Christ Centered Gamer Blog

Thank you Universal Pictures for sending us this Blu-ray to review!

The Secret Life of Pets 2 takes you back into the lives of your favorite animals while you’re not at home with them. Many of the same funny and lovable characters are back with most of the same voice acting talent. Patton Oswalt now provides the vocals for Max who is well adjusted with his fellow canine roommate, Duke. At the park, Max gets rather annoyed with the rambunctious children there and enjoys his peaceful life. As fate would have it, his owner soon falls in love, gets married, and has a son named Liam. Though Max still does not like children, he is over the moon and overprotective of Liam. Keeping a toddler safe in this world is a lot of work and stresses out Max. Due to his nervous scratching, he soon gets fitted for a cone of shame and is not too happy about it. Things look up when his family is planning a vacation to a farm.

Meanwhile, Snowball the bunny is taking his superhero costume seriously and gets enlisted in a rescue job by a cute dog named Daisy. It’s up to Snowball and Daisy to save a young white tiger named Hu from a cruel Russian circus owner named Sergei. Hu is guarded by several black wolves and a feisty little monkey.

Gidget is on a quest of her own: to become like a cat in order to rescue Max's favorite toy. While under the influence of catnip, Chloe agrees to assist her. As you can expect, hilarity ensues on all three of these adventures. As funny as this film is, there are some moral issues worth mentioning.

Sergei is quite mean and threatens to harm the animals and is shown wielding a gun, cattle prod, and whipping Hu. There is some gross humor involving cat and dog poop and some mild language (p*ssed). My older kids enjoyed this film, but this may be too much for younger children. If you enjoyed the first movie and don’t mind the language and animal cruelty, The Secret Life of Pets 2 is worth checking out!

Thank you HBO for providing us with a screener to review!

Other than taxes, death is the other certainty with life. With the increasing number of cremations, traditional funerals are on the decline and many funeral homes are predicted to close down if they don’t embrace technology and new ways to mourn the loss of loved ones. One funeral home was shown offering “drive-thru viewings”. Attending funerals has always been a little awkward, but that’s still bizarre to me.

Alternate Endings: Six New Ways To Die In America features six individuals/families who have recently lost or are in the process of departing into eternity. There’s a family who lost their young son to terminal cancer and per his wishes, had a celebration of life with five bouncy houses, fireworks, Batman, and face painting because funerals don’t have to be sad and boring. Another family threw a “living wake” for their terminally ill father. He appreciated being able to tell people in person how much he loved and appreciated them in his life.

For an ocean-loving father, his daughter mixed his ashes into some concrete used in making a memorial reef. Besides offering housing to aquatic life, man-made memorial reefs replenish the dying coral reefs in the Gulf of Mexico. A space-loving grandfather had his ashes blasted into space and his family enjoyed watching the rocket launch for that.

Green burials are also an option. In a green burial, the body is placed in a shallow grave without a coffin to give nutrients back to the Earth. The lady shown that chose this option was buried along with a tree she wished to nourish. California is one of the minority states that allow people with terminal illnesses to die with dignity (suicide). One gentleman wanted to die on his terms and set a time and date to drink a medical cocktail that would place him into a coma after a few minutes of consumption and meet his maker within thirty minutes. Although this man did not seem to be religious, he did request a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace to be played at his funeral.

Thank you Marvel Studios for sending us this Blu-Ray to review!

Note: Spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War follow!

After spending a lovely day with family on Mother’s Day in 2018, I thought I would end it with seeing Avengers: Infinity War with my husband. I didn’t expect such a downer of a movie! Not all of the Avengers are down for the count and they want to undo the devastation that Thanos caused to our beloved planet. With the help of the over-powered Captain Marvel, they have a slim chance of setting things right in Avengers: Endgame.

Avengers: Endgame begins with Hawkeye spending time with his family before they literally blow away in the wind. Earth is reeling from the chaos that Thanos caused. The remaining Avengers are not taking it well and are bickering more than getting along. Even five years after the event, people are still mourning and the world is a dump. After Ant-Man's return, they find a new, high risk approach they can take - if they survive.

As good as this film is, it’s not without some moral issues. Like any comic book themed movie violence is a given. There’s a fair amount of language and blaspheming. Even Captain America says S.O.B. Other words used include *ss, sh*t, p*ss, and d*ckhead. Last but not least is a scene where a homosexual man is talking about his dinner date with another man. Please exercise caution if showing this film to a child.

Thank you Materia Collective for sending us this digital album to review!

Kingdom Heartbeats features ten electronically remixed tracks from the popular Kingdom Hearts franchise. This album has been produced by Roborob and features some excellent vocals in some of the tracks.

The album begins with a nearly two minute shorter version of the intro song: Simple and Clean. Though the original tracks fall under the electronic dance music category, these remixes kick it up a notch. Tension Rising from Kingdom Hearts II is the second song and the remix amplifies it but stays true to the original battle music. The 13th Struggle from Kingdom Hearts 2 has also been tweaked for this album and it too sounds true to form and is nicely done.

Most of the tracks are from Kingdom Hearts 2 and Sora’s Theme has not been neglected. You’ll find a longer and tweaked version on this album. I have no idea what the Japanese singers are saying in the song Passion, but it sounds great. The menu music Dearly Beloved is so beautiful and should have been left alone. Although the remix is good, I still prefer the original.

Kingdom Hearts 3 gets some representation with Face My Fears. After that opening song, the first game is re-visited with some enhanced theme music from Traverse Town. Kingdom Hearts 2 takes the spotlight again with the upbeat battle music, Sinister Sundown. The album concludes with a much faster and dubstep version of one of my favorite tracks, This Is Halloween. Although interesting, I still prefer the original version.

Thank you 4DX for providing my family with tickets to see this film!

The animated classic version of The Lion King was released in 1994. I owned it on VHS (later on Blu-ray) and bought the Hans Zimmer & Elton John soundtrack too. The voice acting talent from James Earl Jones, Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, Whoopi Goldberg, and Rowan Atkinson is top-notch and hard to beat for this live-action version. Out of all of that talent, James Earl Jones was the only one to reprise his role as Mufasa in this remake. Seth Rogan voices Pumba and John Oliver is now Zazu and they both did a great job.

My biggest complaint about this film is that it’s not much different than the animated one. At least in the other live-action remakes there were some new characters and back-stories added. This film is almost frame by frame the same as the original. Again, with the other film setting the bar so high it’s hard to top it, but to not bring anything new to the table makes you wonder why they bothered remaking it in the first place.

The music sounds the same but has different singers so there’s not much deviation in that department either. Out of all of the songs in this film, Timon and Pumba’s rendition of ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ is my favorite.

I see this error message almost every day.  I'm sure many of our readers do too.  Even without the error messages, the site's loading times are not the greatest.  As a 501(C)3 Non-Profit we rely on tax-deductible donations to cover our minimal operating expenses. We're blessed to have our own dedicated web server that we share with other sites to offset the costs, but that server is several years old and having a hard time keeping up with our traffic.  We currently pay $35/month for a 2.27GHz Xeon 5520 with 16GB or RAM and 2 1 TB HDDs.  Finances permitting we would like to rent out a $89/month server that's 2.66-3.06GHz turbo Xeon with 72GB or RAM and 2 480GB SSDs.  The SSD drives alone would make this site much quicker, but the faster CPUs and increased memory would also help out tremendously.  

Though the site still has a few volunteer reviewers (including the founders!), we've been blessed with many great paid reviewers who receive $25 per written review.  Given that our monthly income is less than $600 on average and our reviewer payouts take up a big chuck of that, we're not in a position to take on a significant expense unless we can secure more funding. 

We have some regular donators who contribute via Paypal.  We also have an active Patreon page.  For those who don't like those two options, we have a Subscribestar site that has yet to get a backer on it. If we can get $100/month via any of those platforms, we can afford to upgrade our server and use any additional funding to pay our reviewers. Thanks for reading our site, this appeal, and for your support.

in Him,
Cheryl

Thank you Rappstar Entertainment for providing us with a digital screener to review!

Belong To Us tells a story about a German Shepherd who escapes a dogfighting ring and chooses a broken family as his own. The father, Travis, is a businessman who bonds with his teenage son over baseball, but has no idea on how to raise his nine-year-old daughter, Paige. The father almost became a major league baseball player, and hopes that his son can make it to the big leagues in his stead. Paige feels neglected and quickly bonds with the stray dog that wanders into their yard.

With her sassy grandmother’s help, Paige and her brother, Decklin, get permission to keep the dog and name him Duke. Unfortunately, the fighting lifestyle leaves behind some emotional scars on the dog. To make matters worse, the criminals that ran the dogfights are looking for their champion and endanger this family.

Throughout the movie, there is violence, and some blood is shown. In fact, when the dogs are fighting you’ll only see their legs and human violence is shown through shadows (no special effects or stunt doubles needed). Smoking, drinking, and drunkenness is also seen. The grandmother sometimes uses colorful language (sh*t), and hand gestures. Not surprisingly, this film is rated PG-13.

Thank you 4DX for providing my family with tickets to see this film!

Hearing that Pixar was revisiting the series made me skeptical, especially with how well the previous film concluded the series. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed this film quite a bit.

The story begins nine years in the past on a rainy night when Woody and Bo Peep get separated because he wouldn’t follow her and stayed behind to be with Andy. The water and rain effects look amazing and the visuals are way more detailed and advanced in comparison to the original Toy Story film from the 90s. I like how the 4DX experience has flashes of light in my peripheral vision when lighting strikes and fireworks pop. The gusts of air blowing in the theater definitely add to the experience as well.

After Bo Peep’s departure, the film resumes the story present-day with Woody and the gang with their new child, Bonnie. Unlike Andy’s room, Woody isn’t in charge - that role is delegated to a purple-haired doll named Dolly. In fact, Woody isn’t played with much anymore as Bonnie prefers playing with Jessie the cowgirl more. Despite feelings of neglect, Woody is still loyal to Bonnie and wants to help her adjust to kindergarten.

Thank you Marvel Studios for sending us this movie to review!

Captain Marvel begins with a touching tribute to Stan Lee who filmed his final cameo for this movie. The funny history about Captain Marvel is that both DC and Marvel comics have them and Marvel’s version used to be a male character. Instead of Carol Danvers being a side character, she ultimately becomes an over-powered super hero that makes quite an appearance in Avengers: Endgame.

Captain Marvel begins with Vers suffering from amnesia and nightmares on the Kree Empire’s capital planet, Hala. Her mentor, Yon-Rogg trains her and urges her to keep her emotions in check and to control the power that’s been graciously given to her. The Kree Supreme Intelligence threatens to take away the power if she cannot harness it.

Shortly after meeting with the Supreme Intelligence, Vers gets tasked on a covert mission which goes sideways. Her memories are scanned by an alien race that can shapeshift into any being they see with complete DNA accuracy. Telling them apart from their target takes some clever questioning. Both Vers and these Skrull aliens land on Earth, in the 90’s.

I appreciated the 90s nostalgia with Blockbuster, payphones, pagers, as well as music from Nirvana, Garbage, and No Doubt being featured. Seeing younger versions of S.H.I.E.L.D Agent Coulson and Nick Fury is cool too. If you’ve ever wondered how Fury lost his eye, you’ll get your answer in this film that’s 124 minutes. Just like the other comic book themed movies, you can expect to find blood and violence in this film. I don't recall any strong language so young Marvel fans should be able to enjoy this movie too.

Thank you 4DX for providing my family tickets to see this film!

This is my second 4DX experience with my first being Disney’s live-action Dumbo movie. Disney has been reproducing many of their classic animated films as live-action movies. Though the live-action movies I have seen so far were good, I continue to favor the animated ones.

Aladdin is a musical and I’m still not used to people suddenly switching from conversation to singing at the drop of a hat. Naomi Scott does an excellent job as Jasmine and her singing is incredible. Robin Williams’ genie left Will Smith some pretty big shoes to fill in, but he does a great job despite reusing many of his predecessor’s jokes.

The 4DX effects are amazing with the seats moving up and down during the ship and magic carpet riding scenes. While traveling through the streets of Agrabah, you’ll get an aroma experience that I’m guessing is based off of various spices. It wasn’t a bad smell, just not recognizable to me. With Dumbo taking place in a circus environment, I’m glad they did not reproduce the farm-like fragrances!

Thank you PBS for sending us this DVD to review!

Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood ran from 1968-2001 and has 895 episodes (excluding specials). Many kids and families have grown up watching his show that encouraged kids to love themselves for who they are and discussed topics like debt, divorce, birth, death, and anger. Mr. Rogers sang many catchy tunes that often talked about feelings and how to accept and manage them.

Though Mr. Rogers passed away in 2003, his legacy lives on as his show still runs on many stations and has been overhauled in Daniel Tiger’s neighborhood. In 2018, many musicians, comedians, and actors contributed to the documentary, Mister Rogers: It’s You I Like.

Michael Keaton begins the documentary by talking about his job at WQED where he helped on the set of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. John Lithgow’s son (as with many of us!) grew up watching Mr. Rogers. Parents appreciate how Mr. Rogers introduced music to their kids. The show featured many greats like Tony Bennett and Wynton Marsalis (Whoopi Goldberg and Joe Negri’s favorite). Even child and teenage musicians like Niki Hoeller (pianist) and Hilary Hahn (violinist) were also featured on his show. Mr. Rogers was no stranger to music as he had a degree in music composition. Yo-Yo Ma’s appearance on Mr. Rogers' show inspired Esperanza Spalding to play music. If it wasn’t for Yo-Yo Ma’s son, who was a fan of Mr. Rogers, he may have never gone on! Itzhak Perlman was also on the show and got to speak about how polio impacted his life but how his musical abilities overshadow his disabilities. Jeff Erlanger and his electric wheelchair was Mr. Rogers' most treasured moment throughout his many years of broadcasting.

Out of all of the episodes, the one with Koko the gorilla who knew sign language was Mr. Rogers' favorite. Along with showing how music was made, Mr. Rogers often visited factories and showed children how things like crayons, dolls, wagons, and instruments were made.

Thank you Scarlet Moon Productions for sending us this digital album to review!

The World Is Square began in 2003 and took over fifteen years to complete by Mustin who is best known as one of the founders of OneUp Studios/The OneUps. This album features classic Square Enix music from hit games like Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV, VI, and VII. The eight tracks are given an electronic jazz twist and sound great. There is some creative license, but the songs are still very recognizable.

The songs range from three to over six minutes each. It takes a little over thirty-seven minutes to hear the whole album and I’m always looking for more when it’s finished. The calm and relaxing tracks would make excellent hold music; I certainly wouldn’t mind listening to it while waiting.

The first track is Fear of the Heaven from Secret of Mana. I have to confess that I have not played this game (yet), but the song, acoustic guitar, and vocals are good. Thankfully, I have played all of the Final Fantasy games represented on this album. Final Fantasy IV’s main theme is the second track. One of the most popular songs from Final Fantasy IV, Theme of Love, is the third song. The violin work on this track is exceptional.

Chrono Trigger fans will enjoy Forest Butterflies and From the Bottom. William Carlos Reyes provides the guitar playing for From the Bottom and does an excellent job. We’ve previously reviewed his album Guitar Collections Final Fantasy IV.

Thank you Sony Pictures for sending us this 96-minute Blu-Ray to review!

We get sent quite a few pet-themed movies and A Dog’s Way Home is a live-action movie with the main dog's thoughts being narrated throughout. A Dog’s Way Home begins with a young pit bull puppy being born under an abandoned house. Along with the puppy’s siblings are a bunch of cats and kittens. That is, until animal control arrives and takes away most of the animals. The young puppy is separated from her mother and is fed and raised by a motherly cat instead. A kind young man that lives across the street stops by and feeds the cats. During one of his visits with his friend, Olivia, he meets the puppy and gives her a home.

The puppy is named Bella and enjoys playing with Lucas and comforting his mom, who suffers from PTSD. She also enjoys games such as “stop” and “don’t chew shoes.” The voice narration by Bryce Dallas Howard is really well done and quite entertaining. For a short while, things go well, and Lucas and his mom successfully manage to hide her from their landlord, who does not allow pets. Thankfully, the landlord announces his visits so Lucas can sneak her into work on those days. However, hiding a pit bull in a VA center is no simple task.

Other challenges arise when Lucas gets on the bad side of animal control; Denver, Colorado, is not tolerant of pit bulls, and threatens to euthanize her if caught. In an attempt to keep Bella safe, she is put in the care of Olivia’s family, who lives four hundred miles away in New Mexico. Bella’s stay there is short-lived as she is determined to “go home” as it’s one of the tricks that Lucas taught her.

Thank you 4DX for sending our family tickets to see this film!

The animated classic, Dumbo, was originally released in 1941. At sixty-four minutes, it was one of Disney’s shortest films. Tim Burton’s live-action version is quite a bit longer at one hour and fifty-two minutes. There’s more characters and backstory in this version.

The story still centers around a traveling circus, but this one is struggling financially and has sold all of their horses. They still have their elephants and one of them, Jumbo, is expecting. Unlike the animated version, the animals don’t talk in this film. The story is mostly told through two young kids who lost their mother to influenza. Their father returns from the war missing an arm and is out of touch with his kids and is struggling with relating to them. The boy, Joe, wants to continue the family tradition of working in the circus, but his sister, Milly, wants to pursue a career in science.

In both movies, the baby is initially named Jumbo Jr. but is dubbed Dumbo as people make fun of his enormous ears. The defensive mother does not take kindly to her son being ridiculed and gets locked away as she is considered dangerous. Needless to say, the animated version is a little more lighthearted in this regard. Other than death, the live-action movie has some minor language (hell). Surprisingly, both films have alcohol and drunkenness.

There’s been a lot of talk about game streaming services for the masses. What about those who don’t have fiber, cable, or DSL internet? Atari hasn’t forgotten about them! In fact, they have the perfect streaming console solution that runs games great for those with dial-up internet access! The 8GB of storage is plenty of space to hold the entire game library of the 2600, 5200, and 7800 systems combined! Cloud saves are a standard feature as well so your progress in E.T. will not be lost!

There are three affordable subscription plans available and the same stylish console can be used for any or all of the plans:

• For $26.00 a year you get access to all 565 of the 2600 series games.
• The $52.00 annual plan gets you access to the Atari 2600 titles plus the official 69 from the 5200 series. The number pad controller is also included in this bundle.
• For $78.00 a year you get access to the 59 7800 games as well as all of the titles of the 5600 and 2600 systems. Durable metal reinforced joysticks are included in this bundle.

Thank you Blue Sparrow for sending us this book to review!

The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity is written by Matthew Kelly who is an author of books translated into twenty-five languages, acclaimed speaker, and business consultant at his company, Floyd Consulting. This book is fifteen chapters long and only 128 pages. It’s a pretty quick read if you want to learn how modern culture is robbing billions of people of happiness.

If you’re looking for the answer to the title’s statement, you’ll have to read through the first few chapters of fluff. In fact, much of the book is filled with statements that I was already aware of. For example, the second chapter discusses happiness and the author shares insights like “Lying never makes me happy” and “It is impossible to be grateful and unhappy at the same time.” The fifth chapter discusses various lies about Christianity including: Jesus did not exist, the resurrection is a myth, Christianity preys on the weak and ignorant, Christianity is anti-intellectual and anti-scientific, and Christianity is anti-sex.

The biggest lie is uncovered in chapter six, claiming that holiness is not possible. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 is referenced and used to state that “God wants us to live holy lives, grow in character and virtue, and become the-best-version-of-ourselves.” I bet you’re wondering how this is possible! Through what this book calls holy moments. Everyone else knows them as pay it forward. There are some nice examples of kindness like a guy taking care of his neighbor’s lawn while recuperating from a broken leg or nurses agreeing to take on an extra shift for years to cover the salary for their co-worker who is battling cancer. Those are some significant tasks that surely make God proud and bring joy to others, but even simple things like recycling are holy moments according to the author.

Even if I don’t see eye to eye with what qualifies as a “holy moment”, I do agree with the author that our world does indeed need changing and we as Christians should get off of our collective butts and do something about it. The thirteenth chapter uses some fascinating math on how if we impact three people that can multiply to one billion people if each of the three people we inspire bring three more and continue the cycle. In the end, The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity has some good stories and ideas, but I’ve already heard them all before.

Thank you Materia Collective for sending us this digital album to review!

Many video games are known for their great soundtracks and some catch your attention at the menu screen before embarking on your adventure. MENU: An Homage to Game Title Themes is a collection of over fifty theme songs and menu tracks from various games in the past three decades. Most of the songs are true to their origins and others like the Mega Man 2 and Minecraft themes have rap and/or lyrics added to them. While I didn’t mind the “enhancement,” the rest of my family preferred the rap-free songs.

Not surprisingly, this collection has five songs (nearly 10%) from Final Fantasy games. There’s music from Final Fantasy Tactics, IX, XIII, XIII-2, and XV. There are three songs from the Mario franchise including tracks from Mario Kart 64, Paper Mario, and Super Mario 64. Elder Scrolls fans will enjoy the songs from Oblivion and Skyrim.

Belmont Overture from Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse is probably one of the oldest tracks in this collection as this game originated in 1989. Listening to this song brought back pleasant memories from my childhood and my NES. Other familiar songs include Geralt of Rivia from Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Doki Doki Literature Club, Main Title from Deus Ex, Happiness from Sims 3, and Myst’s theme.

There are so many songs from games I have yet to play including Limbo, Celeste, Cuphead, Horizon Zero Dawn, Stardew Valley, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, Katamari Damacy, and FTL: Faster Than Light. Although I haven’t played Ninja Gaiden II, I really enjoy its menu music now! Mass Effect: Andromeda has good title music too and that series is on my bucket list.

Thank you PBS for sending us this Blu-ray to review!

Cats are fascinating creatures and truly show God’s handiwork in their design. This series covers cats of various sizes and from around the world. In total, there are three parts that are an hour long each. The first episode is Extreme Lives and shows how ferocious and daring various cats are. For example, you’ll get to see a jaguar take down a caiman crocodile. It’s well known that cheetahs are fast, but I had no idea that the stress they put on their body during a chase would cause a human’s bones to break! Out of all of the cats in the world, the leopards thrive in the most environments. Sadly, that’s not the case for other cat species like the tiger and the Iberian lynx, which are in danger of extinction.

Episode 2, Cats in Every Corner, features felines thriving in unexpected environments. Many house cats (mine included) hate water, but the fishing cat literally lives in it and spends its life in a swamp environment living up to its name by hunting and eating fish. Swamp tigers also don’t mind getting wet. The bay cat has very little footage and information on it and there’s a scientist who has spent over a decade of his life researching this elusive animal.

The last part, Science and Secrets, shows how technology has been aiding in studying the lives of cats and even saving them from extinction. Out of all of the cats, lions are argued to be the most intelligent since they are social by living in prides. It was neat watching a female lion figure out how to open up a box with meat inside while having another female watching in the distance and learning from her experience and opening the box faster.

As cool as the big cats are, seeing some of the world’s smallest felines hunting is truly a sight to behold. The rusty-spotted cat is only 3 lbs and is every bit of a killing machine as its bigger relatives. The desert native Black-footed Cat is around 4 lbs and has a 60% success rate when it hunts, which is pretty impressive.

Thank you Universal for sending us this 4K Blu-ray to review!

The story of Dr. Seuss’ Christmas-hating Grinch has been told many times before. Those who are familiar with the tale will already know that his heart is three sizes too small and that a girl named Cindy-Lou Who will get him to change his views. But this movie develops the characters further and even shows how awesome of a companion the Grinch’s dog, Max, truly is.

Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch begins with the Grinch and Max running out of food and a trip to Who-ville is necessary for their survival. As his name suggests, The Grinch is a misanthrope and despises socializing with the people of Who-ville. However, during Christmas time he really does not want to be near them with their caroling and joyous celebration of Christ’s birth. Though the town is decked out in candy canes, wreaths, snowmen, and Christmas trees, Christ is clearly mentioned and honored in the Christmas carols (God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Silent Night) sung by the villagers.

There are many funny interactions between the grumpy Grinch and the overly cheery townspeople. Out of all of the villagers, Cindy-Lou and her family get the most screen time. Cindy-Lou is the oldest sister of twin baby brothers. There is no mention of a father figure, and as a result, the mother is working a night shift and struggling to attend to the needs of her children during the day. Unlike other children who ask Santa for toys, Cindy-Lou wants to talk to Santa in person to ask him to help make her mother’s life easier. Unfortunately, her method of reaching Santa isn’t exactly orthodox.

I like how the Grinch’s background is shown and how he comes to hate Christmas. It’s easy for him as an outsider to detect the greed displayed during the Christmas season. To pay back the town and to take away their fake joy he plans on stealing their Christmas from them, but in the end discovers what it’s really about: kindness and love.

Thank you Fun Academy for sending us this DVD to review!

Sergeant Stubby is the most decorated dog of World War I and is also the only canine to be promoted to a sergeant through combat. Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero is based on his heroism and legacy that saved many French and American lives on the Western Front.

The story begins with Stubby being an ever-hungry stray dog on the streets of Connecticut. During a march through town, a newly enlisted Robert Conroy takes notice of Stubby and throws a cookie his way and the dog follows the soldiers back to boot camp. At first, the higher-ups are not keen on having a dog among the ranks, but once Stubby learns how to salute them and shows his dedication, they allow him to stay by Robert’s side. Stubby became the official mascot of the 102nd Infantry Regiment.

When the soldiers are dispatched to France, Stubby sneaks onboard and again is welcomed for his perseverance. The film depicts Robert having nothing to do with Stubby’s travels; however, internet sources claim that he was the one who smuggled him aboard. In the end, it’s good that he was there because many lives were saved as a result. On the battlefield, Stubby helped locate wounded soldiers along with warning of incoming artillery shells and gas attacks.

Since this ninety-minute computer animated film is geared for children, the violence is toned down quite a bit. There is no blood shown and many of the close combat encounters end in surrendering and not death. The battlefield is still depicted as grim with many soldiers being shown as sick and/or wounded. There is a death towards the end of the movie that brought some teary eyes among my family. Yes, I was one of them.