R. L. Stine’s Book-Based Goosebumps DVDs – Perfect Halloween Choices
Goosebumps: Go Eat Worms. Don’t watch this one too close to bedtime unless you’re really good with horrifying images and gross situations. Come to think of it, that’s perfect for the average tween boy. In the first episode of this DVD, a boy who is obsessed with worms gets a role reversal when the worms start to manipulate him and take over his world. It offers a good lesson on respecting nature. Bad Hare Day starts off with a hair-rising bang inside a magic shop. Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes is a delightfully haunting tale of lawn ornaments that come to life. The DVD is entertaining for older children with great imaginations. They are based on R.L. Stine’s popular novels for tweens. In the Goosebump DVDs there is equal representation of males and females. Parents have good relationships with each other and with the children, but the children are always the heroes. Child Juror Comments: I liked this DVD because it’s like a mystery. It’s a kid horror movie. I think my friends would like it because we all love the Goosebump books. It’s just like the books. It looked and sounded pretty good. Actually, it sounded great, but you can tell the gnomes are fake. They’re just wearing masks. My favorite part was in the gnome one when the gnomes were trying to decide what to do to the kids. They couldn’t decided, and they were coming up with different funny answers then they started fighting. DVD. 66 min.; $14.98; Ages 8-12. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. http://www.amazon.com/Goosebumps-Worms-Artist-Not-Provided/dp/B003U6SJX6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1286485627&sr=1-1
Goosebumps: The Blob That Ate Everyone. If you like a little scare, then Goosebumps is perfect for you. You’ll find your heart beating faster and turning your face away from gross scenarios as the stories based on R. L. Stines writing come to life. Each of the three anecdotes on this DVD end well and inspire imagination. In The Blob That Ate Everyone, a young writer realizes that he has the power to create his own stories. In Piano Lessons Can Be Murder a young boys encounters a ghost. It’s a story that might put kids off piano lessons forever. My Hariest Adventure is about a boy who suddenly begins to grow excessive amounts of hair on his arms and legs. The cinematography on the DVD is very clear, as is the sound. These are television episodes put onto DVD, and it’s obvious with brief pauses and backtracks for commercial breaks. The acting in My Hariest Adventure seems stilted. Child Juror Comments: This DVD is about people who have ghost encounters and strange stuff happens to them. I like how it’s made-up stories of ghosts and stuff. I didn’t really like how unreal the blob looked. It looked really fake. I think my friends would like this because they like the books. The pictures looked fake, but that’s okay. Some parts were better than others. My favorite part was figuring out whether the conclusion I figured out would happen was really how it ended. 66 min.; $14.98; Ages 8-12. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. http://www.amazon.com/Goosebumps-Blob-That-Everyone-Full/dp/B003U6SJWW
