Amazon.com

It's a good bet that any American kid growing up in the '70s or '80s learned some elementary lesson from the seminal musical series Schoolhouse Rock!. Airing from 1973 to 1984 (and often revived), the ABC Saturday morning shorts effortlessly introduced kids to grammar, science, multiplication, money, and American history--three minutes at a time. In one smart, comprehensive 2-disc set, all 46 songs and plenty of extras are collected. The four creators developed the series slowly, a welcome diversion from their advertising agency jobs, and ended up taking home four Emmys over the years. The background material includes 10 audio commentaries and a making-of feature for the new song, "I'm Gonna Send Your Vote to College." The DVD subtitle option is a great bonus for those who need to know every word from such favorites as "Three Is a Magic Number," "Interjections," "I'm Just a Bill," and "Conjunction Junction." (Ages 3 and older) --Doug Thomas ... Read more

Reviews (108)

This Is So Cool--Facts can be Fun!!
And it's even educational! I was so pumped (now that I have a DVD player) to hear that they were releasing a big-time anniversary edition of Schoolhouse Rock in its entirety. I've had four of the videos for years, but this set is so much better. Disc One has all of the original songs--you can play them in order, randomly, just the top ten--and an all-new song about the Electoral College (inspired, no doubt, by the 2000 presidential election). The way you can navigate your way through any and/or all of the songs is very easy and great for when you don't just want to hear about grammar (or history, math, etc. . .).

What really puts this over the top, though, is Disc Two, with a bucket load of extras: the lost "Weather Show," a new computer three-song set, a making-of feaure, top 20 countdowns, an interactive trivia game, music videos by contemporary artists, audio commentaries, Emmy Award footage, etc. . . . I can't wait to explore even more than I got to last night! This will be such a great tool for my 21-month-old daughter (who will know how a bill becomes a law and how to use a conjunction in a sentence!) and a ton of fun for me in the process.

The video quality isn't MONSTERS, INC., but it doesn't have to be. The old animation holds up just fine, as does the audio, which audiophiles could probably complain about if they want to poop the party for the rest of us. What really stands up to the test of time, aside from the basic content, is the music. These guys (primarily) did some really good arranging, little of it in the rock 'n roll genre, ironically. Jack Sheldon delivers some spectacular jazz vocals on several of the more famous tunes. Complicated yet catchy melodies are the strength--that's why we all remember "I'm Just a Bill" and "Conjunction Junction"--with great backing vocals and instrumentation to boot. The contemporary artists' renditions didn't hold up to the originals, but they were pretty interesting to hear. The interactive stuff will be great for kids hearing these songs for the first time. The interviews and commentaries are really interesting, especially in hindsight. Great new additions, discoveries, and formats all add to the charm of the original forty-six songs. How they managed to get all of that factual information into essentially a music video, while keeping the kids (and me) entertained, is still a mystery to me.

Bottom Line: You'll be hard-pressed to find a better combination of education and entertainment. If there are any factual inaccuracies, they are minor enough to overlook and could actually spark interesting conversations. The basic content is right on-the-money. The fact that they'll actually be talking about and be interested in the grammar, history, science, and economics is important enough to overlook any minor flaws.
The fact that my daughter, who two years (and a couple of months) old, actually knows that "Wow!" is an interjection, a fact that most of my juniors (I'm a teacher) wouldn't know off the top of their heads, speaks volumes. . . !

Schoolhouse Rock totally rocks!
I'd been waiting to see if I'd get this for my birthday, but I couldn't wait anymore. I bought it today and had to pop it in. These great animated shorts helped kids learn multiplication, science, grammar, american history and money. You want an explanation of our national debt? - watch Tyrannosaurus Debt :-).

The first DVD has all the original shorts categorized by groups, you can play them by group, or play them all in order or play them all or shuffle. If you choose a particular group, you can pick the ones you want to play in the playlist or select the Play All button. I was having a blast seeing remembering how many of these I could still sing.

The 2nd DVD is the Extra Credit portion of the set. You can watch with Captions or Audio Commentary. I really had fun with the "Earn Your Diploma" Trivia and the Arrange A Schoolhouse Rock song. The Earn Your Diploma gives you a set of questions to answer to each group (Science, Money, etc). When you get them all right, you get a clue which when you solve all the groups you can then solve the Master Jumble to become a Schoolhouse Rock Graduate. The Arrange A Schoolhouse Rock Song has 3 of the Schoolhouse rock songs mixed up and its up to you to get the lyrics in order. When you get them right, the song clip will play. The music videos section was funny - the first 3 had the original animated shorts but the music/voices were redone by Better Than Ezra ("Conjunction Junction"), Lemonheads("My Hero Zero") and Deluxe Folk Implosion("I'm Just A Bill"). I didn't care for the last one by Goodness ("Electricity, Electricity"). That was just a music video but that one doesn't take away from the rest of the DVD.

I saw one review here getting a little too deep in reviewing the american group. I say, don't worry about it - these were meant to help kids learn and I can say they definitely did me good. This collection was well done and it's worth the price :-)

School House Rock
I learned more from this as a kid than in school. To expensive on Amazon, I got it cheaper at my local Vons grocery store.

Wow! Hurray! Hey! Hallelujah!
Yes, I'm using all the Interjections from SchoolHouse Rock to sing it's praises. I grew up with Schoolhouse Rock, but to be honest I thought about it only when my husband and I laughed nostalgicly about memorable songs like Conjunction Junction. Then, he bought the 30th anniversary edition for our daughter (he was trying to qualify for free shipping when he was buying the Tripletts of BelleVille!). So, it can be said that neither of us anticipated how fantastic this DVD would be -- STILL! My 3 year old LOVES it, and I can't say enough great things about the creative lyrics that teach grammar, numbers and how the body works (maybe I should reach into my bag of adjectives, which my daughter charmlingly calls "magictives"). It is the one DVD we own that I don't feel any apprehension about evil or scary characters, dark plots or questionable character influences (which are startling present in many videos for preschoolers).

If you're wondering about getting this video, wonder no more. It is a timeless winner that won't disappoint (unless you're looking for dark plots and questionable character influences!)

Re: Jason James Taylorville, KY
Mr. James I hope you have learned a valuable lesson from this experience. Read the product information before you buy it. You can look at the picture and see that it's animated/a cartoon. Come on don't trash the video because you didn't bother to read the product information before you bought it. I'm sure that you saw the cover on the DVD after you took it out of the package. I can't believe you opened it and actually watched it. Well, to each his own. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

poorly researched
I borrowed this video from the library recently. I got to the part where they talked about Tycho Brahe & claimed his cause of death was his bladder exploding because he drank too much wine & wouldn't leave the room to relieve himself so as not to go against the custom of never leaving the room before the king. This sounded too weird to be true. After a quick online search I found sites saying mercury is the more likely cause of death. This has made me a little skeptical of how well the video was researched. I'm very disapointed that an educational video would state an urband legend as fact.

The video is very informative but I had trouble getting past this and plan on asking some more experienced astronomers for other video suggestions.

Superb
I love the Standard Deviants. You have got to check this out! It is a very fun approach but you actually learn a lot also. The interactive features are very good.

Fantasitic basic astonomy review!
Standard Deviants always put out great videos. This one in particular is funny, sometimes a bit cheesy, but always easy to understand. Tape one of the astronomy review looks at the basics of astronomy including Newton's laws, Kepler's law, Wien's law, and a look at the earth and the moon. They also include funny stories about the history and people of astronomy. One particularly fun thing about the tape is that it is aimed at college students, and the humor is more adult then other "funny" educational tapes out there. ... Read more

Description

Includes such topics as: origins of Government, types of Government,monarchy, oligarchy, aristocracy, direct democracy, indirect democracy,indirect democracy, components of American Democracy, popular consent, popular sovereignty, equality ... Read more

Amazon.com

Trust the Standard Deviants team to guide you into basic Italian gently,thoroughly, and with a generous splash of irreverence. This 90-minute tutorialruns through the Italian alphabet, including the all-important vowels; stressand cadence; the pesky consonants "c" and "g," which change pronunciationdepending on what letters follow them; the accent mark; and lots of sampledialogue and common vocabulary. The Deviants tutors are as upbeat as any Italianspeakers must be, and they pepper their nuts-and-bolts instructions with trulyhelpful tips on actually being understood ("When speaking Italian, remember:you'll move your lips more and the sound will be much brighter than whenspeaking English"). There are plenty of chances to practice your Italian "r's"--though you may find the distinction between the "single flipped" and "doublerolled" to be a bit subtle on first exposure. The video also helpfully pointsout the occasions when the informal "ciao" is acceptable, and when themore formal "buon giorno" is preferable. As always, the Deviantsstructure the video with ample opportunity for review and note-taking. Beforelong, you'll be chatting up a storm. Bellissimo! --Anne Hurley ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Major flaw
The instruction of pronunciation is wrong, especially with single vs double consonants. The instances that comes to my mind are r/rr and z/zz. With the r/rr, they pronounce "caro" and "carro" the same way, with the trilled sound. In reality "carro" has the trill whereas "caro" does not. The "r" in "caro" is pronounced more like the "dd" in the English word "ladder".

The other single/double consonants also taught incorrectly are "z/zz". A single "z" in Italian has a "d" sound in front of it, like in "ad zone". The "zz" is taught to sound the same as the single "z" when in reality it has a "ts" sounds like in "hits" or "ritz".

Even though I'm from an Italian-American family, I know minimal Italian but enough to know how letters are pronounced. Personally, I wouldn't waste my money with this DVD.

It Got Me Started
It is very simple, but if you are just starting, as I was, simple can be a good thing. It's unlikely this DVD alone will have you speaking Italian, but it will give you a foundation. It explains the rules for pronouncing words as they are spelled, and offers a small starter vocabulary and some grammar. I used it as part of a larger program that included a variety of books and tapes. It is not as detailed as the second DVD in the series, and you probably skip this one go to the second one if you have already started with other materials. Still, I enjoyed it.

Not worth the money
Learning a language is difficult enought without all the "cute" comments and bits in this DVD.You can learn as much, for a lot less money, from an Italian phrase book.

Standard Deviants is a Delight
Well organized, entertaining and chock full of useful pointers in learning Italian.I recommend this to all new students of Italian.

Back to work on this, kids ...
It's simple and painless, but not perfection. In fact, as another reviewer noted, it often sounds as if no experienced Italian speaker was around for the final edit. The Deviants cast read the prompter well, but there are inconsistencies in pronunciation that might confuse a novice - and this really is beginner's level. I studied Italian with a native-speaking Italian tutor, and am a Spanish speaker, so I warn newbies that consistency is really important, and it's lacking here. With no expert was on hand to fix the mistakes, or catch simple nuances that are missing, you might learn a few things you have to unlearn later. Many of the company have no command of the language at all - it's funny to hear a guy say he speaks "only Italian" with a heavy American accent. To sum up, not a waste of time, but hardly a gem. ... Read more