prokop is Josh Rosen, an aspiring filmmaker in desperate need of a subject for a documentary contest that could help him get into film school. Hyland is Dylan Schoenfield, who just has to be pronounced Blossom Queen at the upcoming dance. She’s a queen bee with a loyal posse, but she has tough competition, and a film like the one Josh wants to make could just be what she needs to win over enough fans to take the crown.

Josh is generally very likable, aside from his sour attitude about popular kids in general. He definitely comes across as a bit elitist himself in the beginning. As a gal who considers “geeky” to be practically a prerequisite for my own idea of Prince Charming, I didn’t have much trouble sympathizing with him, though he’s far from the most endearing geek I’ve encountered on TV. Meanwhile, Dylan, who lives in a mansion and is waited on by a housekeeper, is never quite as blanketly obnoxious as the mean girls in these types of movies usually are. Even when she’s at her worst, she has a nice streak, so the gulf between these two isn’t as wide as it might be in some movies.

The gradual friendship and sparks between these two is the heart of the movie, and the development is done pretty well. There are a couple of cute scenes with Dylan’s surprisingly down-to-earth dad (Andrew Airlie) and Josh’s wise, supportive mom (Lilli Birdsell), and Josh’s gang of misfits is fun. There’s also an interesting subplot with Amy (Sasha Pieterse), the artsy girl Josh admires from afar who has a past connection with Dylan. My favorite side character, though, is Josh’s film advisor, Mr. Farley (David Milchard), mostly for the incredibly compelling reason that he has a Scottish accent and I love listening to him talk.

Generally, I found neither the writing nor the acting to be particularly noteworthy, but aside from some of the silly jargon Dylan uses – particularly the oft-used “’what’ and ‘ever’” – the dialogue usually feels reasonably realistic. Some of the plot elements are a bit cheesy, but that’s to be expected. One thing I loved and didn’t see coming at all was a scene in which several of the characters see Flight of the Navigator at the theater and discuss it afterward. I mean, what Cineplex is re-running Flight of the Navigator - and where can I sign up? I was so tickled by their discussion I had to watch that Disney classic again for myself.

While the big confessional scenes – there are two in this movie instead of the traditional one – are just as overblown as I would have expected, the quieter moments that get us to that point are enjoyable, and I appreciated that this was not just about a nice kid mingling with the in crowd and returning to his old friends but about a diva remembering she wasn’t always that way and learning how to be herself again. I still much prefer Polly, but Geek Charming is certainly not without its charms.