Labyrinth
by Jim Henson
from Sony Pictures
A fantasy feature film which weaves together music adventure and comedy. A story of a young girl who enters a world of her own creation and experiences her first awareness of love responsibility and danger. Special features: talent files subtitles: english and spanish and much more. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 03/27/2007 Starring: David Bowie Jennifer Connelly Run time: 106 minutes Rating: Pg
Sarah (a teenage Jennifer Connelly) rehearses the role of a fairy-tale queen, performing for her stuffed animals. She is about to discover that the time has come to leave her childhood behind. In real life she has to baby-sit her brother and contend with parents who don't understand her at all. Her petulance leads her to call the goblins to take the baby away, but when they actually do, she realizes her responsibility to rescue him. Sarah negotiates the Labyrinth to reach the City of the Goblins and the castle of their king. The king is the only other human in the film and is played by a glam-rocking David Bowie, who performs five of his songs. The rest of the cast are puppets, a wonderful array of Jim Henson's imaginative masterpieces. Henson gives credit to children's author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, and the creatures in the movie will remind Sendak fans of his drawings. The castle of the king is a living M.C. Escher set that adults will enjoy. The film combines the highest standards of art, costume, and set decoration. Like executive producer George Lucas's other fantasies, Labyrinth mixes adventure with lessons about growing up. --Lloyd Chesley
Sesame Street - Kids' Favorite Songs
by Jim Henson
from Sesame Street
Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 04/06/2004 Run time: 30 minutes Rating: Nr
Kids' Favorite Songs kicks off with a cackle-worthy parody of Bob Dylan doing "Old McDonald," and from there the groovy gags keep comin' 'round the mountain. Everywhere Elmo turns on Sesame Street monsters spontaneously burst into song, and all because they want him to feature their favorite tunes on his forthcoming radio countdown. For Telly, winnowing the hits to one is akin to Cookie Monster choosing between a macaroon and a figgie bar: at first he's sure that "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" lights his fire, but then he says bye-bye to a black sheep. The street heaves a collective sigh pavementward when word comes down that the countdown is strictly a numbers gig, no music involved. Only Sesame Street could weave well-loved musical numbers around a simple numbers lesson with such wacky pizzazz, making this a countdown that's no letdown for high-spirited parent-preschooler combos. --Tammy La Gorce
The Dark Crystal
by Henson, Jim
from Sony Pictures
Gelfings attempt to save the world from evil in this elaborate fantasy. Special features: dual layer widescreen version subtitles: english spanish the world of dark crystal documentary character profiles and drawings deleted scenes alternate language sequences talent files and much more. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 03/27/2007 Run time: 94 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Jim Henson/frank Oz
Jim Henson's fantasy epic The Dark Crystal doesn't take place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but like Star Wars it takes the audience to a place that exists only in the imagination and, for an hour and a half, on the screen. Recalling the worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, Henson tells the story of a race of grotesque birdlike lizards called the Skeksis, gnomish dragons who rule their fantastic planet with an iron claw. A prophecy tells of a Gelfling (a small elfin being) who will topple their empire, so in their reign of terror they have exterminated the race, or so they think. The orphan Jen, raised in solitude by a race of peace-loving wizards called the Mystics, embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of the Dark Crystal (which gives the Skeksis their power) and restore the balance of the universe. Henson and codirector Frank Oz have pushed puppetry into a new direction: traditional puppets, marionettes, giant bodysuits, and mechanical constructions are mixed seamlessly in a fantasy world of towering castles, simple huts, dank caves, a giant clockwork observatory, and a magnificent landscape that seem to have leaped off the pages of a storybook. Muppet fans will recognize many of the voice actors--a few characters sound awfully close to familiar comic creations--but otherwise it's a completely alien world made familiar by a mythic quest that resonates through stories over the ages. --Sean Axmaker
EMMET OTTERS JUG BAND CHRISTMAS (DVD)
from 20th Century Fox
Struggling to make ends meet, Mrs. Otter and her son, Emmet, face yet another bleak Christmas until Emmet secretly decides to enter Frog Town Hollow's first annual talent contest on Christmas Eve.
Genre: Christmas
Rating: NR
Release Date: 4-OCT-2005
Media Type: DVD
Sesame Street - Learning About Letters
by Jim Henson
from Sesame Street
Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 06/08/2004 Run time: 30 minutes Rating: Nr
Big Bird and Telly Monster lead young viewers through the alphabet, letter by letter, in a magical and imaginative half-hour discovery of letters and their sounds. The perfect tape for young Sesame Street fans who are just beginning to get the hang of what letters are all about, it includes short skits, songs, and other bits of business--some original, some culled from the Sesame Street show--featuring a variety of Muppet characters as well as the human residents of that famously educational thoroughfare. --Marshall Fine
Labyrinth (Anniversary Edition)
by Jim Henson
from Sony Pictures
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 08/14/2007 Run time: 101 minutes Rating: Pg
Sarah (a teenage Jennifer Connelly) rehearses the role of a fairy-tale queen, performing for her stuffed animals. She is about to discover that the time has come to leave her childhood behind. In real life she has to baby-sit her brother and contend with parents who don't understand her at all. Her petulance leads her to call the goblins to take the baby away, but when they actually do, she realizes her responsibility to rescue him. Sarah negotiates the Labyrinth to reach the City of the Goblins and the castle of their king. The king is the only other human in the film and is played by a glam-rocking David Bowie, who performs five of his songs. The rest of the cast are puppets, a wonderful array of Jim Henson's imaginative masterpieces. Henson gives credit to children's author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, and the creatures in the movie will remind Sendak fans of his drawings. The castle of the king is a living M.C. Escher set that adults will enjoy. The film combines the highest standards of art, costume, and set decoration. Like executive producer George Lucas's other fantasies, Labyrinth mixes adventure with lessons about growing up. --Lloyd Chesley
Sesame Street - Learning About Numbers
by Jim Henson
from Sesame Street
Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 06/08/2004 Run time: 30 minutes Rating: Nr
How many ways can you count from 1 to 20? The folks at Sesame Street know them all and run through them several times in this delightful, funny, and educational half-hour video. Big Bird and Count Onetwothree are the hosts of this takeoff on "The Tonight Show," in which Big Bird (as our Johnny Carson stand-in) introduces numbers and the Sesame Street folks act them out. Learning About Numbers is a mixture of original material and skits and songs from Sesame Street. A personal favorite: Kermit the frog as a passenger on an elevator operated by the Count, who keeps passing Kermit's floor because he loves counting the numbers so much. --Marshall Fine
Sesame Street - What's the Name of That Song
by Jim Henson
from Sesame Street
Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 04/06/2004 Run time: 50 minutes Rating: Nr
One electrifying hour of Sesame Street music and magic commemorates its 35th anniversary in this collection of 17 classic songs paired with a star-studded guest list. Superhero Grover provides the thematic storyline for musical merriment as he embarks on a mission to discover the "one special song the world can sing together." It's a difficult task since everyone in the Sesame Street cast has an opinion. Beginning with the opening number, "Sing" (which gives cameos to Ben Stiller, Conan O'Brien, the Dixie Chicks, and more), the tunes come in rapid succession along with the usual bantering and balderdash of Kermit, Oscar, and the gang. There is no shortage of hilarity, whether watching Wayne Brady sing "Between" sandwiched in the middle of Big Bird and Snuffy; or Queen Latifah belt a rap rendition of "That's the Letter O." It is no wonder that Sesame Street remains timeless with such servings of exquisite entertainment targeted at youngsters yet enjoyed by all. (Ages 3 to 8) --Lynn Gibson
Sesame Street - Monster Hits!
by Jim Henson
from Sesame Street
Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 04/06/2004 Run time: 30 minutes Rating: Nr
Sesame Street - Let's Make Music
by Jim Henson
from Sesame Street
Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 04/06/2004 Run time: 40 minutes Rating: Nr
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