Children, Germans and anyone who has seen Bad Santa starring Billy Bob Thornton will know of the Advent calendar. It is a 24-day calendar, used to mark the December days until Christmas, by opening one door every day to reveal a picture or chocolate treat. Considering that tomorrow is December 1 and we have exactly two dozen holiday gifts on DVD to recommend to you, consider the following WorcesterMovies’ Advent Calendar for 2007 (but feel free to jump as far ahead as you’d like):
[CLICK ON AN ITEM FOR PURCHASE INFO.]
1 - SESAME STREET OLD SCHOOL, VOLUME 2
It’s hard to believe that shortly, the Children’s Television Workshop (and anyone who owns its subsequent toy franchise rights) will be celebrating 40 years of the groundbreaking “Sesame Street.” Up until last year, though, there was not a single classic episode, short of 1978’s “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street” available. This year, another five representative episodes hit stores, covering the second five years, 1974-79, and fans will just love revisiting friends long thought lost to time. Also included is the pilot episode (used to sell the series) and the best sketches from each season, highlights of which include songs by Paul Simon, Ray Charles and an absolutely adorable bit with the late Madeline Kahn performing “Sing After Me” with furry blue worrywart, Grover. If 2008 holds a Volume 3, then get ready for the Street-shaking 1983 episode, “Farewell, Mr. Hooper” which deals honestly with the death of kindly storekeeper, Mr. Hooper (Will Lee). It makes us cry just thinking about it.
2 - PIXAR SHORT FILMS COLLECTION - VOLUME 1
The studio that brought us Toy Story, Finding Nemo and the recent best-selling marvel, Ratatouille, started out making CGI shorts, and this is a wonderful collection of 13 of them, dating back to 1984’s pre-founding Lucasfilm collaboration, “The Adventures of André and Wally B.” The rich promise of the fledgling medium started to become evident after the brief but hilarious debut “Luxo Jr.” (1986), the film about a mischievous little desk light from which the company took its “I”-stomping lamp logo. While these shorts became film festival staples during the ensuing years, the company eventually started pairing them up with their theatrical features. There are three Oscar winners in the bunch, including the riotous “For the Birds” (2000), as well as ruthlessly efficient branded vignettes like “Jack-Jack Attack” (The Incredibles) and “Mike’s New Car” (Monsters, Inc.) For the technically minded, there is commentary on nearly every short, plus four Luxo bits produced for “Sesame Street” and a nice documentary on the company itself. Here’s hoping that we don’t have to wait until 2028 until these comically gifted digital wizard create enough content for a Volume 2.
3 - TREASURY OF 100 STORYBOOK CLASSICS
Be the hero of any early reader by wrapping this vast compendium of Scholastic’s greatest hits this year. With stories like “Where the Wild Things Are,” “Make Way For Ducklings,” “Harold and the Purple Crayon” and 97 more, this 16 DVD set will keep the wee ones starry-eyed and grateful until they are old enough to pass it on to their own children. Some stories are animated, and some just feature illustrations from the book, but all are engaging, featuring celebrity narrators like James Earl Jones, Forest Whitaker, Cyndi Lauper and Sarah Jessica Parker. The keenness of DVD technology allows for a helpful read-along option, which might even lead to the eager readers asking for books for their next year.
4 - THE BRADY BUNCH: THE COMPLETE SERIES [+SHAG CARPET COVER & BONUS DISC]
As innocuous and commercially middling as this 1969-74 sitcom was, there is no denying how ingrained its whitebread high-silliness has become, from Jan’s imaginary boyfriend George Glass to the boys’ volcano fiasco to Marcia’s broken nose. While all 117 episodes have been released over the last few years, they are considerably discounted here, and in a really groovy shag carpet case. The Brady faithful will likely eBay their previous five full-season sets in favor of this one, as it contains an exclusive 21st DVD featuring nearly four hours of cheese and saccharine: a two-part episode from the animated “Brady Kids” spin-off series from 1972, the highly-rated 1988 TV movie, A Very Brady Christmas and the two-part pilot “The Brady 500” from the 1990 revival series, “The Bradys.” Alas, the 1976 “Brady Bunch Hour” (a train wreck of a variety show that was mercifully put down after nine episodes) is available separately, with the annulled 1981 “The Brady Brides” still MIA. Completists will already own the three Paramount-produced spoofs, The Brady Bunch Movie (1995), A Very Brady Sequel (1996) and The Brady Bunch in the White House (2002). Gift this and make someone’s holiday a sunshine day, indeed.
TOMORROW AT NOON: Harry Potter Years 1-5, The Beatles’ Help! [Deluxe Edition], Hairspray [Deluxe Gift Set] and Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains The Same [Collector’s Edition]