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STUDIO: Shout! Factory
MSRP: $59.98
RATED: G
RUNNING TIME: 900 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“A Look Back at Liberty’s Kids with the Creators”
• “Benjamin Franklin’s Newsbytes”
• “Continental Cartoons” Games
• “Mystery Guest” Games
• “Now and Then”
• Original Pencil Test: “Midnight Ride”
• Booklet and Poster
The Pitch
Kids did shit during the American Revolution
The Humans
Dustin Hoffmann, Maria Shriver, Billy Crystal, Ben Stiller, Annette Bening, Sylvester Stallone, Walter Cronkite and Arnold Schwarzenegger
The Nutshell
Children love to learn via mindless entertainment. Liberty’s Kids isn’t quite mindless, but you don’t know a PHD to follow the show. Starting with the Boston Tea Party and ending right around the first presidential inauguration. The show covers a lot of ground in a short amount of time. Plus, you get to listen to Sylvester Stallone try to perform as a convincing Paul Revere.
Caddie Woodlawn had a bigger rack.
The Lowdown
Colonial America is such a weird time. You’re coming in right after the kickassery of The Last of the Mohicans, but you lack the pseudo-patriotic intensity of The Patriot. The kids in the show learn about slavery, patriotism, freedom and the importance of cameos. I don’t know who was the showrunner on this project, but there are more cameos than plots in this series. Liam Neeson plays John Paul Jones and Ben Stiller gets to play Thomas Jefferson. Bizarre casting to say the least, but it works for the program.
The 18th century was full of rotoscoped birds.
The show ran for under forty episodes, but it never felt rushed. Every venture is light and only offers a superficial view of American History. Ben Franklin didn’t bang sluts, Paul Revere was noble and Thomas Jefferson didn’t like the dark meat. There’s no reason to sully children with realistic images in this show. But, a tip of hat would’ve been appreciated. Kids have to acknowledge accuracy somehow.
It’s here, guv’ner. My invitation to the Hogwarts Lemon Party.
The voice acting is pretty damn good. But, it feels too much like they’re trying to teach kids. The strength in the show falls on the backs of the kid voice actors that wants the young ones to buy the high drama. Sure, a child’s opinion meant shit in the 18th century. Kid Power still carries on in spit of that fact. There’s something for boys and girls to enjoy here. Especially in the episodes that focus on Deborah Sampson.
Being as how the show aired on PBS, most Chewers probably missed the series. But, that doesn’t matter. Shout Factory has compiled the entire series run on four discs for your perusal. Surely, that’ll do something for you. They even included a map, so that you can follow along where the events happened. I wish that it would’ve been a map that you could color. I love coloring maps.
Cheers sans the eltist attitude.
The Package
Liberty’s Kids – The Complete Series comes
to
DVD
with an average release. You get the entire series presented uncut with crisp A/V Quality. There are a few games and activities in the set to keep kids focused on the historical importance of the series’ events. Outside of that, you get the same ol’ kid filler. Hopefully, you’ll pick it up for your kids and teach them that America began in the 18th century and not when they were born.
If you don’t like something, fuck with the tea.