Scanlines
Fri., April 11, 1997
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So I feel a little guilty about recommending Disney's Activity Center, Toy Story CD-ROM (Disney Interactive/Pixar, $35; Mac or Windows) and Disney's Animated Story-book, Toy Story CD-ROM (Disney Interactive/Pixar, $35, Mac or Windows). They're both solid, top-of-the-line edutainment titles. While a little light on the "edu" factor, they are really impressive in the breadth of their appeal and accessibility. Three-year-old Dashiell Sublett not only amuses himself for hours with these disks, but knows every short cut for navigating through them. He can play most of the included games without assistance. Even more amazing, there are several games that are a challenge to Daddy.
In both CD-ROMs, the Activity Center and the Animated Storybook, that loveable cast of characters, including Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Mr. Potato Head, Rex, etc., are rendered with the same great 3-D computer animation of the movie. The backgrounds, while not as rich in detail as the movie, are exceptionally good for a child's game.
The Activity Center CD-ROM is essentially a collection of games, puzzles, and other clickable activities. Woody welcomes you to Andy's room, where you can choose to play Five in a Row with Slink or a math-building card game called Sum's Up with Hamm, or you can create marble works of art with numerous special effects with Rex the Tyrannosaurus. You can also visit Sid's room, where the fun includes inventing new mutant toys, sequencing obnoxious sound effects on Sid's Sonic Boom Box, and Code Breaker, a series of puzzles that must be solved in order to release Buzz from an alien bondage gizmo. You can also go to Pizza Planet to view six clips from the movie, or play my favorite game, Fusion Flow (basically, installing "cystolic" fuel pipes in a 3-D maze to get Buzz's spaceship off the ground). All games can be played at three different levels of difficulty.
The Animated Storybook CD-ROM, hosted by Hamm, uses a photo album interface of 15 screens to present a bare-bones version of the story with plenty of clickable activity on every page plus three nifty games. You may be amazed at the sight of your child excitedly playing the Putaway game (all Andy's toys must be put in their proper places before he returns) when your child never shows an inkling of this talent in his/her own, non-digital room. The Crane Game involves those three-eyed aliens from Pizza Planet. It's good for kids who are still amused by the simple act of dragging and clicking a mouse; there's not much reward beyond the compliments of the three-eyes. One of the better games here is The Maze, in which you must navigate Woody and Buzz and RC through a street grid to catch up with the moving van, with Sid's vicious (love that pun!) dog, Skud, nipping at their heels.
These are two of the best children's CD-ROMs I've seen. My only complaint is that they're real memory hogs, and they occasionally freeze up or crash. However, I called Disney Interactive's help line and got very helpful and friendly advice on how to tune up my Power Mac for maximum performance and compatibility.
If you can only afford one of these products, I suppose I'd go for the Animated Storybook, not because there are more activities that might appeal to a broader age-range of players, but because Woody seems a little smarmier on the Activity Center. When he folds his arms and says, "So, what would you like to do?" it really irritates me. Does that sound petty? I don't know, I've lost my sense of perspective since Christmas. I'm in Buzz's court from the beginning these days. His sense of duty, while based on a fantasy, is so much more appealing than Woody's mealy-mouthed status quo fanaticism. I find myself noticing so many small things, like how Slinky sounds an awful lot like Xalapeño Charlie, the way Sid's seedy tract house has those bald spots in the backyard, as if that's a sign of a dysfunctional family.
I long ago gave up wondering where the father figures are in these households. Maybe they're out working a second job to pay for a second home computer. -- Jesse Sublett
April 16 is Tartan Day in Scotland, a day in which those who died during the Battle of Culloden are honored. "Expect me tae spend maist o' th' day in tears," wrote a Scot friend to me, recounting the pain she feels for long-dead ancestors who fought against the English. Och, I thought, but those of us who have some of that blood coursing through our veins might take a different tack: Scotland the brave is all over video.
Just as everyone left Fargo saying, "oh yah," it's tough to walk away from a film like Trainspotting (reviewed 3/14/97) without peppering enough "fookin' shite" in your conversation to make your clan plaid pale. But not all Scottish films are as dark as that one. Local Hero (1983, 111 min; D: Bill Forsyth with Peter Riegert, Burt Lancaster, Fulton McKay, Jenny Seagrove) is a quirky foray to the Scottish coast, where an oil company is trying to buy the village and erect a refinery --a good cast and gorgeous scenery make this offering from the director of Gregory's Girl a gem. The theme of man vs. man is so ever-present in stories emanating from Scotland (and Ireland), it's a pleasure to tune into Lerner & Lowe's Brigadoon (1954, 108 min; D: Vincente Minelli with Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, Cyd Charisse, Elaine Stewart). The fanciful tale of a Scottish village that comes to life for one day every 100 years features the inimitable Gene Kelly hoofing it with Cyd Charisse, and is way less smarmy than others of its ilk.
The enormously popular Highlander (1986, 111min; D: Russell Mulcahy with Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, Clancy Brown) spun not only two largely unwatchable sequels and an okay TV series, but some major cult-worship for net-gamers and SF fans. The story of immortal souls battling through time is sheer eye candy, but delicious and satisying if you don't inspect the storyline too deeply -- the devastatingly handsome Sean Connery in his aging glory is a total joy. Rob Roy (1995) D: Michael Caton-Jones with Liam Neeson, Jessica Lange, Tim Roth, John Hurt, Eric Stoltz, Andrew Keir) also gets the nod for its earnest if tedious tale based on Sir Walter Scott's classic of Scotsmen battling the English. Neeson is much more believable in his role than is Jessica Lange, whose cosmetically perfect choppers seem out of place in the rugged Highlands.
Say "Scot" these days, however, and the film most likely to be cited is Braveheart (1995, 177min; D: Mel Gibson with Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan, Catherine McCormack, Angus McFayden), and why not? It's a glorious ride back to 13th-century Scotland and names that bring a tear to the eye of every proud Scot: Falkirk, Stirling, Bannockburn.... Braveheart is one of the fastest-paced epics you will ever see, the kind of film "tour-de-force" only adequately describes. Forget about its historical hopscotch (William Wallace impregnating Princess Isabella? I don't think so...), and enjoy the battle scenes and romance that enthralled Oscar-voters a couple years back. -- Margaret Moser
(We found all the above titles available on VHS at Encore Movies & Music, and at Vulcan Video)
