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SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK!:
THE ELECTION COLLECTION |
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| Actors: Jack Sheldon, Bob Dorough, Blossom Dearie |
| Director: Tom Warburton |
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Distributor: Walt Disney Studio Home Entertainment |
| DVD release: 23 September 2008 |
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Feature runtime: 49 minutes
(1 disc) |
| Format: AC-3, Animated, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC |
| DVD Features: Audio tracks (English - Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound), Subtitles (English CC, English), New-to-DVD song "Presidential Minute," Election Tracking Kit with stickers, Trailers |
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Back in the 1970s, a bunch of brilliant cats got together and made education fun and possible on the weekends. When kids were glued to the tube during the only time of the week which was dedicated and marketed directly to them, we got educational cartoons in the form of Schoolhouse Rock. There were 46 in all, covering all major areas of study - Grammar Rock (Unpack Your Adjectives), Science Rock (Interplanet Janet), Money Rock (Tyrannosaurus Debt), Multiplication Rock (Three is a Magic Number), and America Rock (No More Kings). These cartoons were short and most had catchy tunes. I have to say that I learned and applied this knowledge without even knowing I was doing so. It also helped with MadLibs.
Disney has released a collection of fifteen of these in a handsome package called Schoolhouse Rock!: The Election Collection to hopefully open up the discussion on politics among family members and inject a participatory nature to the election season which, at the time of this writing, is approaching its zenith. They've included a fold-out map with a bunch of red and blue stickers to use on election night to track the results as they come in. Might be a good excuse to keep the kids up late and out of school the next day.
The DVD contains all of the "America Rock" tunes including The Preamble ("We the people..."), The Great American Melting Pot, Three-Ring Government and more. It also adds in Energy Blues from Science Rock, Walkin' on Wallstreet from Money Rock, and a few others that pertain to issues discussed this election season.
The only problem I see in this collection is the price and availability of the complete Schoolhouse Rock Special 30th Anniversary Edition . The complete collection is on that bad boy, and it's a two-disc set with compelling extras. Popular retailers are selling it for the same price as the Election Collection.
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