Customer Reviews

Good Night Gorilla & More Bedtime Stories (Scholastic Video Collection) [VHS]

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A wonderful collection of animated tales based on popular children's books. I bought this one because Good-Night Gorilla and The Napping House are favorites at home.

In Good-Night Gorilla a small gorilla manages to sneak out of the zoo and takes the other animals with him to the zookeeper's house. Very true to the original book.

In How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight, we learn that they do not fuss and fume and neither should you. Very interestingly done as the story moves from house to house.

Happy Birthday Moon is about a little bear who decides the Moon must have a birthday and sets out celebrate. A charming story.

The Napping House is creatively done with stills to show a house where everyone is sleeping and what happens when an awake flea comes by.

Patrick is a wonderful wordless story of a boy/man who buys a fiddle and fills the world with wonder and color.

The Paperboy tells the story of a small boy and how he runs his paper route when the rest of the world is sleeping. Illustrated with sequential stills to simulate movement.

The Hat is the story of a penniless veteran who comes across a marvelous hat that changes his fortunes around.

This is a nice video. It features drawings from a book with a person reading. The lady reading the story is very mellow and calm. This is not a video that will get anyone worked up but rather it is just a nice way to wind down after a long day. My children really enjoy this video.

The stories themselves are great. Good Night Gorilla is adorable with a sense of humor. The Napping House is a favorit book at our house. Happy Birthday Moon is a sweet story of Bear giving the moon a gift.

I may have a different version of this video however because mine does not have "the hat" that several reviewers have discussed in their reviews. My video has Good Night Gorrilla, How Do Dinosaurs go to bed?, The Napping House, Happy Birthday Moon and another short story.

Overall, I would buy this video again. I am looking at buying other Scholastic videos similar to this because they are just so well done.

Enjoy.

Bedtime is a difficult time at my house. My 2 year old does not need to sleep. I purchased this hoping that it had bedtime stories on it that would keep his attention but put him to sleep. It is wonderful. Aside from hte wonderful selction of books, the stories are narrated by gentle voices and there is soft lullabye type music in the background. It has been a real tool in helping our child fall asleep.

My 2 1/2 yr old son and 3 1/2 yr. old daughter love this dvd. My daughter loves the gorilla and although the hyenna tends to look like a bear, this dvd does the book well and gets its giggles. The other stories are winners too, my son loves How Dinosaurs say Good Night. I recommend this one and if you dont have Where the Wild Things Are, I recommend that one as well.

GREAT winding down for bed DVD. The VHS started to show its playing time so we purchased the DVD which has some very good additions. "Happy Birthday Moon" is one of the most charming simple young children's movies I have ever seen or read. "The Paperboy" is my favorite. My 3-year-old son seems to like "Patrick" even though I always play The Paperboy first. The one exception is entitled "The Hat" which does not seem to fit with the other movies innocent charm. "The Hat" contains smoking (a cigar) and guns. Again, it is just not appropriate. They could have easily found another story... Anyway, most are great pre-bed movies. I hope this helps.

If you have children from age 18 months to around 5 years, this is the single best bedtime video you will find. The music is soothing, the narrations are warm, the pacing is slow - everything is designed to hold your toddler's attention while quietly lulling them into a peaceful, sleepy state.

The DVD includes 7 short stories that last from 4.5 ~ 9 minutes each, with the average around 6.5 min. One nice feature is that, in addition to picking individual stories, you can also select "Play All" from the menu and they will all run in succession. From start to finish, it lasts about 45 minutes, but don't let its brevity keep you from purchasing it. Honestly, what price can you put on a stress-free transition to bedtime? And isn't this the kind of video where the object really is to put the viewer to sleep before the end?

Each story is heart-warming, sometimes with a simple lesson and sometimes just simply snooze-inducing. We got this when our oldest child was just a 18 months and he was captivated by the characters in "Happy Birthday Moon", "Goodnight Gorilla", and "The Hat" from the very start. He would often request a bedtime video by name (sometimes as a delaying tactic) and it always relaxed him. As he's grown from toddler to pre-schooler, he connected more with the children in "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight" and recognized the humor in "The Napping House".

This is a great way for the entire family to wind-down before putting your child(ren) to bed. In a market flooded with commercialized programming for kids, this is a stand-out in the crowd. A great tool for parents, a quiet bonding time for families, and a comforting way for little ones to close their eyes and drift away into dreamland.

THIS DVD IS AMAZING FOR GETTING YOUNG ONES TO SETTLE DOWN AND GET READY FOR BEDTIME. EACH STORY HAS A VERY SOOTHING AND CALMING EFFECT,NOT TO MENTION EACH STORY IS EDUCATIONAL AND COLORFUL. THE ONLY PROBLEM THAT I FOUND WITH THIS DVD IS THE LAST STORY. THE NAME OF THE STORY IS THE HAT. IT IS TOO GRAPHIC FOR ANY CHILD. THERE IS A SCENE WHERE SOLDIERS ARE KILLING EACH OTHER,NOT WHAT I WANT MY DAUGHTER TO REMEMBER AS SHES DRIFTING OFF TO SLEEP.

Like all the Scholastic videos, this features true-to-book animated versions of good children's stories. "Good Night Gorilla" is a favorite book of my son's, and he likes the animated version just as much. Anthony Edwards' narration is pleasantly low-key and that trouble-making gorilla is as cute as in the book.

But for my money, the treasure here is "How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?" by Jane Yolen. I hadn't been familiar with the book beforehand (although we have it now that it's my son's favorite thing ever). The reading is pitch-perfect -- not surprising, since it's read by the author herself. The animation is elegant and any kid who goes from sweet child to foot-stomping, roaring, throwing, crying monster at bedtime will relate to the children here. Of course, as the author admonishes, "No.. Dinosaurs don't" do those things. Dinosaurs ultimately provide model behavior for going to bed, and might even soothe your own savage tot. Even the music is excellent. An outstanding six minutes.

"Happy Birthday Moon" has wonderful pictures. Personally, I find the story kind of insipid, but my son likes it, so I guess that's good. It's very simple; I guess that's its appeal. "The Napping House" is guaranteed to put you to sleep. Its images are charming and the lulling text might just persuade your kid that napping is a good idea. All the stories get repeat viewing (sometimes several times a day) in our house, and that's the sign of an indispensible item. Plus, they're just books set to motion, so even anti-TV parents can't feel too guilty about letting kids watch them.

I don't allow my 3 yr old son to watch many videos, movies & tv, but the title story is one of his favorite picture books. I bought the book when he was 6 months old & he LOVED it! Every night we read 'Goodnight Gorilla', looking at everything in the pictures, laughing & being surprised at the big eyes on the dark page. He has his own gorilla, flashlight, set of keys & little animals that we use with the book. We bought this video for him when he was 18 months. He instantly recognized the picture on the front. At first he would only let us play the title story, completely excited & thrilled to see his favorite in 'motion'. The best part is that we've put our own motions to the story & act them out together along with the video & book.
The other stories have now also become very familiar to him & we now have a couple of the books to read. One night, several months ago, I used the goodnight ritual at the end of 'How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?' when he would not settle & go to bed. He knew what to do & then settled down for sleep & stayed in bed. Wow.
The animations stay true to the books because they use the actual pictures from the books, with music & sounds behind the storytellers & character voices. In a few they do add animation as close to the original artwork as possible.
Only 2 of the stories are actually about going to bed for the night, 'Goodnight Gorilla' & '...Dinosaurs...'. 'Happy Birthday Moon' is a simple illustration of a simple tale of a bear & the moon who share a birthday. 'The Napping House' is about a naptime at grandma's, 'The Paperboy', narrated by Forrest Whitaker, is a quiet story of a paperboy who has to get up while it's still dark out & gets to go back to bed when he's through. 'Patrick' is a fanciful visual story of a man & his magical violin & the hope & joy they bring. There is a piece of classical music used in the story that my son later recognized on our PBS radio station! The last story, 'The Hat' is a wonderful tale of a magic hat that helps bring a man to prosperity & happiness while helping him to help others, then flying away who knows where.
A good video without the fast moving action of most kids movies & shows. I use it now & then to help my boy settle before beginning our bedtime ritual, it's both quietly entertaining & reminding to him of how my little dinosaur should go to bed.

Our daughter LOVES books and Goodnight Gorilla has been one of her favourites since she was 6 months old. The story is easy to follow and can become more complex as the child matures. My daughter and I found the Scholastic Goodnight Gorilla video at the local library. We watched it a few times and returned it to the library. However, my daughter would go looking for the video. She wanted to see Goodnight Gorilla along with the two other books on video: Happy Birthday Moon and How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight. I highly recommend this video over all others. It is not only pleasing to watch (over and over), but it introduced us to two other great authors: Frank Asch and Jane Yolen. I would always suggest to buy the books first and then buy the video to enhance the experience.