DVDs

At Kraftworks we have periods when we're not working on our projects. Early Start, Lunchtime, Late Stay or even during the session when paint or glue needs to dry thoroughly before continuing on to the next step. During these periods Kraftworkers are welcome to watch a DVD.

The amount of time available varies a bit but one thing is for sure -- there just isn't time to watch a whole movie, even at lunchtime. So we have available a number of different series and we play an episode whenever there is a break.

All of the series are suitable for people aged 9 through 14 except Young Indiana Jones: The War Years which is suitable only for the 12+ age group. We only bring that one out at times when we don't have any tweens in the group.

Here then are the DVDs that we show at Kraftworks.

Would you like to know more about the DVDs we show? Great! Each film is reviewed in the following pages and you can always check the internet for other people's opinions of them.

TinTin

The Adventures of Tintin adapts one of the world's best-loved characters into a extremely faithful and entertaining animated television series. A Canadian production broadcast in the U.S. on HBO, the series vividly captures the intrepid reporter and his colorful friends (including his dog, Snowy, the blustery Captain Haddock, the brilliant but absent-minded Professor Calculus, and the detective twins Thompson and Thomson) as they travel the world on adventures that mix action, mystery, and humor. The books were originally written in French by the Belgian author Hergé (though Tintin himself is a British character), but the DVD set includes both French and English language tracks as well as French and English subtitles.

The five discs feature two stories each: the two-part space-travel epic, Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon; two of the later adventures, Land of Black Gold and Flight 714; the Scotland-based mystery The Black Island and the political intrigue of King Ottokar's Sceptre; the eerie two-parter The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun, in which an ancient curse leads to a trip to Peru; and two early adventures, The Shooting Star and The Broken Ear. The animated series perfectly captures the look of the books (although The Broken Ear, the book of which had the roughest art, has been smoothed out to look like the rest of the series), and each 42-minute episode has enough time to re-create the books' character and wit, if not the exact layout and pacing. (The exception is The Shooting Star, which underwent heavy editing to fit into a mere 22 minutes.) Tintin fans will love reliving these adventures, and newcomers have a wonderful discovery awaiting them. (Ages 8 and older: moments of peril, threatening themes, alchohol consumption)

Avatar the Last Airbender: Books 1 - 3

Book 1: Water, Vol. 1

Mysterious, visually beautiful at times, and surprisingly funny, Avatar: Book 1, Volume 1 is the exciting story of Aang, a 12-year-old reincarnation of the ancient Avatar, whose purpose (in an imagined world that seems both ancient and futuristic) is to restore peace and order between warring armies of the four elements: fire, earth, water, and air. At one time or another, over thousands of years, the Avatar has been embodied in masters of each of the elements. Aang (who is freed from a century-long sleep inside an iceberg) happens to be an "airbender," capable of using air and wind as powerful forces for moving objects and defeating hostile armies of firebenders. The feature-length Avatar follows Aang and a couple of friends as he becomes reacquainted with the world he knew before his 100-year hibernation--a world now lost to history. The story also concerns internal dramas within the unforgiving world of firebenders, who are intent on destruction and conquest. This engaging story, very pleasant to look at in its rich tones of blue and orange, is for all ages.

The Young Indiana Jones: The Early Years

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume One, The Early Years presents the earliest adventures of The Boy Who Would Be Ford as seven 90-minute "chapters," interspersed with more than thirty-six documentaries, across 12 discs. The first five episodes follow the ten-year-old Indy (played by Corey Carrier) on a trip around the world with his professor father Henry Jones, Sr. (Lloyd Owen), his mother Anna (Ruth de Sosa), and his proper English tutor Miss Seymour (Margaret Tyzack). Their travels take them to Africa, Europe, Russia, India, and the Far East, where Indy crosses paths with historical figures as diverse as T.E. Lawrence, Howard Carter, Teddy Roosevelt, Franz Ferdinand, Giacomo Puccini, Norman Rockwell, and Sigmund Freud.

The final two episodes introduce the teenage Indy (played by Sean Patrick Flanery, Stargate SG-1) who begins his unlikely journey from New Jersey high school student to enlisted Belgian soldier, off to fight in the first World War, by way of Pancho Villa and his army of Mexican rebels. Despite Flanery's appearance, this first volume belongs to Carrier's boyhood Indiana Jones.

 

 

MythBusters (Collections 1, 2, and 3)

Each MythBusters episode typically focuses on several unrelated urban legends, popular beliefs, Internet rumors, or other myths. The Discovery Channel hosts MythBusters message board forums on the Internet, where fans discuss previous episodes and post suggestions to Adam and Jamie for future myths to test. Occasionally episodes are produced in which some or all of the myths are related by theme. To date, three myths have required such extensive preparation and testing that they had entire episodes devoted solely to them, and four specials have been double length.

Methods for testing myths are usually planned and executed in a manner to produce visually dramatic results, which generally involves explosions, fires, and/or vehicle crashes. When a myth is potentially dangerous to an individual, the MythBusters use various stand-ins for humans in their tests. Resident crash test dummy, "Buster", or ballistics gel have long been used, along with other more recent analogues, such as dead pigs and Simulaids. When a myth is low-risk, the cast sometimes performs experiments on themselves, though injuries and mishaps are quite frequent.

The cast usually use their expertise to construct complex, sometimes Rube Goldberg-like mechanical devices with which to perform experiments. Tests are sometimes confined to the workshop, but often require unique conditions which require them to be performed at other locations in San Francisco and other places around the Bay Area.

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