Customer Reviews

Davy Jones' Locker: Video & Puzzles Kit [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
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This package includes enough entertainment for several children ranging in age from 2 to 9. The video is charming and filled with enough songs to keep even mom and dad humming. The unstated message is that books are knowledge, and knowledge is power! A child who reads is ahead of the game. The puzzles and crayons included with the video are a bonus for rainy days. The treasure chest that everything comes in is the most valued possesion of one of my youngsters. I recommend purchase of this item highly.

Even as a child, I've never been a huge puppet fan, but "Davy Jones" changed that. Maybe because the film-makers see puppets in a different way. "Davy" is made with wit, wonder and intelligence. It never speaks down to children (unlike so much kid's fare), and has plenty to offer to adults, too. Like most kids, my five year old likes to play a video over and over. "Davy" is the only one we haven't had to set a limit for. (I'm by him on the couch for every showing.) And the script is so good that my wife and I quote lines of dialog at least once a week. Davy has been described as a children's classic. It is. But you could drop the adjective: "Davy" is a film classic, pure and simple.

Davy Jones' Locker is one of the few high quality examples of Bil Baird's work on film. This is surely an excellent and moving drama, with Baird's marionettes looking restored, and surrounded by astounding and colorful scenery.
But for those of us who remember, this is not a film of the stage play which Bil Baird produced on Broadway, and in his New York theater many decades ago. His puppets have now been transplanted into a production with an overtly educational storyline. Some characters have been dropped, and others added.
So, it's a terrific record of the Baird marionettes in action, but not a record of history.