Thank you Shout Factory for sending us this DVD to review! SlugTerra Heroes of the underground is the fourth volume available for the popular cartoon show.  It features five episodes and runs for 110 minutes.  My son who is new to the series enjoyed watching the slug slingers shoot their tiny yet powerful slugs at relentless enemies.  Eli Shang lea...

Thank You Click Communications for sending us the Blu-ray for Adventure Time: The Complete Third Season! Even though Adventure Time is in its fifth season, the third season is now available in DVD, Blu-Ray, and digitally via UltraViolet.  Having recently watched the first two seasons, I think it’s safe to say that this show keeps on getting better....

Thank you Shout Factory for sending us this DVD to review! This action packed 88 minute DVD features four episodes from various seasons of Transformers Prime and Transformers Prime Beast Hunters.  Each episode features Bumblebee kicking some metallic butt even when he loses his guns and ability to transform in the two part episode Operation Bumbleb...

Thank you Nest Entertainment for sending us this DVD to review!

This twenty-six minute DVD opens up with a pretty song that describes God's love for us by sending our savior. As the opening credits scrolled on, I noticed that Orson Scott Card wrote the screenplay. The story begins with Simeon telling an elderly lady (presumably Anna) that he has been promised to see the Messiah before he dies. King Herod gets wind of the Messiah's coming and vows to eliminate him. After that scene, Gabriel tells Mary that she will bear God's son and although she doesn't understand how it is possible, she complies. I was surprised to see how easy going Joseph was about this situation when Mary told him the news. In this DVD he had a dream explaining the divine pregnancy before Mary announced it. According to the Bible he was troubled by the news and later comforted by the dream and felt at peace knowing that Mary was not unfaithful to him.

Later in Mary's pregnancy, Caesar Augustus proclaims that everyone must return to their city of birth to be counted and taxed. As they near Bethlehem Mary starts to go into labor, but they have no place to stay since the inns are full. A kind man gives them shelter in a stable. Baby Jesus arrives (no gory details shown) and is visited by nearby shepherds while the wise men start their journey to meet the king.

Anna and Simeon get to meet their promised savior when Mary and Joseph present an offering at the temple. King Herod hears about Jesus' birth and tells the wise men to let him know where to find the baby. When they disobey, every baby boy pays the price (again no details are shown). Thanks to Joseph's dream warning them to leave Bethlehem, they fled safely to Egypt and raised Jesus there until king Herod died.

That is where this DVD ends and if you like Biblical stories with good voice acting, I recommend continuing the story of Jesus' life by watching Jesus, The Son of God. The animation is a bit dated since it's from the eighties, but the artwork has a Disney like style to it. While the normal price is $9.95 I have seen it for $5 on Nest Entertainment's website and for less than $12 shipped on Amazon.

Thank you Shout!Factory for sending us this video to review! What happens when you combine Ponies, Unicorns, Pegasus', Breezeies (bug like ponies with wings and antennae) and dragons? You get some wild adventures that teach lessons like being true to yourself, compromising, and taking responsibility for your actions. The My Little Pony Classic Movi...

Thank you Nest Entertainment for sending us this DVD to review!

Even non-believers will acknowledge that Jesus was a good teacher. Through this twenty-five minute DVD, your kids can experience and learn the meaning of the following parables:

• The tares and the wheat (Matt 13:24-30)
• The pearl of great price (Matt 13:45-46)
• The ten virgins (Matt 25:1-13)
• The sower and the seeds (Matt 13:18-23)

As if the parables were not convicting enough, seeing Jesus' audience leaving after being shamed or convicted from the teachings really drove the messages home. Each of the people leaving Jesus' teachings represent the seeds from the sower that went to the wayside (refuses to understand God's word), had shallow roots (left when persecuted), got choked by thorns (put possessions before God) and those that landed in good soil (receives and follows God's word).

Though the animation is a bit dated, it still looks good and you can see some artistic similarities between these and Disney films. The voice acting and singing is well done. The parable of the pearl has its own song about the man gladly selling his possessions. While the song sounds fine, if my kids were to sing it in public, they would get some silly stares.

This twenty-seven minute DVD illustrates Mary, Joseph and the twelve year old Jesus going to the temple for Passover. (Luke 2:42-2:52) The young Jesus is carrying a young lamb and Mary and Joseph shopping around and haggling for a clay pot and some bundles of wood. The family present their offering (no blood is shown) and Jesus impresses rabbi's wi...

Episode List: Mean Isn't Your ColorRussel Up Some FunEve of DestructionFrenemiesSummertime Blues This DVD collection features five episodes, a sing-along, a Zoe toy and collector card, all for the reasonable price of less than $15. Each episode is around twenty minutes long and they are entertaining, informative and teach some good lessons. One of ...

Mary Poppins is a timeless classic that reminds parents not to get too caught up in their jobs and ambitions and to spend some quality time with their children.  The movie begins as the Banks family is losing yet another nanny and they inadvertently place two advertisements for a replacement.  The children's advertisement draws the attention of the...

This is the final action packed season of Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters. This season starts off with the Autobots scattered and badly damaged after losing their base to the Megatrons. Can they unite and defeat the Megatrons, Predacons and Insecticons? Not only do they have to save earth, but Cybertron is in danger as well. There are thirteen ep...

The main show on this nearly two-hour DVD is about Mickey and his Friends being granted super powers to transform their town back to normal after Power-Pants Pete shrinks everything.  With the help of each other, the mouseketools, and input from your child, they can conquer any obstacle!  I expected my five year old son to be comfortable with talki...

So many video game developers and manufacturers have come and gone since I have starting playing games on my Commodore 64 and Atari 2600. Capcom is celebrating its 30th anniversary and have released an encyclopedia containing over 200 characters from their lesser known and popular video games alike. Many are familiar with their Street Fighter and Megaman games. Other popular series include Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Monster Hunter, and Viewtiful Joe. Looking though this encyclopedia I saw several games that were only available in Japan or in the arcade. Since I have not spent too much time at arcades, I wasn't familiar with arcade exclusive games like Battle Circuit, Red Earth, Cyber Bots: Fullmetal Madness, Three Wonders, or Varth Operation Thunderstorm. Power Stone simultaneously came out on arcade and on the DreamCast (never owned one) in 2000. PSP owners can play the Power Stone collection that was released in 2006. Pirate Ship Higemaru was a Japanese arcade game that is now playable in the Capcom Arcade Cabinet collection on PSN and XBLA. 

Many games have memorable characters and this encyclopedia has bios on the main characters, supporting characters, bosses and ship specifications for games lacking characters. Each character has a dedicated page that shows their unique (and sometimes revealing for both males and females!) artwork and stats like their weapon of choice, height and weight. The character biography mentions how the character fights and how they change (if ever) throughout the series. I like how it mentions the game they first appeared in along with subsequent re-appearances. Many of the classic NES games like 1942 and Ghosts and Goblins are currently still playable on PSN, XBLA, or Wii Virtual Console.  The book quality with the hard cover and pages is good. While the asking price is $16.99, I have seen this for less than $11 on Amazon. Chances are you may be spending more than that after being reminded of Capcom classics that need to be added to your collection. As I was writing this, my husband was pricing out the remainder of Breath of Fire series that we do not own...

While the game of Risk has been around for decades, I have not played the game until it got the Plants Vs. Zombies makeover.  Instead of global domination, the Plants Vs. Zombies  version focuses on suburban domination.  Who cannot snicker at a suburb named Breakwind Butte?   One side of the game board is shaped like a brain and many of the suburb names play on that with names like Sierra Bella Park, Mount Brainer and Pituitary Glen.  There are color coded regions that give your army a bonus if you have control of all of the suburbs in that region.    The other side of the game board has the lawn backdrop from Plants Vs Zombies.    This side of the board accommodates the exclusive tower defense version of the game.   In this version of the game, victory is granted to the zombies if they make it across the yard or the plants if they are completely annihilated.  In the classic game mode you can win by eliminating your opponent's army or by completing three of the mission objectives.  

I like how this game gives you two basic training scenarios for beginners and an advanced one for increased difficulty.   One departure from the classic game of Risk is that this edition of the game is limited to two players.  One player plays as pea shooters while the other player controls brown coat zombies.  The board's regions are guarded by garden gnomes that are an enemy to both sides.  The zombies use three grey dice while the plants utilize three green ones.  Each team has a stack of faction cards that can aide in invasions or be traded in for units.  The cards seem to be of decent quality and the garden gnome and station wagon markers are made of cardboard.   My only complaint with the construction of the game is that holders for the pieces (instead of relying on the plastic bags they came in), would have been nice.  

The instruction manual is colorful and easy to read and understand.  It offers some good suggestions to increase or decrease the game's difficulty.  The suggested age range is 10+ and given the complexity of the game and rules, I think that's an accurate recommendation.  If you know anyone that enjoys either Risk or Plants Vs. Zombies, this game is worth checking out.  I have seen it online for less than $30 and you'll get hours of enjoyment out of it.

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I remember seeing this movie when it first came out in 1989.  My cousin owned the VHS copy with the controversial cover art and we watched and enjoyed it many times.  The story remains unchanged and is about a teen-aged mermaid that's in love with the outside world and a prince whom she rescued.  Despite her father's orders, she makes a deal with a witch to exchange her voice for some legs and must woo him in three days or be turned into a hideous sea creature.  There's plenty of humor to be seen as Ariel tries to understand the outside world.  Her crab friend Sebastian is close to her side and sings some pretty catchy tunes including the popular "Under the Sea" and "Kiss the Girl".    I like how the Diamond Edition includes a "Crab-E-Oke" sing along when ever the movie is paused for the inevitable potty breaks.  The voice for Sebastian is different but sounds close enough.  Another new extra is Carly Rae Jepson's music video and rendition of "Part of Your World".  All of the previous DVD extras are bundled in as well.  The video quality has been further restored compared to the 2006 platinum DVD copy we own and the 7.1 speaker support is another welcome feature. For those who have not owned the Little Mermaid in disc format, this is a worthy purchase.   

All of my kids, including my son enjoyed this five episode DVD collection.  While my kids are too young to understand crushes and how embarrassing parents can be to teenagers, they still enjoyed the silly slapstick humor.   The first episode focuses on Sunil's psychic abilities to help Blythe reunite with her crush to give him his keys back. The rest of the episodes were harmless and taught lessons like being yourself and not envying another's person's life/blessings over your own.  

My son was excited that we finally got a sent a boy friendly bluray to review.  While he has not seen the Transformers TV show or movies, my husband and I are familiar with the movies.  We were happy to hear the familiar voice of Optimus Prime once again.  This movie introduces some new enemies that are threatening Cyberton and the autobots.  An alliance is formed between the Autobots, Decepticons and the Predacons to defeat the risen Zombicon army. There's plenty of action and clashing metal.  In the end, some tough decisions have to be made and a valuable lesson of self sacrifice is learned.  Any Transfromers fan will not want to miss out on seeing this finale.    

Disney princesses have been inspiring girls for a long time with their radiant beauty and grace.  Sofia has humble beginnings and is adopted into a royal family.  She wears a magical amulet that enables her to talk to animals.  While we can't relate to speaking with animals, we can understand Sofia's insecurities and we can learn many valuable less...

This was my family's first time watching the cartoon series Regular Show.  Rigby the Hyperactive raccoon and Mordecai a six-foot tall blue jay, are grounds keepers at a park and find their jobs incredibly dull.  They'll often make up games like roadkill bingo to make it fun or avoid their work altogether. Since this is a Halloween themed collection...

The buddies are back and this time they're in for a galactic adventure!  While my family hasn't seen the previous Disney Buddies movies, my kids quickly fell in love with the talking puppies.   The movie begins with Budderball's owner, Bartleby, celebrating his 12th birthday with his friends and grandfather (John Ratzenberger).  While on a treasure...

Today we got our Grilled Cheesus from http://www.grilledcheesus.com. It carries a $40 price tag, but some of the profits (not sure how much exactly) go toward charities that feed the hungry.  Here's what the unit looks like:

Operation is pretty straight forward; you have to let it heat up a bit.  If you want to have a sandwich with Jesus' face front and center, it can make one at a time.  If you don't mind a half blessing, you can cook two.  We pre-buttered our bread and put on our cheese and waited until both lights had an orange light to let us know it was done.  I'm not sure why the green side has an orange bulb in it, but it works.

Here's what the inside looks like.  It's pretty easy to clean; we just wiped ours off with a soapy rag.

Hallelujah!! Here's the finished product:

The kids and hubby approved of the look and taste of the sandwiches.  I'm sure we'll be blessed with many more Grilled Cheesus meals in our future.