The third volume of DVDs for Hello Kitty & Friends
Lesley Aeschliman | Enumclaw, WA | 11/05/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)
"This disc features two stories starring Hello Kitty ("Alice in Wonderland" and "Heidi"), one story featuring Pekkle ("Aladdin and His Magic Lamp"), and one story featuring Keroppi ("The Adventrures of Gulliver").
In "Alice in Wonderland," Hello Kitty stars as the main character. Overall, this was rather faithful to the main story. In "Heidi," Hello Kitty once again plays the lead character. In both stories, Hello Kitty is the only one of the regular Sanrio characters to appear in them. Everyone else who appears in the stories are made up specifically for these episodes.
Pekkle stars as Aladdin in "Aladdin and His Magic Lamp," and Keroppi stars as Gulliver in "The Adventures of Gulliver." Again, Pekkle and Keroppi are the only actual Sanrio characters that appear in the stories. The Hello Kitty version of "Alice in Wonderland" was rather similar to well-known Disney version, but the Pekkle version of "Aladdin" was very different from the Disney telling of the same story.
When it comes to the stories on this DVD, I think that the cute style of the animation and the music do make these stories more accessible to the young audience that this DVD is aiming for.
Admittedly, this DVD is rather "low frills" when it comes to extras. The only "special feature" is the DVD credits. Normally, I would count the lack of special features against a DVD. However, since this disc is being aimed at and marketed to young children, having special features on this DVD isn't quite as important. Since younger children have shorter attention spans, they're less likely to sit still for special features.
This Hello Kitty DVD includes anime that's very friendly to young children, although girls will probably be more interested than boys. If you have a young child at home and are looking for kid-friendly anime, then I would recommend the Hello Kitty & Friends DVDs."