Disney // 2007 // 57 Minutes // Not Rated
Reviewed by Judge David Johnson // April 30th, 2008
There's Magic in the Music!
Johnny (John Tartaglia) is a singer/songwriter who heads to a secluded cabin in the woods to focus on his musical career. He's hoping for a creative infusion, but finds a lot more than he bargained for when runs into the Sprites, a civilization of magical, colorful creatures. No one else can see Basil, Lily, Ginger and Root and that's probably for the best, because judging by how much they harass Johnny, it wouldn't take long before humanity opts to commit genocide against these lovable creatures.
Five 12-minute episodes and short music video at the end:
"Ginger's Antenna Dilemma"
Ginger struggles with self-esteem
problems when she focuses on her curly antennae. No one else has curly antennae
and she rightfully suspects she's a freakish outcast. Despite the encouragement
of her friends, Ginger can't stop feeling like crap. Can Johnny and his song
about individuality snap her out of her depression before she starts down the
path of self-mutilation?
"Root's Dadoots"
Root, a diminutive orange-haired Sprite
comes down with a bad case of the "dadoots," which is something like
Sprite gas. Apparently, it's contracted after the ingestion of walla-walla
fruit. Johnny takes Root around to the rest of the sprites to get their
suggestions for remedies to this debilitating disease. Meanwhile, Johnny is
suffering from songwriter's mental block.
"Where's the Water, Lily?"
Johnny builds a garishly ugly
fountain that doesn't work so asks his pal Gwen to swing by and use her plumbing
prowess to make the water flow. Over in the Grotto Grove, the Sprites are
panicking when their water supply mysteriously vanishes. Is there a relation
between these two things? Yes!
"Basil's Band"
Basil sees some TV footage of a popular boy
band and gets a great idea -- he's going to form his own Sprite band and
convinces some of his fellow Grotto natives to join. This results in a stirring
musical finale about friendship. The after-party scene where the Sprites do coke
off each other's chests was edgy.
"The Sprites and The What?"
Johnny is consumed with putting
together a nice meal for Gwen and wants to make spaghetti. He accidentally loses
his colander and the Sprites find it and try to figure out what the @#$% it is.
The moral of the story: small kitchen appliances provide hours of amusement for
magical felt-covered forest inhabitants.
Sure, I'll give this disc a hearty recommendation. In an age where annoying kids shows seem to be norm, Johnny and the Sprites is a great little puppet-centric blast of energy with singing, smiling, and CGI pixie dust. And as I wrote that last sentence I realized I made the series sound like one of those annoying kids shows but trust me, this is a fun DVD. The writing is deceptively clever (one of the Sprites uses the word "post-modern") and the acting, particularly from John Tartaglia, is exuberant. Plus you get the usual easy-to-digest life lessons.
The usual technical stats for releases of this ilk: full frame, 2.0 stereo and a handful of extra features -- previews, a sing-along and 20 minutes worth of original shorts.
Review content copyright © 2008 David Johnson; Site layout and review format copyright © 1998 - 2012 HipClick Designs LLC
Scales of Justice
Judgment: 85
Perp Profile
Studio: Disney
Video Formats:
* Full Frame
Audio Formats:
* Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (English)
Subtitles:
* None
Running Time: 57 Minutes
Release Year: 2007
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Distinguishing Marks
* Original Shorts
* Music Video
Accomplices
* IMDb
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0491606/combined
* Official Site
http://atv.disney.go.com/playhouse/johnny/index.html