Customer Reviews

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly... and More Stories That Sing (Scholastic Video Collection)

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

 

 

We own every Scholastic Video in the series & we think this is one of the best! These "stories that sing" are very catchy. My kids love to run around the coffee table (their form of dancing) to "There Was an Old Lady..." I admit when I first watched from afar the second story "Antarctic Antics", I thought the illustrations were kinda boring, just because I am not a huge fan of penguins...but since my kids request this one ALL the time, I have since grown to LOVE it. You are walked thru the life of a penguin. It is educational, but very entertaining with very funny lyrics like..."Antarctica, you'd better bring your partika" I find myself singing this often :) Lots of talented singers to be enjoyed (including singer from the Mavericks.) We love the bonus stories also (only on the DVD version.) Favorite author Lois Ehlert's "Waiting for Wings" is FABULOUS, I mean truly FABULOUS!!! This one is a winner.

Let me start out by saying we have a few DVDs from the Scholastic Video Collection and my family really likes them, especially "Chicka-Chicka Boom Boom" and "Where the Wild Things Are."
I really did not like this DVD and was disappointed with it. The main story was not too bad but the first read through was half sung and half read. After the reading of the story, there was the Cyndi Lauper version which was really bad. I don't know if it was the tempo, her accent or what but no one was going to be singing along. I guess I went blindly into this DVD because I like the other Scholastic Videos so much. I was thinking that my girls (2 and 4) might find some cool songs to sing. Sorry, no such thing here. As for the "and more stories that sing" part, that was completely off. The whole Antarctic Antics was sung but you are not going to be singing along with it, especially the part where they sing about penguin regurgitation.
I don't write a lot of reviews but I had to post this one because the new release of this DVD was really a let down based on the quality I feel I have been getting from the Scholastic DVDs. I've been so impressed at how they turned the books I like to read with my kids into video and song but this DVD which I thought was a natural, and would be great fun for my girls to sing along with, let me down. I almost feel like Scholastic has been so successful with the products they spent a lot of time producing that they have just started churning new DVDs out with out the same care and attention.

I borrowed this DVD from our library and my boys loved it so much I bought it! My boys love the title song and especially Antartic Antics. It's like a mini-opera for children. The vocabulary is for older children but my boys didn't mind- they learned the words easily with the music to help them. This is one they ask for again and again.

I purchased the video: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly because my daughter loves the book. I wanted my daughter to see the book come to life. Previously, we had read Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathman and watched that video; it was a huge success and very well done. However, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly is read in Cyndi Lauper's loud and affected Brooklyn accent. It leaves the watcher feeling flat (and annoyed!). My suggestion is to buy the Child's Play book and read it over and over. It has holes that get progressively bigger as the old lady eats each animal. As the adage goes, the book is better.

I bought this DVD (and others from the same collection) as alternatives to the ubiquitous Disney ... So far I have only seen this one. My only complaint is that there was no info regarding age on the front cover. I bought it for my six-year-old... and I think she would have enjoyed it a lot more at 3 or 4. At 6, I am not sure if she will want to watch it more than a couple of times.

My kids have watched this so much that we can all hum along. Very fun. We like all the Scholastic video collection, but this one is one of the catchiest because of the music.

My four year old daughter and three year old nieces love this video. They watch the old lady segment over and over and over. The story comes to life and includes a lot of humor and they get a big kick out of it!

All but one of these stories are performed musically. That may be your cup of tea, but maybe not. Be prepared. I really enjoyed it. I don't know how Antarctic Antics could have been done any other way since it is a book of children's poems. The stories are very nice and done very well. There are some songs I enjoy more than others but that is common in musical versions of books, etc. I really liked the Waiting for Wings song and some of the Antarctic Antic songs. Highly recommended, you just have to know that this DVD is musical.

All the Scholastic DVDs I have ordered for my "grand twin girls" have been well received but this was a special treat for them and they viewed it over and over. The music is also quite appealing to them .