In "Santa's Missing Hat," Kitty and Mimmy have an argument with some of their friends as to whether or not Santa Claus is real. The hat blows off the Santa on display at the school, and Kitty and Mimmy chase after it. In "Mom Loves Me After All," Kitty and Mimmy's mother is babysitting a friend's baby for a few days, and doesn't have as much time for Kitty and Mimmy as she normally does. Kitty takes this hard, and ends up running away. While "Mom Loves Me After All" is a well-told story, I don't see how it fits into a DVD that is about "Holiday Magic" (if the story had been set around Mother's Day, it would have made more sense).In "The Christmas Eve Gift," Keroppi and his friends hear a story about the Christmas Stars that light the way for Santa on Christmas Eve. A star-in-training is blown out of the sky during a snowstorm, and is found by Keroppi. Keroppi and his friends try to help Twinkle (the star) to have confidence in herself so she can become a full-fledged Christmas Star. In "Our Treasure," Keroppi gets a special rock from his father, and it causes a problem with a neighbor. I just can't figure out how "Our Treasure" fits in with a DVD that is supposed to be about "Holiday Magic."
In the first short, "Santa & His Reindeer Kuppi," Santa is having a race to determine the ten reindeer who will pull his sleigh that year. Kuppi is a young reindeer who wants more than anything to pull Santa's sleigh, and he enters the race. In "Find the Secret Treasure," Pekkle and his friends find a treasure map that will lead them to a stone that will grant one wish, and they go on a treasure hunt. Like the Keroppi story "Our Treasure," I don't see how this Pekkle short fits in with the theme of the DVD.
Admittedly, this is a rather "low frills" DVD. When the disc is put into the DVD player, it goes straight to the first story after the Hello Kitty's Paradise promo, rather than to the main menu. Also, the only "special feature" on the disc is the DVD credits. While I would normally count the lack of special features against a DVD, I can't with this disc since it's being aimed at and marketed to young children. With young children, special features aren't as important, since they won't sit still long enough to view them, anyway. As an adult, I found the episodes to be enjoyable, and that the writing for the English dub was done in such a way that it wasn't talking down to the kids.
These Hello Kitty DVDs contain 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.
In order to write this review, I checked out a copy of this DVD through the King County Library System.
| Santa's Missing Hat Mom Loves Me After All The Christmas Eve Gift Our Treasure Santa & His Reindeer Kuppi Find the Secret Treasure |
