Customer Reviews

Angelina Ballerina - Rose Fairy Princess

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased this video because my daughter loves ballerina's and mice (Maisy is another favorite of hers). She has watched this video non stop for three weeks straight. It has gotten to the point that she is repeating whole lines of dialogue with a British accent. Between Kipper and Angelina I'm afraid my daughter is going to want to move to England. My daughter Kaylie falls asleep to this video and she asks for her mice first thing when she wakes up in the morning. I keep waiting for her to get sick of it but it hasn't happened yet. I know I've had enough of it. I had to buy the other video in this series to keep from going insane. This video teaches life lessons such as how to get along with others and how to conquer your fears. After viewing it I thought it was a little mature for a three year old but my daughter seems to follow the stories just fine. I am going to purchase some of the Angelina books in an effort to wean Kaylie from the video. Any video that holds my daughter's attention long enough for me to get some house cleaning down or a bit of peace and quiet is great in my book. Thank heavens for Angelina.

If your child is a fan of Katherine Holabird's Angelina Ballerina books, then this video of four Angelina vignettes will be right up her alley! The animation is very crisp and in places, seems three dimensional, while the voices provided in part by Dame Judi Dench (Miss Lilli) and her daughter Finty Williams (Angelina) are exactly as I have imagined them sounding.

Each of the four vignettes has a little lesson to be learned in the end...in the first, Angelina learns that she must overcome her fear of falling so that the show can go on. The second, which is based on one of my daughter's favorite books, Angelina at the Fair, shows Angelina learning that she must think of others' feelings even when she really wants to be selfish. In the third, a famous ballet comes to town and Angelina can't get tickets. She's upset until a surprise comes through at the end. In the last one, Angelina must muster up the courage to confess to an accident that has been blamed on her friend.

I highly recommend this pretty video to anyone who's little girl likes Angelina or even just loves ballet.

The incompetent DVD developers really screwed this one up bad. While the feature is just fine, it contains just one track and NO chapters - this means that you are forced to watch nearly 5 minutes of commercials every time you pop in the DVD. Accidentally hit the back button on the remote? Whoops, now you have to watch them all over again. If I wanted this complete lack of control, I'd keep buying VHS tapes.

DVD buyers should note that they seem to have just dumped the content into a single "title" without a menu or even "chapter" marks to let you access the different stories.

If your player allows direct time access, you can skip to 4:43 to bypass the numerous ads for other HITEntertainment properties...P>The video quality is fine; the audio is not great, but I've heard worse. It's probably as good as ever was made.

And my daughter loves it as much as the other reviewers' did, so that's what counts, despite my annoyance with the slap-dash formatting for DVD.

Our daughter loves the "Angelina Ballerina" books by Katherine Holbird and Helen Craig, and when we decided to start letting her watch TV, this was one of the first titles I thought would be good for her to watch... Unfortunately, the cartoons are *very* different from the books, in an entirely negative way.

Most alarming of all is how whiny, self-centered and deceitful Angelina is -- almost every episode involves her telling a fib and then having to make up for it. This is horrible role modeling for younger children, particularly since she KEEPS LYING from episode to episode -- there's no character growth, just Angelina being dishonest over and over again, until she gets caught or her conscience catches up with her. I'm also not fond of the ultra-competitiveness shown between Angelina and the other characters. In the books, Angelina always gets the lead role, but she is considerate of others, and shares the spotlight genrously. By contrast, these cartoons show a never-ending series of backstabbing and manipulation... The supporting characters, including Angelina's friends, are made more flawed and unlikable than they are in the books. Alice, for example, is transformed from a perfectly nice little girl into a clumsy, fat, self-pitying hanger-on who is embarassed and envious of Angelina's success. The Pinkpaw twins are new characters who seem to have been invented just to be bad guys -- they try to undercut Angelina at every turn -- and Angelina herself is far less likeable here than in the original books. Frankly, I'm amazed that the book's author, Ms. Holabird, allowed such terrible, distorted versions of her stories to be produced.

The books are magical, but the TV shows left a bad taste in our mouths. They are not on our "safe to watch" list anymore. Parents who were charmed by the books might want to preview these cartoons first, before letting your kid soak them up... It would be a shame to let them ruin the books for your mouse-loving little ones.

Four stories from the PBS television series. In each tale Angelina faces difficult challenges.

First Angelina get the lead in the new ballet but must overcome her fear of flying "on a single wire" if she is to keep the part.

Next Angelina must face the responsibilities of taking care of her younger cousin when they all go to the fair.

Then Angelina and Alice face disappointment when, despite all of their efforts, they are unable to get tickets to a great ballet (or do they?).

Finally Angelina faces guilt when troublesome Sammy is blamed for an accident of Angelina's.

We love the stories, the music and the voice characterizations. A fun video for young girls, and some boys, with lessons for everyone.

No menus and you can't forward through 5 minutes of insufferable advertisements for other titles. No chapter stops so you can't easily forward to the chapters your tantrum-laden 3-year-old wants to see. Whichever brain-damaged idiot approved this title obviously doesn't have kids of their own and should be fired for general incompetence.

Angelina ballerina is so cute, and she dances, all good, and the voice acting is lovely.

I have to warn the parents about the middle story, though, Angelina at the Fair. The main character bullies and then abandons her little cousin Henry because she doesn't want to look after him, and the poor kid is sobbing as he wanders the haunted house, where adults notice but do nothing. She refuses to buy him a blue balloon even after denying him the merry go round because she only has enough money for one thing, and she wants cotton candy ("candyfloss"). Yes, I am aware this is a cartoon, but I was teared up over it and just about sobbing when Angelina says she hates him.

My almost 4 year old daughter, however, loves anything with Angelina and didn't notice either the distressing situation or my distress. So this warning is only for the parents: It might upset YOU.

Gave this to my granddaughters for Christmas and they enjoy it while playing with their Angelina Ballerina Dolls. Thanks!

I didn't know it was the older show, the newer show is on TV. But it is still good. I only watched it once but I am sure to get many great uses out of it.