Customer Reviews

Disney Princess Stories, Vol. 1 - A Gift From The Heart

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

This is the first thing I've let my daughter watch that I actually felt guilty for letting her sit through - instead of being interested and active, she fell into this slackjawed stupor, and I can't say I blame her.

There are four stories involving Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, and Cinderella. Each uses a combination of repurposed animation and new art to try to muddle through a short story. Not to put too fine a point on it - it's for kids after all - but the stories are all confusing, and completely out of character for each character. This makes it difficult for kids to digest easily, and you have to spend time narrating why Jasmine did this, or what's happening with Belle, and you end up trying to help this whole disaster limp along to a quick end.

The art is terrible also, and the only reason this matters is that it's an official Disney product. All this would be excusable if it were in the 2.99 bin at the supermarket, but this is the lowest, most crass grab for consumer dollars by Disney that I've ever seen.

Don't fall for it - even Return of Jafar looks like a classic next to this. You're better off getting a storybook to read to your little princess than this piece of soulless garbage.

I cannot believe how AWFUL this DVD was!!! There were only two stories, which looked like they were taken from the animated series of Little Mermaid and Aladin (and very poorly animated, at that!) and two "read along" shorts (about 5 minutes each) that were not really animated but rather pictures with words on the bottom of the screen -- it looked like it was lifted right off an on-line interactive read-along, but without the interactivity. My 4-year old was confused and bored by the read-alongs, and frightened by the scary storylines in the two animated stories. And I don't blame her! The scariness was totally inappropriate and uncalled for! You think you're getting a nice little fluff movie and instead you get something that I would NEVER have chosen for my daughter, had I known what it was. My impression: Disney just doesn't care. They're out to make a buck in the easiest way possible. This was a total rip off. Don't waste your money. And please, Disney, don't let there be a "Princess Stores Volume 2"!!!!

I am rather disappointed in Disney-they advertised this one for the longest time and my girls were soooo psyched to get it-I was going to wait till Christmas but I had a "$10.00 off when you spend $10.00" coupon-thank god I had the coupon otherwise I would have really been upset to spend the money on this. All Disney did was to transfer The little Mermaids Saturday morning cartoon from the Disney Channel onto the dvd and they did the same thing with the Jasmine story too.
They did a cut and paste of pictures for the "Cinderella Story and the Belle story-which is not even a cartoon but more of a read along with the pictures. There are supposed to be 4 stories but actually there are only 2 animated stories.
My girls do like it, but I could have just taped it on a vcr tape and saved myself the trouble and money. There is a craft on making a bracelet-but we could have done without that too. The new song by the Disney Princesses is great to listen to, but the video is also another one of Disney cutting up scenes from all the princess movies and pasting them all together to make the video. I would not recommend buying this dvd or vhs. You think that Disney would have done something new with the Disney Princesses...guess it is all about the money. Can you see the BIG "SUCKER" sign stamped on my forehead???? Well.... I would do (just about) anything for my 2 little princessess- except buy another Disney Princess movie unless it is a new princess they come up with.

Disney advertised this movie BAD. my sister wanted it so much.
i bet she was dissapointed, because
she only watched it once. disney really doesn't care about
what entertains kids- they just want MONEY! they want you to buy
the whole series and you win a cardboard castle.
DO NOT BUY THIS!

I'm so glad I didn't spend money on this! I rented it from Netflix, but just the same, I feel cheated. Please pay attention to the common thread in all of these reviews posted so far... this is a money-grab of re-hashed and utterly lame content. It looks awful, too... like they created the DVD from some Disney employee's VCR tape of old episodes (and the only two animated stories here are just that - old episodes of previously broadcast junk). The only new animation here are the animated menus... and there's nothing special about them. Stay away from this one! I'm not looking forward to volume 2.

This movie is not worth buying. It has four stories and only two are actually animated. The others are a still shot with narration. Those two that are animated are done badly. The words don't even match up with the animation and the story lines are lame. I was surprised to see such a result from Disney but then I rarely buy their straight to video DVD's.
Don't waste your money.

I purchased Volume One from Babies R Us for $14.99. I thought it would be a very sweet DVD with new stories for my 2 year old to watch as she loves the princesses. BUT, I found 2 very long stories (one of Jasmine and one of Ariel) apx 30 min each (the other two stories were apx 10 min each and very poor animation), both were very frightening for a 2 yr old. The DVD did not have a rating on it (like G, PG, etc) and there was no description on the back explaining the stories had monsters and scary scenes in it. I feel it would have been better if the DVD had listed a short decription of each story on the back and a suggested age should have been printed as well. I would say this DVD is good for 9 and up. But definitely not a toddler. I just wish I had enough information ahead of time and I would not have purchased this DVD. Especially since I can't return it now that it's open.

I paid $19.99 for this DVD. For $19.99, I expected full animation for the whole duration of the film(s). The first story on this DVD was full animation. The 2nd and 3rd were stills with story telling (I guess you can call it voice acting). I don't even know what the 4th story was because it just skipped the whole story. This is a total rip off. If Disney has some self-respect, they should set the list price of this DVD at $5.

My daughter has the princess dresses, the princess shoes, the princess crowns, the princess bedroom and jumps for anything having to do with princesses... but ignored this video after the first 2 minutes of viewing. I don't blame her. I'm a dedicated Disney fan and have never before panned a film of theirs, but this "product" left me slack-jawwed and staring in horror. I refer to it as a product because clearly it was just put out as quickly and cheaply as possible and does not have any of the heart one would expect from a Disney film. I suppose the animators were tied up, so they let the marketing department take the ball and make a movie. It was a completely irresponsible move by Disney.

Speaking of irresponsible marketing, I am also a little urked with Disney that they market Cinderella as part of the princess package they have so neatly put together, but have not re-released the original movie. One would think that because Cinderella is a classic (ergo among the most cherished princesses), and is featured in so many of the princess products, Disney would make the original film available to the demographic market they are targeting.

In the future I will be researching Disney products before purchasing.

Okay, I knew this DVD would be bad, but my daughter had hurt herself and needed to spend a quite day, so I let her pick a DVD and she chose this one. It is not just bad, it is ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. Two junky cartoons and two semi-animated storeis. All are CRAP. Disney really should be ashamed of themseleves.