Learning Organizations Movie Reviews

Catchy music and skillful animation lend a new richness to award-winning picture books like Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Trashy Town in this Scholastic compilation. In "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom," jazzy melodies composed and performed by Crystal Taliefero complement Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault's innovative look at the alphabet while Lois Ehlert's busy letters absolutely scurry up and crash down from the coconut tree. The addition of the jazzy refrain "dump it in, smash it down, drive around" underscores the importance of the trash man's job in "Trashy Town" and Rosie's oblivious walk around the farm in "Rosie's Walk" is appropriately accompanied by a catchy country tune and twang-infused narration. Animation, voice talent, and the occasional melodic riff reinforce the themes of growth and change in "The Caterpillar and the Polliwog." (Ages 2 to 7) --Tami Horiuchi

Jay Jay may have wings and a rudder, but the crowd he hangs with isn't exactly jet set. Funny-faced flying buddies Tracy, Herky, and Snuffy never make it out of Tarrytown, let alone navigate their way through an episode without swerving into a tailspin. Life's Little Lessons lifts off with Herky faking wellness to get to the fair; from there, Tracy tries tackling sonic booms unsupervised, Herky spins his wheels in a tricky game of opposites, Snuffy gets his propeller out of joint over the impermanence of his snowman pal, and Tracy learns to shelf her impatience, a surefire plan for catching sight of a shooting star. A fleet gentler than Jay Jay's doesn't exist--forget about fastening your seatbelt for these low-flying adventures. In fact, if Lessons' lessons take hold the way its creators intended, preschoolers'll come away even more grounded than when they tuned in for takeoff. --Tammy La Gorce

Boyz N the Hood
John Singleton, at the age of 23, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his debut film, Boyz N the Hood. The film stars Laurence Fishburne, Angela Basset, Ice Cube, and Academy Award-winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr. in his first starring role in a feature film. Gooding plays Tre Styles, a teenager growing up in South Central Los Angeles. His father, Furious (Fishburne), is divorced and living away from Tre and his mother (Basset), but he's still involved in Tre's upbringing, teaching him the values of right and wrong and responsibility. Meanwhile, Tre's childhood buddies Ricky (Morris Chestnut) and Doughboy (Ice Cube) are living their lives in terms of the epidemic of violence and poverty that has plagued their neighborhood. Ricky, a talented football player, strives to get a full athletic scholarship to college. If only his SAT scores were higher. Doughboy lives a life full of crime but still remains true to his friends. The obstacles that these three young men come across result in dire consequences, devastatingly avoidable and inevitable at the same time. Boyz N the Hood is a landmark film beyond its commercial success, presenting a portrait of South Central in the late '80s and early '90s as painted by Singleton (who grew up in that neighborhood), achieving accuracy and dramatic resonance in this story of at-risk youth. --Shannon Gee

Poetic Justice
Director John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood, Rosewood) made an earnest effort in this, his second, film to say a great deal that is true and relevant about living and loving in a violent, difficult time in American history. Janet Jackson plays a beautician and poet who withdraws into herself after her boyfriend is murdered by gangsters. The late Tupac Shakur plays a postman who tries to get through to her, and the two travel on a course through urban America, connecting with family and community. Singleton has so much on his mind that the film comes out a terrible muddle, but there is a certain integrity peeking through the fog. Shakur makes a startlingly good impression in his film debut, and Jackson strips away her star veneer to play something like a real person--and entirely succeeds. Maya Angelou wrote the poems that pass as those penned by Jackson's character, and she also appears in the film. --Tom Keogh

Higher Learning
This ambitious 1995 film by John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood) doesn't quite succeed at painting the illuminating, collective portrait of college life in the '90s that the director seeks. But Singleton does do a fine job of defining some conflicting impulses for young people on the cusp of adulthood, particularly the desire to broaden horizons on the one hand and circle the wagons with like-minded allies on the other. Students in the film's Columbus University divide themselves along lines of race, sexual preferences, ideology, and, most dangerously, levels of paranoia. Among the fine cast is Michael Rapaport, who portrays a loner drawn to a local community of neo-Nazis. His resultant problems with the school's African-Americans takes over the story at the expense of other, parallel dramas, but Singleton's insights into race hatred on campus--a microcosm of the surrounding culture--is not to be dismissed. --Tom Keogh

English grammar is serious stuff, and there's only so much that can be done to make it entertaining. But the Standard Deviants, an energetic troupe of young performers whose specialty is making serious academic subjects engaging, happily dive into what they call "The Split-Infinitive World of English Grammar." The lessons on this DVD have been prepared by a panel of serious academics, but flashy graphics abound. And the performers do their best to liven up presentations of basic concepts. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other parts of speech are explained with some offbeat examples (for instance, a film of a lizard is used to demonstrate why "gecko" is a common noun). While introducing a section on verbals, a young woman mentions that a "funky thing" verbs can do is function as other parts of speech. Eventually all parts of speech are covered, and basic sentence structures are introduced. At the end of each set of lessons a quiz is presented, which a student can either take or skip. After proceeding through all the lessons on this DVD (which contains about two hours worth of material), a student can take the "Gram Slam," a comprehensive exam. English grammar will never be a barrel of fun, but the Standard Deviants deserve credit for making this review course as engaging as the subject is ever likely to get. --Robert J. McNamara

In "The Zany World of Basic Math," the Standard Deviants, an ebullient troupe of young performers whose specialty is taking serious subjects and making them offbeat enough to be memorable, tackle the most basic concepts of mathematics. Starting off with explanations of integers, the program proceeds to cover addition, subtraction, and multiplication before moving into more advanced concepts such as exponents and division. Throughout the program the cast cracks painfully corny jokes and occasionally dresses up in some bad costumes to make their points. Indeed, this must be the only math lesson to have a "comedy editor" listed in the opening credits. The underlying principle is that if the performers make spectacles of themselves, that serves as a mnemonic device and makes the serious material they're imparting easier to remember. After covering the basics, the program moves into decimals, fractions, ratios, and percents. Following each section a quiz appears, which the student can either take or skip, and a "Grand Slam Exam" concludes the entire set of lessons. While the presentation may be unorthodox, the academic material has been approved by a panel of professors. Though it's not intended as a substitute for classes in math, students would benefit by using this as review material. --Robert J. McNamara

French, Part 2 picks up, not surprisingly, where the Standard Deviants' French, Part 1 leaves off. Using the same functional approach to French, this tape uses fun graphics, humorous skits, transcriptions, and translations to help you learn the language (and once again the video begins with the caveat that these videos are intended to supplement, not replace, a class). Two cards included with the tape give translations of some of the dialogues, conjugations, and useful vocabulary. Beginning with a subject near and dear to le français, we visit a café where we learn about food while also discovering le partif, prendre, and different ways of asking questions. Three more sections deal with describing yourself, shopping, and morning and evening rituals, covering topics such as irregular verbs (including décrire, vouloir, and dire), regular verbs, more adjectives and adverbs, conjugations, the past tense, direct and indirect pronouns, and reflexive verbs. Occasionally dialogues are repeated with the English translation beneath them, which seems superfluous given that the translations are provided on the enclosed cards. While the video could benefit from more native French speakers, this is a delightful introduction to the language, and a fun complement to a high school or college French class. --Jenny Brown

A painless way of learning a few things about shapes, numbers, letters, opposites, and good manners, Best Learning Songs Video Ever is an engaging treat for young kids who love music. The story finds Huckle Cat and his buddies putting on a backyard variety show that draws the entire town as an audience. With Huck as master of ceremonies and Lowly Worm as stage manager, the children of Busy Town entertain their families and friends with tunes about the fundamentals of an education. Besides Hilda Hippo's ABC song, there's Oly Owl's melody about shapes, and Alex and Anna's song about opposites. There's much more, including a couple of golden oldies such as "If You're Happy and You Know It." A real winner. --Tom Keogh