Review: Three family-friendly offerings lead the way this week

Posted Tuesday, November 1, 2016 at 4:16 PM Central

by John Couture

They say that once you have kids, your world completely changes and that proverb is never truer than when it comes to your entertainment choices. Before we had children, my wife and I enjoyed a rather eclectic, but definitely more adult, taste in movies and TV shows.

Entertainment options such as Power Rangers and Care Bears were an afterthought of our happy childhood and nothing more. Flash forward five years and suddenly these shows are very much a part of our everyday entertainment. So, when the opportunity arises to share new DVDs with them, we relish the time relive a part of our own childhoods with them.

This week presented a unique treat with three new offerings that catered to the younger set and the child within all of us. As it worked out, my daughter and son each had a favorite and the third title was one that my wife and I have come to appreciate more as we've gotten older. As it turns out, these three films share more than simply making our family happy, they are packaged in a way to take advantage of the upcoming gift-giving season.

So, if you have a little one on your gift list that enjoys one of the following shows, then pick them up and check them off. Santa would be so proud.

Power Rangers Dino Charge: Hero

My daughter Sierra has become quite the Power Rangers fan these last few months, so she was extremely excited to see Power Rangers Dino Charge: Hero. I remember the show as an interesting distraction from my studies at college and, sadly, my opinion has not changed much as I've gotten older.

Let's face it, the acting and special effects are poor at best, but it is this genuine cheesiness that I think helps Power Rangers find its way into the hearts of fans old and young. My daughter doesn't care about the infeasibility of it all, she just loves the outlandish costumes and martial arts mastery.

To this end Power Rangers Dino Charge: Hero was very satisfying for my daughter. It contains four episodes that document the search for a new Ranger to bond with the Purple Energem and lead them in their fight against Sledge.

The whole Dino Charge storyline is one that my kids have particularly enjoyed since it combined two of their favorite things in the world, Power Rangers and dinosaurs. This collection also includes the special "Race to Rescue Christmas" which helps to tie it into the whole holiday promotion.

Care Bears & Cousins: Take Heart

My son has really taken a liking to both old school and new Care Bears shows of late, but he had not seen the Care Bears & Cousins show before I brought home this DVD. To say that he was ecstatic would be an understatement.

This series expands the series from Bears and introduces the same belly badge fun to other animals including a lion, an elephant, a penguin, etc. My son really enjoyed the new characters and what they brought to the adventures. The cousins mixed in well with the old cast and helped to introduce a few more advanced learning concepts that my son's peers are just now starting to discover.

I think it was a brilliant move by the Care Bears as this not only reinvigorated the entire series, but allows them to grow along with their audience a bit reaching a much larger age demographic.

Shaun the Sheep: We Wish Ewe A Merry Christmas

One show that my children have a hard time getting into right now is Shaun the Sheep. I'm not sure if it's the stop-motion animation or the dry wit, but I think it's a show that they will come to appreciate more as they get older. I know that I certainly have.

I wasn't an early adopter when it came to Wallace & Gromit, but I've truly developed an appreciation for their work over the years. Shaun the Sheep is a spinoff that I've rather enjoyed even more than the original series. In this collection of seven holiday-themed episodes, the farmyard friend enjoy the trappings of Christmas and my children seemed to enjoy them more than other episodes, probably because Christmas is right around the corner.

It seems that our holiday collection of films continues to grow each year, but this is a most worthy addition and one that we hope to enjoy for many years to come.