The holidays are approaching which means time to buy gifts for younger relatives. While it’s nice to just grab a DVD featuring the Nickelodeon series that the kid can’t stop talking about, you might want to get them something extra. Now you can do both at once with the Holiday Gifts from Nickelodeon. The four boxsets contain stickers, a poster, a coloring book and crayons along with the DVD. Pretty much everything to get a kindergartener excited is inside that box. The selections include Dora’s Christmas Carol Adeventure, It’s a SpongeBob Christmas, Winx Club: The Secret of the Lost Kingdom Movie and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rise of the Turtles.
Dora’s Christmas Carol Adventure is a double length holiday special. In the spirit of the season, Dora does her best to make Swiper understand that the best gifts are not stolen from others. The fox gets stuck on Santa’s naughty list after a major heist. Can Dora’s attempt to be the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future reform the bandit? The bonus features include a music video for “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” There’s also a short piece on the Young People’s Chorus that add to the musical segments.
It’s a SpongeBob Christmas captures the holiday spirit with an extra dimension. The animated cartoon gets transformed into the 3-D world of stop motion models. The yellow sponge becomes part of the Rankin-Bass magic like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer except a little more twisted. The holiday episode immediately references Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town with Pete the Pirate tooling around in a truck instead of Fred Astaire. Pete’s not as good of a driver, but the story starts anyhow. SpongeBob and friends are getting ready for the arrival of Santa Claus. Plankton has major plans since he’s going to ruin Christmas by infecting everyone with Jerktonium. When everyone gets on the naughty list, Plankton will get all the presents. He uses fruitcake as the perfect way to infect unsuspecting masses with Jerktonium. This special might be a little too much for wee kids. There’s a song about not being a jerk at Christmas that could upset grandma. Santa (John Goodman) isn’t too jolly when he arrives in Bikini Bottom. Bigger kids will enjoy this a little bit more.
Winx Club: The Secret of the Lost Kingdom is an 86 minute long movie that turns the 2-D animated cartoon into a 3-D CGI adventure. Bloom isn’t merely a fairy. She’s also a princess. She has to locate her lost parents with the help of her fellow Winx fairies. Rumor has it that they’re long gone, but she won’t give up hope. They all go on a great journey to find stuff to assist in the big paternal revelation. What really matters is that the CGI dazzles a preschooler’s eyes. Adults will get a thrill with David Faustino (Married…with Children) as the voice of Helia. If the magical fairy world wasn’t enough, the princess talk made it a must watch event. There’s quite a few musical numbers to let them sing along with the replays. Pixie dust and royalty are in abundance in this film.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rise of the Turtles contains the first six episodes of the latest version of the Heroes on a Half Shell. “Rise of The Turtles” is a two-part episode that restates how these reptiles became superheroes and came to the surface. Things start off fast when they must save April O’Neill and her dad from the evil Kraang. “Turtle Temper” makes the battle with Kraang gets difficult when a neighborhood guy videotapes the battles. He wants to sell the footage. Lewis Black (The Daily Show) has the right tone for the grubby videographer. “New Friend, Old Enemy” demonstrates the danger of making friends on social media. Michelangelo thinks he’s innocently chatting with martial artist Chris Bradford, but the man has a hidden social connection. Viewers will know there’s something fishy since Chris is voiced by Clancy Brown (Highlander). “I Think His Name is Baxter Stockman” is about a man upset about being fired for a toner issue. “Metalhead” introduces a robot turtle that Donatello wants to be his replacement in dangerous battles. But can you trust a robot’s loyalty?
Here’s Josie’s take on these four Holiday Gifts from Nickelodeon:
The video is 1.78:1 anamorphic for SpongeBob and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Dora is 1.33:1 full frame. Winx Club is 2.35:1 matted on a 1.33:1 frame. The transfers are fine. The audio is Dolby Digital stereo. Sound is fine for young ears. Everything is Closed Captioned.
Each boxset includes a poster, a sheet of stickers, a coloring book and four crayons.
Dora’s Christmas Carol Adventure
“Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” music videos will keep the kids singing.
Young Person’s Chorus Behind-the-Scenes (2:31) explains who they made the opening theme more holiday sounding. They work with a kids choir to make it a Christmas theme.
It’s a SpongeBob Christmas
Animatic (24:25) are the storyboard sketches that set up the action. They include the finished video so you can match up what it takes to make SpongeBob go into motion.
Yule Log (1:00) is fireplace fun from SpongeBob’s living room. It goes on a loop so be careful you don’t fall asleep and dream the holiday music for 8 hours.
MP3s are provided for “Santa’s Eye” and “Hot Fruitcake.”
Winx Club: The Secret of the Lost Kingdom
Seven episodes are included as a bonus. The extra episodes include “The Wizards of Black Circle,” “Magic Pets,” “Fear in Pixie Village,” “Winx on Earth,” “Ogron’s Spell,” “A Fairy Found” and “I Believe in You.” These are normal 2-D animation.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rise of the Turtles
Making of Animatics are provided for a scene from each episode. This is very educational for anyone wondering what sort of work goes into creating the finished image. They share storyboards, simple animation and the rough CGI footage.
Theme Song: Karaoke Music Video (1:01) so you can rap along with the opening action.
Holiday Gifts from Nickelodeon are a great grab gift. They have all the things a young kid could want including the crayons. It’s an easy way to be the cool relative this Christmas season.
Nickelodeon & Paramount present Holiday Gifts from Nickelodeon: Dora’s Christmas Carol Adeventure, It’s a SpongeBob Christmas, Winx Club: The Secret of the Lost Kingdom Movie and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rise of the Turtles.. Starring: Jason Biggs, Lewis Black and Clancy Brown. Released: October 15, 2013.
