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.

Betsy-Tacy Connects Five Girls As They Yearn to Be Home for the Holidays

There’s no place like home for the holidays, which is why I’m in Erie, Pennsylvania on December 25th, celebrating Christmas with my parents and brother in the same house as always. In Heather Vogel Frederick’s Home for the Holidays, however, none of the five youngest members of the Mother-Daughter Book Club is spending Christmas at home. Instead, each one finds herself missing home while away on exotic vacations.

I discovered the Mother-Daughter Book Club series for intermediate readers last fall, and I devoured the first four books, the last of which gave every impression of being a series finale. I was surprised, then, to hear that 2011 would bring a new novel featuring these girls tied together by their immersion in classic literature. Home for the Holidays is different from the first four installments in several key ways, but it still is very much in the same vein as the others.

The first major difference that fans will note is the fact that Becca Chadwick, the prissy queen bee who is a primary antagonist to most of the girls in the first two books, gets to speak for herself this time around. Aside from her best friend Megan, she still doesn’t feel a particularly strong connection to the other book club girls, and this year, she has a troubling family secret hanging over her head and deepening her sense of distance.

Usually, the books are divided into four sections with four chapters each, but now that Becca is on board, there are five chapters in each section. However, there are only three sections, and the story takes place over the course of about five weeks instead of the typical almost-year. Hence, there are 15 chapters instead of 16, making this book of pretty typical length for the series, though the chapters in the last section are considerably shorter than those in the first two since everything in that section happens on the same day.

This time, the books under consideration are those in Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy series. I was excited to see this because my friend Beth, who has also been enjoying the Mother-Daughter Book Club books, has loved Lovelace since she was little. At her recommendation, I read the first couple books a few years back but stopped when my library’s supply ran out. Reading this made me want to pick up those books again.

I do find that there’s an extra layer of fun to be found in these books when one is intimately familiar with the allusions being made, which is probably one of the reasons that my favorite books so far have been the ones focusing on Anne of Green Gables and Pride and Prejudice. Still, I’m familiar enough with Betsy-Tacy that I didn’t feel too out of the loop with the references.

With so many major events occurring and long-running storylines wrapping up in the fourth book, Home for the Holidays feels a bit like a P.S. on the series, though it could also be seen as a sort of transition book. These girls are only sophomores in high school, after all, so there is plenty of potential life in the series still, especially if they deal with smaller chunks of time like this one does.

Here, there are really only two characters facing major changes. Becca’s father is out of work, and tomboy Cassidy could wind up moving back to California if her stepfather accepts a job there. Theirs are the most compelling stories this time around, particularly when it comes to long-term consequences. Megan has a crisis in that her long-distance boyfriend has abruptly ditched her, but as he only entered the series a book ago and didn’t seem likely to be a permanent part of it, the break-up doesn’t have as big of an impact as Emma’s major relationship catastrophe in the fourth book. Speaking of Emma, while this bookworm is my favorite character, she doesn’t have a lot to do in this book. Mostly she just reacts to Jess, whose sledding injury prevents her from going to Switzerland for Christmas and who Emma suspects of getting involved with another boy even though she is dating Emma’s older brother Darcy.

The book introduces a few new characters, but the one who adds the most is Becca’s grandmother. I love the way that Vogel has turned the book club into a three-generation thing, and it seems especially sweet that Becca’s grandmother is the one who selects the Betsy-Tacy books for the girls’ next project. I also love the tea shop opened by Megan’s grandmother, especially all the literary quotes on the walls. It seems like a perfect hangout for the girls, a place as cheerful and welcoming as Pushing Daisies’ Pie Hole.

The book begins with Thanksgiving and ends with New Year’s Eve, but the heart of the story is Christmas, which finds each of the girls someplace rather exotic. Jess and Emma are at a New England lodge run by Jess’s relatives, Megan and Becca are on a cruise off the coast of Florida with their families and Cassidy is with her Mom, stepdad and sisters in California, trying to decide whether she would be okay with them moving back to the state she called home for a dozen years. More than before, it struck me how isolated Cassidy is. Despite having a group of friends, she really doesn’t have a “best friend,” and although she has always been part of a hockey team, in some ways, she is more of a loner than anyone else in the group.

It’s fun to be able to visit with her and the others this time around for such a festive outing. I love Christmas stories, and that’s mostly what this is. As before, I usually found it pretty easy to keep the girls’ voices straight, though I sometimes caught myself mixing up Megan and Becca and, to a lesser extent, Jess and Emma; usually I can tell Emma is speaking because, like me, she’s constantly making references to books (though with me, it’s also TV and movies). Still, I think the characters are definitely distinct from each other, and it will be interesting to see how Becca develops if the series continues, since this is the first time we’ve been able to get her side of the story. As always, it took me a few pages to get used to the present-tense narration, but once I did, I was fully immersed in the story and could barely put it down.

Because this is the fifth book in the series, you really would do best to start from the beginning before opening this one. However, I think it would work as a stand-alone holiday story; you would just be missing some of the significance of certain scenes and spoiling earlier plot developments if you read it before any of the others. While the target audience is girls in middle school and high school, I think anyone who understands the power of books to forge friendships and help us make sense of our lives could easily enjoy Home for the Holidays.

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.