Last week the big kid had a cold. She stayed home sick from school, which was the perfect excuse for a Jake and the Never Land Pirates marathon. I knew my daughters liked this show but aside from a quarter of an episode that we watched together in a hotel room over the summer I had never seen it myself. The girls snuggled down, and I set up the TV fully planning to sneak off once the DVD was playing. But I got sucked in. Yeah, that’s right, I got sucked into a TV show designed for 3-6 year olds.
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| Yo, ho! Let’s go! |
Jake and the Never Land Pirates: Jake’s Never Land Rescue starts off with a feature length adventure, and then follows up with eight regular episodes. The feature length story, Never Land Rescue, was decent. As I said, I sat down with the girls thinking I’d stick around for five minutes or so and then sneak off to do laundry and I ended up staying for the entire movie because I wanted to see what was going to happen next! Needless to say, not only was I interested, the girls were riveted.
The basic premise: Never Land is fading and Jake needs to make a trip to the Forever Tree, but things get complicated. First a mysterious figure appears and demands that only one person can go on the Forever Quest, so Jake needs to continue on alone. Izzy and Cubby end up fending off Hook, who is tearing apart Pirate Island looking for treasure. Meanwhile the Never Land’s scenery is changing and things keep disappearing, including Jake’s sword, Izzy’s magic pixie dust, and even the directions off of Cubby’s map. Of course Jake eventually manages to save the Forever Tree, but then the story isn’t done yet, as Jake gets granted his fondest wish and leaves his friends behind to travel off with Peter Pan.
As a mom I often end up sitting through some pretty retched kids shows. This was cute. It wasn’t predictable, and I actually enjoyed watching it. My daughter’s were literally perched on the edge of the couch waiting to see what would happen next. And when it was done they wanted to watch it again, immediately.
Plus on top of the movie length story, there are 8 normal episodes of Jake and the Never Land Pirates, which the kids loved. Me, I could skip watching the normal episodes. Yawn. But that’s ok, I don’t think Disney is making these for me. The kids loved them, that’s the important part. I loved the repeating themes of teamwork and treating your “enemies” with respect and kindness, as I think these are great values to impress on my daughters.
The DVD set also included an inflatable sword complete with glow in the dark stickers to decorate it with. The kids were crazy excited about the silly sword. I fully expected it to last less than five minutes, however a week later and it’s still in one piece.
Overall, I think this DVD set is a must for any Jake fans. I know this is a DVD that my kids are going to watch again and again. It’s 148 minutes long, includes the full length story plus 8 regular episodes, a blow-up sword and some glow in the dark stickers. All of which makes the suggested retail of $24.99 seem pretty darn reasonable.
What about you guys? Have any Jake fans in the household?
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