The sea holds many deep secrets for young Princess Ariel in The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning, an all new, full-length movie which was released on DVD on August 26, 2008. Available for a limited time only, The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning takes audiences back to the story’s beginnings with favorite characters from the original film as well as a wonderfully wicked new villainess. With a score that continues The Little Mermaid’s legacy of memorable, life-affirming songs, the latest animated adventure from DisneyToon Studios will capture the hearts of all ages.

The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning takes place one year before Ariel meets Prince Eric. Young Ariel and her sisters share a love for music with their mother, Queen Athena. But when the Queen is captured by pirates, King Triton is heartbroken and bans music from Atlantica…FOREVER. Featuring Jodi Benson as the Voice of Ariel, Tara Strong as the Voice of Adella and Andrina, and Samuel E. Wright as the Voice of Sebastian, you’ll want to add this great DVD to your collection!

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I haven’t talked about it a lot here, although I’ve brought it up on Twitter a few times, but I started a diet last Monday. Let me clarify that, I changed the way I eat last Monday. “Starting” insinuates that I’m going to “stop”, which I’m not. I’m following my doctor’s recommendations, and I lost 2.2 pounds last week.

It turns out that the hardest thing so far hasn’t been giving up the chips and candy bars and donuts, it’s how not having all that fat and sugar in my system has affected my sleep. I was okay last week until Sunday, and then I crashed hard. I slept until 8:30, went back to bed at 10:30, slept until noon, went back to bed at 4:30, slept until 6:00, then went to bed at 11:00. When I am sleeping, I’m having extremely vivid dreams, too.

So this morning, I have this vague memory of having said a bunch of stuff to Chris when his alarm went off, but I had to IM him and ask him about it. Turns out I was sleeping facing away from him and he tried to get me to roll over so he could snuggle me for a minute and I snapped at him, and mumbled something about how every time I try to sleep, someone wakes me up. Nice, huh?

The boys went Up North today, with my friend Kellie’s son Forrest, they are all staying with her parents in Oscoda, and tomorrow they are going to Mackinac Island! I wish I could go too! It’s just me and Kaitlyn during the day this whole week. I’m so mean, I made her turn off “Max and Ruby” so I could watch some new DVDs. I needed a good laugh, so I watched “Best of Comedy Central Presents II“. It’s got clips from routines by Patton Oswalt, Dave Attell, Zach Galifianakis, and Nick Swardson, some are funnier than others of course, and it’s long at 176 minutes. But since it’s broken up into segments, it’s easy to turn it on, watch for a while, then stop and pick it up again another time. It’s not rated, but I would probably not let younger kids watch.

So tell me in your comment please, what’s your favorite movie to watch when you’ve been fighting with your spouse and/or just need a good laugh?

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subtitle: great movie to watch while nursing a sprained ankle

If you liked the movie Sideways, I highly recommend buying or renting the movie Smart People, from one of the Sideways producers. The terrific cast includes Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church, and Ellen Page, and like Sideways, Smart People focuses on the relationships between the characters. Lawrence (Quaid) is a recently widowed college professor who sleep-walks through his days, not really connecting with anyone, until his slacker brother Chuck (Church) shows up at his doorstep. Ellen Page is his daughter Vanessa who is trying to keep the family together.

When an accident lands him in the hospital, Lawrence meets his attractive doctor Janet (Parker) who was also a former student of his. Unable to drive while he recuperates, Chuck volunteers to be his driver, despite Lawrence’s objections. Chuck and Vanessa begin hanging out together as well, which lends even more drama and conflict to the situation. And, Lawrence finds himself attracted to Janet, yet he barely remembers how to be in a relationship with a woman. With snappy dialogue and stellar acting, Smart People is a must-see. Even if you aren’t laid up on the couch with a sprained ankle.

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Description: ‘Walt Disney’s jumpin’ jungle classic continues in this special edition of THE JUNGLE BOOK 2 – with all your favorite characters from the original toe-tappin’ classic and more swingin’ songs! Mowgli has been living in the man-village with his little stepbrother Ranjan and his best friend Shanti. But the man-cub still has that jungle rhythm in his heart and he misses his old buddies Baloo and Bagheera. When Mowgli wanders back to the wild for some swingin’ fun he soon finds Baloo isn’t the only one waiting for him — the man-eating tiger Shere Khan is lurking in the shadows and planning his revenge. If he is to defeat his nemesis Mowgli will need the help of both his old friends and his new family. With an all-new “Mowgli’s Story Time Adventure” game music videos and more THE JUNGLE BOOK 2 SPECIAL EDITION will have the whole family roaring for more!”

When I put this DVD in after lunch one day, both of my boys rolled their eyes like it was going to kill them to watch it. I said nothing, just went back to blogging, and when I looked up about 15 minutes later, they both had their eyes glued to the screen! Score!! While this is pretty much the same plot as the first movie, songs like “I Wanna Be Like You” performed by SmashMouth and “Jungle Rhythm” give the movie a fresh feel. The special edition DVD has games, music videos, and deleted scenes, too. It’s a movie that the whole family will enjoy!

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Hi This is Drew, AKA BenSpark who is writing this guest review. I was talking with Elizabeth the other night and she mentioned that she had a review copy of TRANSFORMERS ANIMATED: TRANSFORM & ROLL OUT. I told her how I was a huge, huge, huge Transformers fan and I wish I could review the DVD. She agreed and so here we are. What I didn’t tell her was that I’ve been collecting Transformers since I was 10 years old. I have attended BotCon conventions twice and I was even at the convention where HASBRO unveiled TRANSFORMERS ANIMATED.

At that event, seeing these radically new designs of some of my beloved characters got me very excited. I had a countdown to the first episode of TRANSFORMERS ANIMATED premiering on the Cartoon Network and I made sure I watched and ate up every second of the show. While some may not likethe new designs I love them. I went out yesterday and purchased the OPTIMUS PRIME/MEGATRON 2 pack with the first episode of TRANSFORMERS ANIMATED on DVD. I was like a kid on Christmas. Literally, because each Christmas Eve from age 10-14 I would get a bunch of TRANSFORMERS, I would then spend the entire night transforming them, adding the stickers and staging epic battles. While I didn’t stage battles last night I did transform OPTIMUS PRIME and MEGATRON before I went to bed.

But, you are not looking for my sleeping habits you want to know if TRANSFORMERS ANIMATED: TRANSFORM & ROLL OUT is worth the purchase. And I am here to tell you that it is. This show was produced with HASBRO and Cartoon Network, they worked together to bring you a cartoon that is high quality, has action humor and heart.The show even has many, many nods back to the original series. Watching this DVD I was transported back to when I was a kid and watched TRANSFORMERS every single day. The DVD starts out with a movie of The Great War, that was the war between AUTOBOTS and DECPTICONS. OPTIMUS PRIME is watching the movie, however this isn’t the OPTIMUS PRIME of old. This is a young warrior who is just learning to lead. However, he is leading a team of repair bots, not battle hardened warriors. Well, that is not true, he does have one battle hardened warrior on his crew and that is RATCHET. RATCHET actually fought in the Great War and he has been changed because of it. He also has the battle scars to prove it.

OPTIMUS PRIME and his crew are on a routine mission to repair a Space Bridge. A Space Bridge is like a teleportation device and allows Transformers to be transported across huge distances in seconds. In the old cartoon someone was alwyas building a Space Bridge or blowing one up so it makes sense that there are a bunch of them around. OPTIMUS PRIME’S team consists of: RATCHET, a Medic and Great War Veteran and someone who has “one servo in the scrapheap” according to BUMBLEBEE. BUMBLEBEE is the youngest bot, he is brash and quick witted, he is also the fastest AUTOBOT on the team. BULKHEAD is the team’s big guy, he’s massive and clumsy and a bit self deprecating but he has heart and has the potential to become a good warrior. Rounding out the team is the zen-like ninjabot PROWL. PROWL is stoic and laconic. Nothing rattles PROWL and he says very little, however when he does speak or act his timing is perfect and he is very precise.

So, OPTIMUS has a rag-tag crew of bots. They go on a mission to repair a space bridge however while they are there they discover The ALLSPARK. The ALLSPARK is what gave transformers life and it was the thing that the DECEPTICONS want for themselves and their evil plans. Once the ALLSPARK is found TELETRAN ONE alerts OPTIMUS PRIME that a ship with a DECEPTICON signature is approaching quickly. To all the bots on the team, the DECEPTICONS are like mythical creatures because they were defeated so long ago in the Great War and no one has seen them since. The team quickly learns that the DECEPTICONS are alive and well and have been looking for the ALLSPARK all this time.

What happens next both parallels and updates the original cartoon. The AUTOBOT Ship is attacked by MEGATRON but the sneaky STARSCREAM sets MEGATRON up for defeat attaching a bomb to his back unnoticed. As STARSCREAM watches the AUTOBOT ship explode he congratulates himself on getting rid of his rival and leader, MEGATRON. STARSCREAM gives a celebratory speech as the rest of the DECEPTICONS take to the escape pods because their ship is headed directly into a sun. STARSCREAM realizes this a little too late.

Meanwhile the Autobot’s ship crash lands on a strange new world that is inhabited. The ship does not crash into a dormant volcano in Oregon this time but rather into Lake Erie. The Autobots climb into stasis pods as the ship crashes and they stay there for 50 years…

You’ll have to buy the DVD for the rest of the story, and as a die hard fan I have to say it is totally worth the purchase price. The DVD is in stores now because it was released on June 17th by Paramount Home Entertainment. The DVD also contains 2 extra special bonus shorts that are sure to delight fans. A whole new chapter in the story of the Transformers is beginning. I’ve seen many of the episodes that air each week on Cartoon Network and have seen some of the awesome things to come. This DVD is the perfect intro to this dynamic new story.

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