Having grown up with the original Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros. Nintendo games plus having watched the Mario Bros. cartoon show during my youth, I was looking forward to a sense of nostalgia while watching these two DVDs with my son. The two titles were . . .Grounder the Genius
Bad Rap
What my son and I thought about this Sonic the Hedgehog DVD:
1) My son said that this cartoon was "cool." His favorite characters were Sonic and his sidekick Tails. He said he did not like the bad guys.
2) I thought maybe this cartoon would be targeted at children slightly older than my 5yr old son, but he could follow the stories easily and I do not think any of the storylines were inappropriate overall.
2) I can see how this cartoon can appeal to children because it is full of physical comedy and wisecracks.
3) I did not care for the use of name calling with words such as "dumb", "nimrod", "dumbots", and "idiots." I asked my son how he felt about this name calling and he told me it was okay as long as it was directed at the bad guys. I was not too thrilled about this aspect of the cartoon. My son is going to learn plenty of rude words in school, so he does not need me to be teaching him new names to call the other children at home.
What my son and I thought about the Super Mario Bros. DVD:
1) This DVD truly made me feel nostalgic because I immediately recognized the signature Super Mario Bros. background music from the original video game.
2) This cartoon is definitely more wholesome than Sonic cartoon. Even though there was some name calling, I would not be as upset if my son called his younger siblings a "Midget Minded Minion" or a "Lame Brain Linguini-Lover."
3) My son liked the rap/hip hop style music. His favorite episode on this DVD was "Bad Rap", in which the brothers visited Rapland where everyone had to speak in rhymes.
4) Even though my son tends to prefer the "good guys" in most cartoons, he actually said that his favorite character was King Koopa. He thought it was cool that King Koopa dressed up in a variety of different disguises.
Overall, I would say that the Super Mario Bros. are welcome to be on our television screens anytime, but I cannot say the same for Sonic the Hedgehog. The latter just promotes a disrespectful attitude that I am trying to prevent my son from adopting.
To view the full selection of children's DVDs offered by NCircle Entertainment, simply visit www.NCircleEntertainment.com .
Thank you to NCircle Entertainment for providing us with review products free of charge.
