Customer Reviews

Spot's Magical Christmas

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

 

 

OH, I hate this video. Hate it with a passion. I'd like to take every copy in existence and pound them to dust. If there's one thing I hate more it's the book by Eric Hill of the same title (with the same story.) Only problem is my daughter would never speak to me again.

My daughter was given this video over five years ago. Every December it gets dragged off the shelf and played - and played, and played, and played. Then most nights she wants me to read her the book.

This simple tale of Spot helping two reindeer to find Santa's lost sleigh (lost during the annual pre-Christmas test drive) and his voyage to Santa's workshop has it all for the little ones - dramatic tension, colour, excitement, in jokes (I still laugh over my daughter surrounded by an acre of torn wrapping paper on Xmas morning saying "Daddy, the presents got all excited") and to top it all off a little bit of the jolly old man in red.

Of all the Spot videos this is the one that has stayed her favourite, indeed at eight last December she watched it and enjoyed it still.

A wonderful, magic tale for small children. Believe me, buy it for your pre-schooler and you will end up knowing every word.

The story: Spot helps two reindeer who have lost Santa's sleigh while taking it for a test drive. With his friends' assistance, Spot finds the sleigh and is rewarded with a ride to Santa's workshop. My (almost) 2 year old loves it. It's lively without being hyperactive, and geared for little ones without being overly grating on adult nerves.

ISBN 0140563741 - Before you read this review, I suggest you figure out what it is you're interested in - the video or the book - and if it's the video, skip this review. I get the feeling that the quality of the two are not comparable. I only recently discovered that Spot was a character in a series of books and finding a Christmas book in that series is a bit like finding a Christmas album by almost any artist - it's just something everyone's got to do and most aren't spectacular. This one was a little disappointing to me.

Spot meets two reindeer who have managed to lose Santa's sleigh, putting Christmas in jeopardy for everyone. The sleigh must be found in time, so he decides to help, enlisting friends along the way. When the sleigh is located, Spot is given a very special ride as a reward.

The book reads a little as if Spot suffers from ADD - he's into decorating, then getting wood for the fire, then looking for the sleigh, followed by sledding... it's actually somewhat difficult to follow and just doesn't flow. Spot fans will enjoy Eric Hill's Christmas story and the illustrations are typical Spot (while the video seems to be more Disney-esque). There are plenty of better Christmas books out there, so unless you're shopping specifically for a fan of Spot, keep looking.

- AnnaLovesBooks

This is the best video in the Spot series! My three year old loves it and so does Mom and Dad! The animation and story are delightful. I look forward to bringing it out again at Christmas time. Yeah Spot!

Hi my sister veronaka loves this video and so do i we loved it so much that it might be worn out because our sisterinlauh naomi winter and wiliam have wached it a milion times also i cant count how many times we do go to our mothers house or our aunt dawns house amd she lives near us Naomi's mom lives far away from us al the way in philadelia we love this video and hope they make it on dvd so our Sharon rafertys mother just got a newboarn baby which is about a year ikd VIDEO TO NAOMIS SISTERS DEMINSTRATONS SHE LOVED IT CHRISTIAN

I'm surprised at the rave reviews people have given the Spot Christmas video! We have them all - and this is the only one that my now 4-year-old son just walks away from! It's boring boring boring, in our opinion.

As a Spot sound book collector and one that's on the quest to watch all the Spot episodes and specials, I'd say this is by far the best Spot video of the bunch I've seen so far. And I've almost seen them all, including the only-released-in-Britain "It's Fun to Learn with Spot" series. The only one episode I haven't seen, at least not completely, is the "Spot and His Grandparents Go To the Carnival" special, which I caught only a split-second of on TV in Singapore little more than 5 years ago and got me started on this journey.

In any case, in this special, Spot meets with some reindeers who work for Santa and somehow lost the sleigh while testing it. The reindeers do the tango, Spot goes gather up his friends and go find the sleigh. Then Spot is whisked off to the North Pole, visits Santa's workshop, and then back home again.

The dialog is the most witty I've seen in the Spot series so far, and the lips of the characters actually move to reflect the speech - something that was not done before (due to the fact that in the original British airings of the series, the entire story is basically just narrated and voiced by one person. The Disney dubs of the series basically tried to add more voice variety by adding more casts, and were met with mixed results). I personally have no qualms with either format, but some people I know was put off by the fact that the lips of the characters does not move to the speech in the series, and would probably be pleased by the change in this special (the change is only temporary, tho. When Spot's Musical Adventures a.k.a Discover Spot was released, they reverted back to the old format).

All in all, it's a nice series. My copy of "Spot and His Grandparents go to the Carnival" should be in my mail anytime soon, so we can see how this one holds out to it then. Until then, I consider this one of best, if not the best, of the bunch.

Ratings: Five RAM Chips, 2 thumbs up, etc.

I love this video! My daughter (2yo) loves it as much as my husband and I. Spot is an adorable character. The other characters are equally loveable. The one song/dance number with the reindeer is quite amusing. My daughter always gets a laugh out of it. What most appealed to my daughter was the similarity between the video and the book, Spot's First Christmas. We've been watching the video (AND reading the book) everyday since we bought it. A must-see for any toddler!

My daughter, Brittany,loves Spot. She has books, stuffed animal of Spot,outfit, and movies. Brittany is one of Spot's bigest fans. For a child who is almost blind can spot anything with Spot on it any where she is.

Based on the Spot stories by Eric Hill.Spot's Magical Christmas (1995) was an enchanted story with magnificent music and Classic Walter Disney (1901-1966) animation.Good illusrations.