Trainees, start your engines! Preschoolers from coast-to-coast will get on the fast-track to fun and learning with “The Chugger Championship”! The newest “winner” in the “Chuggington” DVD series from Anchor Bay Entertainment, “The Chugger Championship” has hit the retail stores nationwide.

Our winner of the DVD giveaway is a special person: Kathy Davis. She says, “I would love to win this for my home bound autistic student and his family of 6 adopted kids. They deserve a prize. Thanks.”

You are welcome Kathy. Your student is very lucky to have you as his teacher. Chuggington is a very upbeat show.  I am sure it will put a smile on all those cute faces.  Thank for being there, Kathy.

A colorful and contemporary CGI-animated TV series encourages early social readiness skills, “Chuggington” follows the amusing escapades of three young trainees, Wilson, Brewster and Koko, as they learn to “ride the rails” of life and become productive chuggers. The exciting train property for preschoolers airs daily on Disney Junior, Disney Channel’s programming block designed for kids ages 2-7 and their families.

In “The Chugger Championship,” the traintastic trio is ready to put their “wheels to the rails” for the biggest race in Chuggington! These six, action-packed adventures will have your kids cheering. Young fans join Wilson, Brewster and Koko as they prepare for a test, invent a new contest and pick up a fun hobby, while learning about the importance of accountability and responsibility. Along the way, the three friends – and viewers at home – discover that a true champion isn’t always the one who finishes first! Boy that is a tough one to learn.

“The Chugger Championship” is the newest addition to Anchor Bay Entertainment’s “Chuggington” DVD collection, which also includes “Chuggers to the Rescue,” “It’s Training Time” and “Let’s Ride the Rails.”

Trainees, start your engines! Preschoolers from coast-to-coast will get on the fast-track to fun and learning with “The Chugger Championship”! The newest “winner” in the “Chuggington” DVD series from Anchor Bay Entertainment, “The Chugger Championship” hits retail stores nationwide on October 11, 2011. Screenhead is giving one a way!

A colorful and contemporary CGI-animated TV series encourages early social readiness skills, “Chuggington” follows the amusing escapades of three young trainees, Wilson, Brewster and Koko, as they learn to “ride the rails” of life and become productive chuggers. The exciting train property for preschoolers airs daily on Disney Junior, Disney Channel’s programming block designed for kids ages 2-7 and their families.

In “The Chugger Championship,” the traintastic trio is ready to put their “wheels to the rails” for the biggest race in Chuggington! These six, action-packed adventures will have your kids cheering. Young fans join Wilson, Brewster and Koko as they prepare for a test, invent a new contest and pick up a fun hobby, while learning about the importance of accountability and responsibility. Along the way, the three friends – and viewers at home – discover that a true champion isn’t always the one who finishes first! Boy that is a tough one to learn.

“The Chugger Championship” is the newest addition to Anchor Bay Entertainment’s “Chuggington” DVD collection, which also includes “Chuggers to the Rescue,” “It’s Training Time” and “Let’s Ride the Rails.”

To enter the giveaway, post your name and I will pick the winner October 11, 2010.

Animated sequels…ah, these are their own little animal, and the crew out at Anchor Bay sent over a copy of Hoodwinked Too: Hood Vs. Evil for us to cover, and this one will be entirely in a league of its own. Whether or not you’ll want to stick around for this one, though, you’ll find largely dependent on your tolerance for sequels and all that encompasses.

Following the events of the first Hoodwinked, which was less a children’s movie so much as it was Rashomon in fairy tale garb, Hoodwinked Too: Hood Vs. Evil takes us back to rejoin our cast of four heroes–Red, her Granny Abigail Puckett, the Big Bad Wolf, and for some reason, a squirrel with a serious caffeine dependency by the all too reasonable name of Twitchy–as they’ve signed on with the HEA, or Happily Ever After, agency, an outfit devoted to ensuring happy endings for various fairy tale characters. The team has seen better days, with Red off in special training and the rest of the team notably undermanned…and underpowered. But when Granny gets kidnapped by the witch holding Hansel and Gretel hostage, Red’s going to have to rejoin the team and try to make up for the lost Granny.

There are some significant differences between the first and the second. While I find it spectacularly gauche that they’d kick off the movie with a rundown of the cast, it’s not hard to see the appeal in something like this. Sure, it’s not as understated as the first film (frankly, putting Rashomon in fairy tale is the kind of unique thing that you don’t see just any day), but it’s still got a pleasant sort of style to it. While the first Hoodwinked was an impressive multi-pronged mystery sort of affair, its sequel instead decides to go the animated action movie route. And of course, they’ll throw a few good laughs in for a little extra value.

Much like many other cases, the sequel will be bigger, louder, and more predictable than the original.  This is kind of a shame in a way, because they’ve thrown off the unique quality of the matter in favor of more explosions and action movie fodder. It’s fun, sure, don’t get me wrong there, but it seems like having the ability to do a sequel came at the cost of large swathes of their original unique quality and sheer, well, originality.

The Screenhead Ten Scale, meanwhile, gives Hoodwinked Too: Hood Vs. Evil a six out of ten. It’s very much a sequel, and has lost a lot of its original charm in the process, but has still managed to hang on to sufficient fun to make it at least a worthwhile rental if nothing else.

As a child, the work of strangely named Roald Dahl was possibly the most exciting. His stories capturing my childhood imagination like no other, plus it was a valid away for enjoying fart jokes without facing the disapproval from parents. So what direction will Dreamworks take with one of his most famous novels, The BFG.

The BFG (that’s Big Friendly Giant, and not a reference to that massive weapon in the Doom video games) is about a young girl who cannot sleep one night, and discovers a dream-collecting giant outside her house. The giant shows the girl his world, and they appeal to the Queen of England to help him capture other giants, who tend to eat children whenever they’re hungry.

The story has a magnificent visual scope, from the encounter with a giant, to his world, to the dreams and nightmares he can create, to the clash of worlds as the humans battle the evil giants. It’s a wonderful story that has already been made into a 1989 hand-drawn film. And of course plenty of Dahl’s other stories have made it to the big screen, ranging from the great (The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox) to the poor (Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

So what does Dreamworks have to offer. The company tends to be seen as a poor man’s Pixar, making technically apt films that rely on spoof humour to get laughs and tell cliched tales. But with Pixar now relying on tired sequels, perhaps it’s time for Dreamworks to step up their game (like they seemingly did with How To Train Your Dragon). It also helps that writer Melissa Mathison (E.T., The Indian in the Cupboard) is on board already.

Marvel has been rapidly issuing out new movies since their acquisition by Disney, and some of them have been better than others. The folks at Shout Factory sent out a new item from the Marvel Knights subclass called Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers for us to review. This one is going to be substantially different from most you’ve seen from Marvel, and if you like unique like I do, well, then you will be very happy here.

Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers takes us back out to Asgard, where Loki has achieved his dream of seizing the throne of Asgard. But his success has left the trickster god starkly unfulfilled, and he begins to wonder what went wrong. For that, he turns to his past, and gives us perspective on the longstanding rivalry between him and his brother Thor. Thus will a story spin out that provides perspective on the nemeses, and their places in the various plots that surround the land of the Norse pantheon.

This isn’t a typical Marvel animation in the sense you might think. See, it’s a Marvel Knights title, which is a little different from the standard Marvel. And this movie watches more like a comic book than like a movie; it’s a lot like X-Men: Gifted in that sense. There’s a lot of a lot of dialogue in here, and some of it is frankly a little thick. Loki’s weird metaphysical conflict as he wonders how the god of deceit and trickery can actually rule anything is pomposity made film.

But still, it’s a surprisingly literary experience from Marvel, which does a very interesting job of examining predestination, and one’s place in the universe. Trying to portray Loki as a sympathetic character isn’t an easy task–nor a very rational one, in all honesty–and it comes off more than a little whiny sometimes. But still, it’s hard not to look at this guy and think that, at least on some things, he’s got a point. They laugh at the guy’s mother, for crying out loud.

Still though, if you’re looking for a Marvel experience that’s vastly different from, and a little deeper than, the ordinary, well, you’ll get all you can ask for right here. This is some fairly impressive stuff, if still lacking in the more traditional measures. The ending, however, is a bit abrupt and a downright buzzkill, but probably the only ending that could have happened.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives the depressing, wordy, but rather unique Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers a seven out of ten for taking a chance and doing something really new and different with the whole concept.

The folks out at Fox sent over a copy of Rio for us to review, and if you’re in the need for a dose of colorful, musical cheer, then you might have exactly what you need right here.

Rio follows a blue macaw named Blu, who truly awkward ornithologists believe is the last male of his kind. And further, there’s one last female of his kind down in Rio de Janiero. But Blu’s spent all his life as a cosseted pet in Minnesota, which leaves him lacking in a lot of the basics of wild bird behavior, like flying. But now, he’s about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime, and hopefully, get the species back up and operational.

It’s actually not bad, though it’s clearly geared for the younger set, but the older folks should get a kick out of chronically typecast Jesse Eisenberg playing a cosseted pet bird. There’s plenty of action, some interesting subplots, and a few good laughs. Yes, again, this is definitely one for the kiddie set, but the grownups who’ll be watching along to monitor the kiddie set’s viewing should do all right here besides.

Admittedly, they’ll be riding the cliches pretty hard here, and the music is hit or miss for anyone over the age of seven, but there’s still plenty to like here.

Oh, and good news here for those of you who can’t get enough of the hyperactive acorn-addict known as Scrat: the Ice Age staple will be back in a short called “Continental Crack-up”, which provides perhaps the most preposterous explanation yet for how the continents showed up, along with the creation of giraffes and several major landmarks.

The end result here is that you’re probably going to be pretty satisfied with this, though not completely. It’s got its share of problems, no mistake there, but Rio will still do a reasonably good job of putting on a marginal romance with a little action geared safely toward the younger folks.

And the Screenhead Ten Scale, in response, hands over a seven out of ten to this worthwhile but flawed little romp that manages to pack in some reasonably good material, heavy on the colors and songs but light on the original plotline. You’ve seen better than this, no mistake, but it’ll put plenty of decent entertainment into ninety minutes, and is well worth a rental.

All Aboard! We have our winner for the DVD! Paula Caudill, who says “My grandson is a big fan of Chuggington! I would love to win this for him! Thank you!”

You’re welcome Paula. Your grandson is in for a real treat and adventure.

Chuggington adventure is coming down the tracks on DVD for young trainees this summer! “It’s Training Time!” is in retail stores nationwide.

“It’s Training Time!” features six “traintastic”fun-filled episodes that gently foster preschoolers’ social readiness skills such as the value of setting a good example (Training Time Harrison); cleanliness (Wilson Gets A Wash); following directions (Koko And The Tunnel); diversity (Watch Out Wilson); self-confidence (Wilson’s Smooth Move) and not jumping to conclusions (Eddie Finds Time). Also included on the adorable new DVD release is a three-minute bonus “Badge Quest” episode, Running On Time, which shows young viewers the importance of being punctual.

“Chuggington” follows the entertaining and engaging adventures of three young trainees, Wilson, Brewster and Koko, as they learn to “ride the rails” of life and become productive chuggers. The vibrant, CGI-animated series airs daily on Disney Junior, Disney Channel’s new programming block for kids ages 2-7.

“It’s Training Time” is just the ticket for preschoolers and their families!

I can’t tell you how excited I was to see that Mars Needs Moms was coming out. Created by one of the greatest newspaper cartoonists of all time, Berkeley Breathed (of Bloom County, Outland and Opus), it was great to see something like this come along. But would the movie live up to the greatness Bloom County wrought? The folks out at Disney sent a copy over, and the end result was a serious surprise.

Mars Needs Moms follows Milo, a little boy who’s not exactly happy with his mother these days. A little too much of that eat your broccoli / take out the trash sort of thing has left him a bit soured on it all. But when a horde of Martians abducts his mother to serve in their employ (ironically enough, the Martians actually select his mother because she told him to take out the trash, and he did it), he realizes that he needs her back, and badly. How badly? Badly enough to stage a one-boy invasion of the Red Planet. But he’ll get some help from surprising sources, and he just may have enough skill, courage, and help to make it through Mars and liberate his mom.

Admittedly, the first ten minutes or so are a little too Home Alone for comfort, but after that somewhat shaky start, the full Breathed charm is going to kick in, especially when we meet Reagan-era space traveller Gribble. For those not familiar with Bloom County, that was when Breathed was best. The man knows his eighties, and having Gribble involved is almost like having Portnoy as an astronaut. It’s terrific.

It’s a little on the cliche side, and I’m figuring that’s a bit of that Disney impact shining through, but at the same time, there’s plenty of quality action footage and a lot of sci-fi joy that’s very much Breathed. In fact, by the tail end of this, there’s going to be a good dose of doubt as to whether or not the main character will even survive. It will actually manage to be shades of Total Recall, just nowhere near so graphic.

Mars Needs Moms is actually something of a surprise, with bits of the cliche mixed in with some pretty exciting stuff. If you can forgive the one, then you’ll really get a bang out of the other. And thankfully, the cliche is in relatively small doses against the much more exciting science fiction action sequences, and that makes the whole much more palatable.

The Screenhead Ten Scale lands Mars Needs Moms a seven out of ten; there’s a little more here cliche and overdone than I’d like, but there’s also plenty of good stuff here that will make it well worth watching.

All Aboard! An exciting new Chuggington adventure is coming down the tracks on DVD for young trainees this summer! “It’s Training Time!” will pull into retail stores nationwide on August 2, 2011. But, Screenhead has a copy of the DVD to give away!

“It’s Training Time!” features six “traintastic”fun-filled episodes that gently foster preschoolers’ social readiness skills such as the value of setting a good example (Training Time Harrison); cleanliness (Wilson Gets A Wash); following directions (Koko And The Tunnel); diversity (Watch Out Wilson); self-confidence (Wilson’s Smooth Move) and not jumping to conclusions (Eddie Finds Time). Also included on the adorable new DVD release is a three-minute bonus “Badge Quest” episode, Running On Time, which shows young viewers the importance of being punctual.

“Chuggington” follows the entertaining and engaging adventures of three young trainees, Wilson, Brewster and Koko, as they learn to “ride the rails” of life and become productive chuggers. The vibrant, CGI-animated series airs daily on Disney Junior, Disney Channel’s new programming block for kids ages 2-7.

“It’s Training Time” is just the ticket for preschoolers and their families!

To enter the giveaway, post your name and we will pick the winner July 31, 2011.

The Adventures of TinTin-The Secret of the… by Paramount_Australia

Combining the stories of The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure, the trailer looks like it captures Tintin’s (Jamie Bell) first meeting with Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis) along with the discovery of a clue to the treasure of his ancestor Sir Francis Haddock.

The two of them begin the adventure of finding out where the treasure is located. They are with a prison escapee who tried to get the treasure as well as. Then, there are Detectives Thompson and Thomson (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) who bumble around and try to get the upper hand of the situation.

The digital cinematography is extraordinary. Steven Spielberg, who directs the movie, was significantly assisted by the producer Peter Jackson. Jackson hopes to direct the sequel .
The movie opens late 2011.