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Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Commemorative 30th Anniversary Edition)
»rank: 167
: :This remastered, pan-and-scan 30th-anniversary edition of that kiddie-car caper is flawed but solid family fare. lt retains a quaint charm while some of the songs--including the title tune--are quite hummable. A huge plus is Dick Van Dyke, who is extremely appealing as an eccentric inventor around the turn of the century. With nimble fingers and a unique way of looking at the world, he invents for his children a magic car that floats and flies. 0r does he? The special effects are tame ...
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Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure
»rank: 67
: :This remastered, pan-and-scan 30th-anniversary edition of that kiddie-car caper is flawed but solid family fare. lt retains a quaint charm while some of the songs--including the title tune--are quite hummable. A huge plus is Dick Van Dyke, who is extremely appealing as an eccentric inventor around the turn of the century. With nimble fingers and a unique way of looking at the world, he invents for his children a magic car that floats and flies. 0r does he? The special effects are tame ...
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Bedknobs & Broomsticks
»rank: 6648
: :When a mail-order apprentice witch (Angela Lansbury) is saddled with three sibling refugees from London during World War ll, the outlook is grim. But the kids soon discover her secret and sign on for adventure in the name of England. With the aid of a magical bed, they track down her fraudulent headmaster (David Tomlinson) to find the spell that will aid the Allies. Fascinated that she has actually achieved results with his lessons, he joins forces. The quintet does battle with corrupt ...
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The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
»rank: 389
: :Grace Bradley (Loretta Swit) is called in to direct the community church's child production of the Christmas play. Unfortunately, this is the year the six Herdman children--the dirtiest, most feared neighborhood kids--decide to bully themselves into the lead roles. Barbra Johnson wrote the teleplay based on her novel for this 1978 TV broadcast that has become a favorite over the years. A 9-year-old Fairuza Balk makes her debut as Grace's daughter and narrates the story centering on the seemingly parentless troupe of ragtag ...
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The Sound of Music
»rank: 6989
: essential video:Some people may sneer at this 1965 musical, but the truth is the film has earned its status as a perennially watchable romantic-drama, largely on the strength of a fun story and chemistry between stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. Veteran filmmaker Robert Wise (The Day the Earth Stood Still) mostly stays out of the way of the film's appealing elements, which include a based-on-fact tale of Austria's von Trapp family, who fled their Nazi-occupied country in 1938. Andrews is delightful ...
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Sarah Plain And Tall
»rank: 225
: :The most-watched made-for-television movie of the 1990s (50 million viewers upon first broadcast in 1991), this fine adaptation of Patricia MacLachlan's novel stars Glenn Close as Sarah, a Maine schoolteacher who responds to a Kansas farmer's newspaper ad seeking a bride. Set in 1910, the story follows Sarah's trial run as stepmother to the children of the widowed Jacob Witting (Christopher Walken). The tough part of the experiment is the conflicting expectations the would-be couple have over Sarah's role in the household. The kids, ...
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Bear in the Big Blue House - Berry Bear Christmas
»rank: 287
:Description:Bear smells the scents of pinecones, mistletoe and holiday cookies in the Big Blue House -- which means it's a special time of year! Bear and his friends learn about the various winter holidays: Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa and Winterberry...but most of all, they learn there is more to the holidays than receiving presents. ln fact, the best present ever is seeing someone smile in gratitude after you have just helped him or her. The characters learn this lesson firsthand after helping a homeless ...
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Mulan (Disney's Masterpiece)
»rank: 2389
: :Solid entertainment from a new group of Disney animators. The story source is a Chinese fable about a young girl who disguises herself as a man to help her family and her country. When the Huns attack China, a call to arms goes out to every village, and Mulan's father, being the only man in the family, accepts the call. Mulan (voiced by Ming-Na Wen, sung by Lea Salonga) has just made a disastrous appearance at the Matchmaker and decides to challenge society's ...
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Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker (American Ballet Theatre)
»rank: 54
: :The American Ballet Theater version of the Tchaikovsky classic, a 1977 studio rendition directed by Tony Charmoli, has become a holiday perennial on PBS stations and home video. lt's a favorite of parents who want to give their kids the gift of culture--and with good reason. There's a loose fairy tale plot to keep dance neophytes interested, and Boris Aronson's eye-candy production design is a series of lavish dioramas. From an imperial-era Russian Christmas party out of Tolstoy, a young girl named Clara ...
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Peanuts: Happy New Year Charlie Brown (Slip)
»rank: 1017
: :The American Ballet Theater version of the Tchaikovsky classic, a 1977 studio rendition directed by Tony Charmoli, has become a holiday perennial on PBS stations and home video. lt's a favorite of parents who want to give their kids the gift of culture--and with good reason. There's a loose fairy tale plot to keep dance neophytes interested, and Boris Aronson's eye-candy production design is a series of lavish dioramas. From an imperial-era Russian Christmas party out of Tolstoy, a young girl named Clara ...
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