Customer Reviews

The Peter Rabbit Collection

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My daughter loved the World of Peter Rabbit - Story of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny VHS, so I took a chance and ordered this four pack which includes 9 separate 'episodes.' The dvd quality is very good, full-screen aspect only with good sound and excellent picture quality. As for the content, the production values of this series are terrific with beautiful, live-action framing segments portraying the life of the author. As for the animation, it absolutely captures the look and feel of the original illustrations and is simply gorgeous to look at. The stories are true to the original except that two tales are often threaded together to fill an 'episode.' So in the end you get 9 'episodes' but almost twice that in terms of stories. Overall, I am very pleased with this purchase. This is a quality product; Go out of your way to get yourself a set. Highest recommendation.

I bought this collection to put in an Easter basket for my four-year-old and she absolutely loved it. She was familiar with The Tale of Peter Rabbit from bedtime stories, but this DVD set brought the stories alive in a wonderful way. The quality is impeccable, from the stunning watercolor animations to the haunting Celtic music used throughout the stories. I loved the inclusion of the lesser known Beatrix Potter tales such as the The Tale of Two Bad Mice (my daughter's favorite) and The Tailor of Gloucester (said to be Beatrix Potter's favorite). My daughter has all but abandoned her Barney and other videos and her enthusiasm has prompted me to purchase Volume 2 so we can enjoy even more.

As a Language Arts teacher, I love that the DVD is remarkably true to the original stories and also uses live-action segments to depict Beatrix Potter as she wrote and illustrated these wonderful stories through her letters to children she knew. They certainly have sparked my daughter's interest in reading more stories. How many videos do that?! These videos are a must have for every DVD family collection.

Absolutely wonderful...not only for young children but for their worn-out parents as well! I bought this video for my son's 3rd Easter and was marvelously surprised at how good it was. My little boy loved it so much, he wore out the tape within 3 weeks. Anyone who thinks Beatrix Potter's classic story is too old-fashioned to captivate a child of the new millenium, they couldn't be more wrong. With the combination of live video scenes of "Beatrix Potter" writing letters and conversing with her animal friends interspersed with beautifully rendered still and animated illustrations from the book, it's a treasure. Gotta buy another one and all the rest as soon as I can.

This is a wonderful Animated version of Beatrix Potter's stories entitled "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" and "The Tale of Benjamin Bunny". The 2 books are tied together to make one continuous story that has common rabbit characters such as Peter Rabbit. Also pairing these two stories together helps tie up all the loose ends from reading them independantly; ie. at the end of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Peter has lost his clothes while escaping Mr. McGreagor garden; In the Benjamin Bunny part of the video Peter & his cousin Benjamin endevour to get Peter's clothes back off of the scarecrow in Mr. McGregor's garden.

If you entertain children, you'll love this wonderful alternative to "Everything Disney" or "Killer Robots" videos that make up so much of kids viewing fare. This film intersperses live action vignettes of Beatrix Potter's creative process with animation of her famous stories in a very entertaining way. The animation is so well done that I find the distinction between it and the live action blurred in my perception. Our 5-year-old and 3-year-old rough and tumble boys love it and request it again and again. I find the peaceful, woodland village milieu of the stories and the backstory so enchanting that I usually stop what I'm doing and watch with them. This will be a great addition to your DVD library. It will leave you wanting more.

We originally got a 'free' copy of this video from Enfamil as a part of a promotion they were having. Our oldest son (two at the time) watched it so much that the tape literally wore out. It is wonderful, gentle show, with delightful animation and music. I guess while Enfamil was distributing it it was otherwise unavailable, so I was very glad to see it for sale, and purchased a copy for our youngest son.

Much to my surprise, some of the voices have been rerecorded! Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, Mr. MacGregor, Robin Redbreast and the sparrows are all by different actors. Mrs. Rabbit, her daughters and Mr. Bouncer are the same. This is to the detriment of the video, particularly if you have seen the previous version. The new voices sound more American than English, and are not nearly as expressive with the script.

If you have never watched it you can be assured that it is a perfect video for young children, but if you saw a copy a few years ago then this version may have minor disappointments for you.

Our 2-year-old absolutely loves watching "the bunnies" and comments on every scene in the video. The opening scene in England showing a live-action Beatrix Potter with all the countryside animals (a nice segue which introduces how the stories began as illustrated letters), the music, and the charming true-to-Beatrix-Potter animation make this a gentle, lovely film to share that doesn't require fast-forwarding through any "scary" parts.

Do not buy this Goodtimes release!!! It's way inferior to the 2008 BBC release! I compared them head to head and the difference is so obvious! The Goodtimes release managed to ruin the picture quality, it sure has to do with the fact that they squeeze the whole thing into two single layer dvds, as opposed to the BBC release who got them on three dvds.

Sure, the price it's much lower, but what you missing here cannot be replaced ! I wish someone told me that when I did my buying!

This is a truly magnificent production of the classic Beatrix Potter stories and the animation is very true to the original illustrations. Each episode opens with a live action scene of Ms. Potter writing a letter and imparting a story that opens into the animation. The opening music is lovely and the production well done. The stories are well animated and give you a feeling of stepping back into another time and another world. However, not all episodes went over well with my young children. The Tale of Pigling Bland was my children's least favorite episode and there are a few episodes that truly frightened my children, who were nearly 3 and 5 the first time they watched it. (For example, a very large rat almost makes kitten pie.) Over a year later and my 6 year old is no longer scared but my 4 year old still cannot watch some of the episodes.

I should note that my kids are all girls and sometimes easily frightened. My friend brought her 5 year old son to watch the series and the programs did not tend to hold his interest, except when my kids were scared, then he was fascinated and thought it was funny...

All in all, this is a very well produced, well animated series. As my kids get older, I think they will truly enjoy the DVDs. I certainly do.

A poor tailor is commissioned to sew a coat and an embroidered waistcoat for the mayor, who is to be married on Christmas Day. But the tailor falls ill before he finishes his work and is only able to get out of bed the day of the wedding--not nearly enough time to finish the task! He staggers to his shop on Christmas morning only to find that some of his little friends have lent a helping hand. Instead of a pile of fabric waiting to be sewn he is greeted by the site of a completed coat and a waistcoat that is so finely embroidered it looks as if the stitches were done by little mice.

I highly recommend this video to people of all ages. The story is lovely, the animation is soft and pretty, and the music is delightful. This is sure to please both parents and children.