Return to Never Land
(Pixie Powered Edition)
Disney

One of the best sequels to classic animated Disney films, Return to Never Land, was first released in theaters, then went to DVD and was out of print for a while until this new, pristine edition. The movie flashes forward from the original Peter Pan to World War II London, where Wendy has indeed grown up, is married, and has a toddler boy and a pre-teen girl, Jane. With the blitz on, Jane has already grown up herself, with no patience for her mother’s tales of Pan, the Lost Boys, Captain Hook and such…until everything changes with the arrival of a certain pirate ship over London skies. The voice actors, especially for Pan and Hook, nail the sound, inflections, etc. of the characters, and the animators have stayed true to the style of the first film. While the new songs can in no way match the the likes of “You Can Fly” or “Following the Leader” and so on from the original Peter Pan, this movie is a delight overall. All it takes is faith, trust and yes, a little bit of that pixie dust from the ever-sassy Tinkerbell.

Mr. Bean’s Holiday
Universal

The lord of looney, sultan of slapstick, and pasha of pratfalls has returned. Back in the role that first made him an international comedy figure, Rowan Atkinson is once again Mr. Bean, one of the world’s last innocents. Last seen on screen as Bean in 1997, he’s finally back a decade later, winning a local church raffle trip to the south of France, becoming a Cannes Film Fest judge, and falling, tripping and landing into all sorts of other adventures. There’s a fine turn of the obnoxious from Willem Dafoe as an American filmmaker, among the cameos here. More a series of vignettes than one long story (there are a few dips in the movie), for the most part, Mr. Bean’s Holiday is filled with laughs a-plenty of the old school style, sometimes evoking Chaplin and Keaton, with appeal for all generations, young to old.

Power Rangers
Operation Overdrive Vol. 3 - Blue Sapphire
Disney

How many Power Rangers variations can you name beyond the originals? Dino Thunder? SPD? Mystic Force? With a five-year-old boy in my house, we know way too much. Yeah, it’s often silly (especially those monster-type bad guys), but it sure works for the younger set–boys and girls too, since there have always been female Rangers as well. The latest team, Operation Overdrive, has been hunting for a quintet of jewels made for the Corona Aurora, a magic crown. In this story arc, our heroes head to Mexico in search of the third gem, the Blue Sapphire. There are allies to help and evil-doers on the prowl, such as Moltor and Flurious. The stakes are high (at least if you’re under ten years old), with plenty of pseudo-martial arts action, transformations, sci-fi/fantasy gadgets and totems, and more that’ve all made Power Rangers a success for more than 15 years now.

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