Six Degrees of "A Very Brave Witch"

This is one of those posts about a kids' DVD that started out as a quick review and giveaway but quickly devolved into the mad ramblings of a mother sidelined by a terrible headcold. I have been putting off this review for oh, about three months and I feel so bad about it that I am posting this anyway to purge myself of the demon guilt.

I work for a company that does behind-the-scenes stories about the making of movies. Much of what we do turns up on the movies' DVD's as bonus material featurettes. One of our proudest accomplishments are the DVD and Blu-Ray of the movie "Coraline," directed by Henry Selick and starring the voice of Dakota Fanning.

Here's where my foggy brain splits off into weirdness. Henry Selick also directed "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and we went to a Halloween party last weekend hosted by our wonderful friends Dennis and Julie. Dennis happens to be a "NBC" fanatic, and the entire house was decorated with props and images from the movie. He turned the garage into a twisted funhouse, complete with a giant blowup figure of Oogie Boogie. Yikes.

...and Dakota Fanning's little sister Elle voices the title character in "A Very Brave Witch" by Scholastic which I agreed to review. It came quickly in the mail and I let it sit for weeks. And then I showed my children the DVD finally, prepared to log where they laughed and where they screamed.

What surprised me is this lovely little DVD is a collection of short videos that are story books come to life with animation and voice talent. The readings are paced like someone is reading you the story. The music is not overpowering. The animation is not complicated. In short, it is the opposite of sensory overload. And I loved it.

My children, who are accustomed to the slick CGI in Pixar films, were bored. When I showed it to them in the morning they were more engaged by it. And then I showed them "The Nightmare Before Christmas," which is a stop-motion animated film, quite unlike CGI in its way. They loved that, too. And then another showing of "A Very Brave Witch?" Absolutely entertaining. I had to desensitize the kids from the other stuff in order for them to enjoy the simpler things.

Watching this DVD with them made me want to sit and read them the stories the old fashioned way.

GIVEAWAY: Two readers who comment here WITH CONTACT INFO IN THE BODY OF THE COMMENT by the end of this week will receive this DVD as a gift from Scholastic. Comment away!