Tot TV Watch

I grew up during the second run of Schoolhouse Rock in the 1990s. I remember watching it on ABC on Saturday mornings. I also remember having a CD of some of the songs. I really liked “The Preamble” song and that helped me get the best grade on the Constitution part of social studies in 8th grade and I got the Constitution Medal when I graduated from 8th grade. I really liked watching the Schoolhouse Rock 30th Anniversary DVD, as I had never heard many of the songs. In particular, I had not heard many of the America Rocks songs and being into history I loved those. The thing I like the most about Schoohouse Rock is that it is pretty much timeless and it can be educational for pretty much all ages. In fact I made my brother watch the “Conjuction Junction” song because when I had this as a rental he was having problems with that lesson of his high school Freshman English course.

This set has two discs (note that if you use Netflix you have to add the bonus disc separately, as it is not considered a set that has an add all). The first one has all the songs organized in Jukebox like menus. This includes Top Ten Jukebox, Grammar Rock, Science Rock, Money Rock, I’m Gonna Send Your Vote to College, Multiplication Rock, America Rock, and The Whole Enchilada - in order or shuffle. In each section you can play just one song or select play all.

The second disc is called the Extra Credit Disc. It actually has a lot of interesting special features and certainly stands alone as also worthwhile. It includes a documentary about making the new song for this release called “I’m Gonna Send Your Vote to College.” There is also an Emmy Awards Featurette about the Schoolhouse Rock winning an Emmy. There are some extra animated clips including three Scooter & Mr. Chips segments, a Nike spot commercial, and “I’m Gonna Send Your Vote to College” in surround. There are some games, such as Arrange a Schoolhouse Rock song in which you select the right order the phrases for three songs should be and Earn Your Diploma in which you answer multiple choice questions on songs in the five categories. Lastly there is a Top 20 Shuffle and Music Videos of 4 songs being sung by other musicians.

Overall this is a great collection. I know there is a more recent Election Edition that came out around the 2008 Election that I think has one more song, but it is not a Netflix rental, so I could not rent it. I have heard that that one has most of this stuff if not all of the stuff from this edition, so perhaps it might be a better buy if you do not already have this one. However, since this one has been out longer you may find it at a good deal and it is only missing the one new song from the other edition as far as I know.

Check out the other TV on DVD reviews I have blogged about here.

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