All Rise...

When he was younger Judge David Johnson befriended a talking hamster that drove cars and skateboarded. Good times, those.

The Charge

Not as provocative as the titles indicates

The Case

Here's another shot of Stuart Little happiness, three more episodes recounting the—wait for it—tails of the titular mouse (I wish he was a titmouse, then this sentence would totally rule) and his adopted W.A.S.P. family. Voiced by Hugh Laurie (House), Mr. Little is the loving patriarch of the Little family, dishing out advice and always willing to teach Stuart and his other son George (creepy) much-needed life lessons.

• "Little Skateboard Dogz"
While shredding on their bitchin' skateboards, decked out head-to-toe in appropriate safety gear of course, Stuart and George happen upon some cool kids who are totally tubular skaters. The brothers start hanging out with their new pals, but as George devotes more and more time to skateboarding, his schoolwork suffers, and Mr. Little is forced to have conversation with his son about priorities.

MORAL: Be cool. Stay in school!

FUN FACT: A rumored deleted scene had George and Stuart doing crystal meth and listening to Emo rock with their newfound skateboard pals.

• "The Great Outdoors"
The Littles are off on a camping trip. George and Stuart learn to appreciate the majesty of nature, while Snowbell the cat struggles with the roughing-it attitude. There's really not much of a lesson at work here, besides the obvious tree-hugging-is-awesome vibe.

MORAL: Um, nature is the shiznit?

FUN FACT: Amazingly, Stuart is not devoured by a hawk.

• "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Taco Tuesday"
It's class election time, and propelled by the desire to reinstate "Taco Tuesday" in the lunch room, Stuart opts to enter the race. As he prepares to campaign against the long-time incumbent, he will be challenge to stick to his morals, while also convincing his idiot classmates to vote for a rodent.

MORAL: Don't sell your soul for political gain.

FUN FACT: Stuart leaks messy details of his opponent's family life to the class paper. Or so I hoped he would.

Another day, another animated kids series. Inspired by the successful CGI movies that preceded it, Stuart Little is a more old fashioned brand of cartoon storytelling. The characters are all good little girls and boys and rats, the parents are flush with answers to life's dilemmas, and the storylines are about as edgy as a Nerf football. In that sense, yeah, it's a boring show, but the morals are up-front and inoffensive and I like the traditional art style. If your kids a) like quieter cartoons without insane Japanese laser beams and moon creatures or b) would benefit from having their values and lessons spoon-fed to them by a talking mouse, by all means, snatch up this disc.

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