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Reviews
Barbie of Swan Lake (2003)
Worth the Price of the DVD Just for the "More Fun" Section
As for the movie, it is a great adventure with not one but two strong "human-looking" positive female role models - Odette and the Fairy Queen. Clean language. Much less violence than many classic cartoons 40 to 50 years older.
Unlike many mainstream and Disney Products, the commercials are at the end of the disc where your child has to go and select them on purpose - not up front and auto-loading, where you have to be quick with your remote to avoid them.
Three segments in the more fun section have proved to be a delightful surprise -1) a segment some of the specific ballet dances, 2)"The Music in You" a short documentary featuring real girls, who are serious young musicians playing real musical instruments, and 3)a segment on constellations. I have spent years trying to get my daughter interested in astronomy. This disc did it in a few brief minutes.
Possible Spoiler: Also, the Prince is a dynamic swashbuckler who only falls for one of the villain's deceptions.
The Adventures of Ociee Nash (2002)
A Step Back In Time, Well Cast, Well Acted.
The movie is set in 1898 and focuses on a young girl from a Mississippi farm who is sent to Asheville, NC to live with her aunt to learn how to be a proper young lady. The title character lost her mother to "the measles." Interstate travel is by passenger train. Local travel is by horseback or horse-drawn wagon or carriage. The opportunities for women in this era are severely limited. Keith Carradine's portrayal of Ociee's father, a widowed farmer who wants the best for his beloved only daughter, resonates with all the appropriate love and simple dignity. Skyler Day is quite perfect as Ociee. Mare Winningham, whose character, "Aunt Mamie," would have been a lifeless cliche in the hands of a lesser actor, makes Aunt Mamie a living, breathing, complex and slightly mysterious Southern Lady. All the child actors are completely believable. The scenery in the movie is beautiful. There is no bad language in this film, no violence beyond the level of a typical sibling wrestling match. The film has a quirkiness reminiscent of "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "Forrest Gump," but it can stand alone on its own merits. It should be irresistible to anyone who has ever wrestled with a sibling, climbed a tree, or been criticized for not being a "proper" young lady or gentleman. See it with someone you love.