THE BOXCAR CHILDREN: Surprise Island Brings Animated Family Adventure to Bluray and DVD

Jeri Jacquin

On Bluray & DVD this week from directors Dan Chuba and Mark Dippe along with Legacy Classics and SHOUT! Kids Factory comes a story of family and a summer like no other for THE BOXCAR CHILDREN: Surprise Island.

Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny are spending the summer on a private island that belongs to their grandfather. Every day they do something special together like make cabinets for their cabin and making lunches together. They also meet young Joe who is a mystery to many people on the island.

Out wandering they take to the beach and soon run the beach looking for clams and exploring. Chasing sandpipers they soon discover a platform in the water. Violet and Benny meet Joe who shows them amazing things about the ocean. Wanting to know more, Henry decides to create a museum from their exploration.

Joe volunteers to help them learn by getting books from the library. They begin to create an amazing collection of items from the island and continue to explore even more about the island finding an unusual cave. They tell Joe who is as excited about what is inside.

When Grandfather returns, he sees that the children not only have made the cabin a home but turned the upstairs into a wonderful museum. A man named Mr. Browning arrives looking for a friend when the kids offer him something to eat.

And quickly the kids discover that their friend Joe has a surprise for everyone but what a joyous surprise it is!

The cast is voiced by Joey King as Jessie, Talitha Bateman as Violet, Griffin Gluck as Henry, Carter Sand as Benny, Gil Birmingham as Mr. Browning, Stephen Stanton as Captain Daniel, Dane DeHaan as Joe, J.K. Simmons as Dr. Moore, and Martin Sheen as James Alden.

SHOUT! Factory brings the best to fans offering up feature films, classic television series, animation and specials. For more of what they have to offer go to www.shoutfactory.com. 

Legacy Classics is dedicated to family entertainment and educational tools based on classic and award-winning children’s literature. The Boxcar Children, written by Gertrude Chandler Warner, has sold over 70 million books world-wide. Most do not know that there are over 150 books in the series that reaches over 1 million kids!

The DVD of THE BOXCAR CHILDREN: Surprise Island includes the Special Features of Interviews with Cast & Crew, Interview with the Composer, and Behind-The-Scenes Interview with the Sound Editing and Mixing Team. Also included is a Watch-Anywhere code that allows you to experience the film on your PC, Mac, iPhone, and iPod and a fantastic book mark showing the wonderful cover of THE BOXCAR CHILDREN: Surprise Island.

THE BOXCAR CHILDREN: Surprise Island is a beautiful film with a deep connection to a simpler life and a hunger for learning. These are kids who are very close and take care of each other. The story sweeps the viewer in quickly because the relationship between the siblings is one of mutual respect and love.

The characters in the story gave me plenty of reason to giggle, smile and remember what it was like to spend summers on the beach with my own siblings. The animation is vivid and extraordinary to tell this touching story.

This film is absolutely a must have for the home film library and a story I want my own grandchildren to watch again and again. These are important stories to be told and they are made sweeter by a studio that takes such amazing care in the way a story is presented to those of us who love the books.

THE BOXCAR CHILDREN: Surprise Island has so much to teach us all about beauty, family, love and support along with believing in a few life surprises.

In the end – on a small island they find big adventure!

VALERIAN and the CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to theatres this Friday from director Luc Besson and STX Entertainment from the comic book by Jean-Claude Mezieres is VALERIAN and the CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS.

There once was a planet of alien beings that lived peacefully taking care of one another and giving back to the planet that provided for them. A little creature on their planet provides pearls that are important to their existence and powerful. Their idyllic life comes to an apocalyptic end when ships crash on their planet taking the life of a Limai Princess.

It is the 28^th century and a city known as Alpha floats in space. Filled with thousands of cultures and thousands of languages, they must all work together for the survival of the ship and its crew. Commander Arun Filitt (Clive Owen) is doing what ever he needs to ensure that it all works.

Major Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Sgt. Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are sent on a secret mission. The assignment from the Minister of Defense is to retrieve a one-of-a-kind creature that is sought after by unknown forces. Once Valerian and Laureline find it, they also have to fight there way back to Alpha city with it.

Back on duty, the two soldiers are set to protect Command Filitt but it all goes wrong when they are attacked and he is taken. General Okto Bar (Sam Spruell) takes over and isn’t happy when Valerian takes it upon himself to go after the ship with the Command inside. Laureline does what she can to track him but Valerian is lost in the Dead Zone. It is a zone where anyone that goes in does not come back.

But Laureline won’t take no for an answer and finds a way to Valerian. Immediately captured by alien creatures, Laureline now needs rescuing herself. He meets Bubble (Rihanna) who has the ability to shape shift which is a neat skill especially when it may be the only way to rescue Laureline.

General Bar begins to believe what Valerian told him about the alien beings on the lost planet beginning to investigate. What he finds will not stop what the Commander has planned all along but it may be the destruction of Valerian, Laureline and a race thought to be extinct!

DeHaan as Valerian plays a straight forward action hero who has a past with the women but wants a future with his partner. Always looking for answers, the Major isn’t going to let anyone or anything stop him from discovering the truth. DeHaan jumps right in action wise yet his character finds a moment here and there to remind Laureline that she’s the one.

Delevingne as Laureline, oh gawd I know I’m going to get it for this, just drove me absolutely nuts. I wish I had a clicker to count how many times she said ‘Valerian’ per scene. I know one scene that’s all she said and when the camera cut away I couldn’t have been happier about it. I’m sure her character is meant to be an example of female empowerment but I didn’t see it. Instead I saw a girl trying to be standoffish yet always felt the need to rescue someone who isn’t her man that she wants as her man but pretends she doesn’t want her man. Yea, that’s about how I felt.

Spruell as General Bar doesn’t care for his commander very much so it’s not surprising that he’s willing to listen to Valerian and not make extremely hasty decisions. Owen as Commander Filitt gets a chance to be secretive and down right devilish. It’s an interesting look for him even if his role is sporadic.

Director Luc Besson is responsible for some of the most memorable films such as THE BIG BLUE and my family’s favorite THE FIFTH ELEMENT. There are several things in this film that remind me of THE FIFTH ELEMENT which means VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS will probably end up being a cult classic.

Other cast include Elizabeth Debicki as Haban Limai, Ethan Hawke as Jolly the Pimp, Aymeline Valade as Haban-Limai, Kris Wu as Sgt. Neza, Diva Cam as Maatri, Alexander Willaume as Captain Kris and Rihanna as Bubbles.

VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS is an interesting sci-fi film with special effects for days. Besson brings bright colors, crazy aliens, space ships and special effects like an oven on broil. There is so much to visually take it that it’s almost a story within itself.

The film takes an air of predictability with a few things I am calling out. So, I felt like I was watching a bit of other sci-fi films over the years and a bit of THE FIFTH ELEMENT mixed with characters that are changed up. When seeing the film tell me that you see Jessica Rabbit because I swear I did.

That’s probably the part of the film that I liked the most – the special effects and characters that were created. Of course I’m probably a little bias since I think most ‘human’ roles are overplayed and overly spent acted. Bring on the colorful aliens!

If anything it is certainly a film about loyalty and accountability no matter what species you associate with. There’s nothing wrong with that at all.

In the end – a universe without boundaries needs heroes without limits!