On March 2nd, Disney and Studio Ghibli released Ponyo on dvd and blu-ray, and special edition dvds of Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, and Castle in the Sky. All of the movies are good, but our two favorites right now are Ponyo and Kiki’s Delivery Service.

Ponyo is a movie about a fish that meets a little boy named Sosuke. He names her Ponyo. After meeting him and spending time on land for a little bit, Ponyo is brought back out to sea by her dad. He keeps her in a bubble, but she tells him she wants to be human, then she breaks out of her bubble and goes back to find Sosuke.
It’s a good movie. I like the character of Ponyo because she is energetic and she likes ham. Sosuke is smart and he’s nice.
The special edition dvds have a lot of bonus features where we can watch Miyazaki talk about the movies he made and why he made them. Those parts are interesting.
Liberty

I like Kiki’s Delivery Service because I just like how the town looks and how the characters act and how Kiki delivers stuff. And Miyazaki films were probably the first anime movies I watched and now I watch all I can! I also like Kiki’s cat, Jiji. And I always like the old-fashioned bakery where Kiki ends up working. And the old lady’s house! And sometimes I feel like I would like to work at a bakery just giving bread to people. And I liked the sound effects. If I lived in a town like Kiki’s, and my mom had to go out and buy something, I would probably go with her and just stare at the town and stuff. In the bonus features, Miyazaki says he wanted the town to look like a bunch of little European towns mashed up, but especially a town in Sweden that he visited and loved.

-Lena

P.S. Disney gave us these DVDs for free.

When we got the pitch to review Disney’s Up, Maya immediately said, “I’ll do that review!” She saw the movie in the theaters and really loved it. Now that review time is here, she said, “I don’t want to be videotaped,” so I asked her what she would say about Up since she liked it so much and she said, “I would say tell Lena to do it.” Okie doke.

The kids are tired of reviewing, but let me tell you, all of the kids and grown-ups in this house loved this movie and some of the grown-ups (probably about 1/2) were so moved by the first 15 lovely minutes that they cried in a most unbecoming way. Pixar is good at the movie stuff.

Maya said her favorite character is “the doggy,” and I would have to agree. Dug is hilarious and lovely. His PR people were kind enough to supply us with the transcrpit to an interview that Dug recently gave. Read it and then go buy Up! It’s in stores everywhere!

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Q: We’re here to talk to Mr. Fredricksen’s dog, Dug.

Dug: Hi there! I just met you. You are nice, I like you! Do you have peanut butter?

Q: No, sorry. I don’t have any right now.

Dug: I am on a mission to find some. It is my favorite. Oh, you are tall.

Q: Yes, thanks. So tell me, do you have friends?

Dug: Oh, yes. I have many friends. There’s Alpha. There’s Beta and Gamma and Epsilon…and Theta—I do not like him. He is smells of bugs—and Kappa and Lambda…

Q: Okay…

Dug: Omicron…Sigma. Delta..

Q: I think we’re good. We got it. What I meant was do you have people friends?

Dug: Oh, yes, I like people. People are nice. Like my new master.

Q: Tell me about him.

Dug: Yes, yes, my new master, not like my other master, no. My new master is very nice. He smells of prunes. He found me while I was on a special mission! I was lost and sad in the fog. The fog makes me sad. Then I was happy to find him! He and Russell are very nice. They have a house with balloons. They like my howling and barking. Can you bark? We can bark together like this, “Woof! Bark! Bark!” Do you want to try howling?

Q: I can’t right now but maybe later. Tell me about your special mission?

Dug: Oh, yes. My pack sent me on a special mission all by myself. And when I found my new master and Russell I found the bird! I wanted to take the bird back to our camp and make him my prisoner—SQUIRRELL!– It was my first time to see the bird up close.

Q: Tell us about your old master.

Dug: He is good and smart my old master. He made me this collar so that I may talk. I am good at talking. I am scratching now. There are fleas. Can you reach under my jaw? I am a good tracker. When I am on a scent I will find what I’m looking for. That’s why my master sends us out—to track the bird. He’s been looking for this bird a long time.

Q: Thank you for talking to us, Dug.

Dug: You are nice. I like you. I am going now. Have you seen the bird? I think I lost the bird and my new master in the trees. The bird is fast and he is tall. You are tall. Do you have any peanut butter?

Plush Puffs Gourmet Marshmallows are hand-made and all natural. They have a lot of different flavors and there are recipes you can try!

We tried Vanilla Bean, Simply S’Mores, and Caramel Swirl. My favorite Plush Puff was the Simply S’mores one! I didn’t like the Vanilla Bean one or the Caramel Swirl. I don’t like caramel! Liberty doesn’t like any kind of marshmallows! Maya pretty much liked them all and I think adults would like them.

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Lena

Tikki Tikki Tembo (Paperback w/ CD)

by Arlene (RTL) Mosel (Author), Blair Lent (Illustrator), Marcia Gay Harden (Narrator)

Tikki Tikki Tembo is a great repetetive book for all kids but especially those preschoolers that love to repeat.  Peyton walks around saying “Tiki tiki tembo, no saw rembo, cherry berry ruchy, …” all day.  He also loved having me turn the pages when the gong sounded.

Erin

Hiya! I wanted to let you all know that a new version of  Woogi World came out. We originally reviewed it here back when they gave us a free one-year membership. We liked it, but then we changed our minds, but now we like it again.  Version 2.0 has new stuff and everything, but, there is even MORE unfair stuff (I call it unfair because there are things you can’t do unless you pay for a membership and I want everybody to be able to do everything for free!), anyway, I’m going to show you a picture of me and my sister’s woogi, this is mine:

And this is my sister’s:

And now, about the new changes of Woogi World:

They made a new Woogi World store, furniture store, and salon. Not just that it looks different, it also has some items that are for members only! But when old Woogi World was still there, not that many things were only for members. Also, members can say more things than non-members: Little words like, uh, grr, huh, etc.  It just seems like the new version is designed to make non-members really, really, really wish they were members, like it’s one big commercial for membership! I don’t like commercials because they try to make you buy stuff by making you feel bad about what you don’t have.

Basically, we still really like to play on Woogi World because the games are fun and it still teaches about internet safety and even though some kids get around the “safe chat” and figure out how to say mean things, that doesn’t bother us anymore because we’ve learned that there are always going to be some people on the internet who will act like that so we just ignore them or report them, and hang out with people who don’t act like that.

If you want more information from parents instead of kids, you can check out Woogi World Review. Their slogan is “Our Research, Your Decision.”

Bye!!

Liberty (sakura417)