DVD Review: Nickelodeon’s Essentially Spring Collection

DVD Reviews, Reviews

Polar Vortex has nearly given up battering us. The snow might finally melt from the pavement icebergs at the shopping mall. You can hear happy birds chirping. All this can mean one thing, Spring wants to spring on us. This also means Easter is just around the corner. Christmas is a season overloaded with holiday themed movies and TV specials for all ages. Easter? Turns out there’s quite a few Easter oriented DVDs from Nickelodeon under their Essentially Spring Collection.

Dora the Explorer: Dora’s Easter Adventure promises “an Easter fiesta for all.” Dora and her monkey boots eagerly await the arrival of the Hip-Hop Bunny. But the event is ruined when Swipper snags the bunny’s collection of eggs. Instead of an easy Easter egg hunt, Dora must track down and fix Swiper’s criminal activity. Also included on this set are “The Grumpy Old Troll Gets Married” and “Dora in Troll Land.” If your kid really likes Dora, you can also hide away “Dora the Explorer: Egg Hunt.” She’s back to work looking for more colorful eggs. They also include the episodes “El Dia de las Madres,” Dora, La Musico” and “Pablo’s Flute.” Bonus features include two episodes of Linny the Guinea Pig and Dora’s Egg Adventure game.

What’s better than one bunny on Easter? How about two? Max & Ruby are a rabbit brother and sister who get into a little trouble. Older sister Ruby always things she needs to help her little brother understand the world. This leads to a bit of a mess on Max & Ruby: Easter with Max & Ruby. The holiday themed episodes include “Ruby’s Easter Bonnet” “Max’s Easter Parade,” “Max and the Easter Bunny,” “Ruby’s Loose Tooth,” “Ruby Scores,” “Ruby’s Sand Castle,” “Max’s Work of Art,” “Max Meets Morris,” “Ruby’s Scavenger Hunt,” “Max’s Check Up,” “Max’s Prize” and “Space Max.” The siblings are back for Max & Ruby: Everybunny Loves Spring! to spread seasonal fun. “Max & Ruby’s Groundhog Day” will be good to rewatch until your kids are old enough to enjoy Harold Ramis’ Groundhog Day. Other episodes include “Ruby’s Bird Walk,” “Grandma’s Geraniums,” Ruby’s First Robin of Spring,” “Ruby’s Earth Day Party” and “Ruby’s Earth Day Party.” This is fine watching for those rainy days of spring to inspire them to go planting when the clouds break up.

The Easter Bunny dominates the day, but Peter Rabbit leaps around the holiday. The series does a fine job of bringing Beatrix Potter’s illustrations to motion. While none of the episodes are directly Easter inspired, they do deal with the spring season when bunnies get hungry and vegetables begin to bloom. Peter Rabbit contains eight episodes including “The Tale of the Radish Robber,” “The Tale of Two Enemies,” The Tale of the Greedy Fox,” “The Tales of the Secret Treehouse,” “The Tale of Benjamin’s Strawberry Raid,” “The Tale of the Lying Fox,” “The Tale of the Angry Cat” and “The Tale of Mr. Tod’s Trap.” “Spring Into Adventure!” includes “The Tale of the Start of Spring,” “The Tale of the Secret Treehouse,” “The Tale of Benjamin’s Strawberry Raid,” “The Tale of the Mystery Plum Thief,” “The Tale of the Dash in the Dark,” “The Tale of the One Who Got Away” and “The Tale of the Runaway Kites.” Both sets are entertaining with Peter and his friends getting into slight trouble and getting out with well meaning solutions.

The six DVDs are perfect for tossing in the Easter basket next to the Cadbury Eggs. Since they feature a lot of non-Easter episodes, you don’t need to stash them in the seasonal section of your DVD cabinet. Here’s my daughter’s take on the Essentially Spring DVDs:

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.