Monsters, Inc. Disney Read-Along

My little guy was scared of the movie Monsters Inc. but he likes this video. This video isn't animated but is made up of various pictures from the movie which made it less scary for him. The story is good and condensed and the captioning is a great idea.

But...the captioning is small and a bit difficult to read with the shifting pictures underneath and the changing text size (the captioning changes size as its being read). We haven't used the different languages much because my little guy loses interest. The picture-story doesn't provide much context.

My little-guy (he's 3) loves Read-TV though. It's based on the same concept (that captioning helps children learn to read) but the captioning is so much better in Read-TV. It's large and catchy (bright colors and sometimes animated!) and has a lot of context clues so my child easily learns what a word means. If you're going to purchase a video that uses captioning for educational purposes I'd choose Read-TV. It's a bit more expensive then the Disney Read-Along but worth every penny!

I haven't used this video with little children, but it's great for a foreign language classroom. Students can hear and read along in the target language (and 5 languages to choose from!) so you get a good correspondance between word and sound for better comprehension. Anyone who has used a movie with subtitles knows that subtitles do NOT say the same thing the foreign language track says so it makes it difficult for someone to follow along. This format can really help comprehension skills.

The story can be watched in a variety of combinations, English audio/2nd language subtitles, 2nd language audio/English subtitles and any combination of audio language and subtitles. There is a small vocab review section (only a few words, though, wish it were more), where there is a picture illustrating a word and then the word is printed and spoken. You can repeat any particular word as many times as you want before moving to the next word.

There are 3 songs, the one from the end of the movie (If I didn't have you) and then 2 others that did not appear in the movie, but are cute (It's our job and Under the bed). Again, these are with both audio and subtitles, in any combination of languages.

From a foreign language teacher's point of view, this is a great resource! It would be a great preliminary to watching the full movie in the target language. Be aware, though, that the actual movie DVD does NOT have any language but English! You can buy Spanish as a separate VHS (maybe DVD but I'm not sure) and then French separately. I couldn't believe they wouldn't at least have ONE of the languages in an audio track. (As a French and Spanish teacher, it's cost effective for me to buy only 1 DVD instead of 2 VHS tapes normally.)

Overall, it's a good deal for a FL teacher and is a nice change from the same ol' same ol'. Only 4 stars for the items I mentioned above and because it would make my life easier if I had a written script for it.

I think the Disney Read-Along DVD's are a lot of fun. My 20 month old really enjoys sitting for the short stories. She's to young to sit through an entire movie, but the Read-Along DVD's are just the right length to hold her attention. I ordered these DVD's for Christmas and was somewhat discouraged after reading the reviews of the other parents. So I didn't expect much, but I was pleasantly surprised after watching them. If you are expecting these DVD's to be educational tools you may be disappointed, they're great for fun time. I read to my daughter so I don't need her sitting in front of the TV with a book. Yes, there are Disney promos and it's still animation, but you have the option of NOT watching the Disney trailers. You select what you want to watch from the main menu ie; the story, music videos or vocabulary. I like the music videos with the on screen lyrics. I also think it's interesting to have vocabulary section which gives you words to choose from in either English, German, Spanish, French or Italian. You also have Disney's web access with this DVD using your computer and a DVD game option. My only complaint is since the stories are so short there should be more than 2 or 3 music videos. Otherwise, This is perfect for my toddler, maybe a little boring for older children. Older Children may appreciate the Leap Frog "Letter Factory" and "Word Factory" DVD's my daughter loves them and they are a more educational.

My son loves books but finds the read-along DVD uninteresting. I like the fact that it can expose children to other languages, but this will only work if you can get them to watch/listen. Maybe this format would work if kids weren't exposed to high stim TV/Videos. I think it would be much more useful if they included a book the child could reference as the story was told. I know I used to turn the pages of Disney's Cinderella book to follow the movie, and it was great fun. Maybe as my son starts reading more on his own, he will enjoy this more, but I doubt it. I'd pay another $10-15 for a book that went with it in all languages.

I think people are expecting books with these. My son enjoyed this DVD, even though he's seen the movie, because there are words on the screen. We also liked the vocabulary part of the DVD. Reminds me of the old records that you used to follow along and turn the page when Tinkerbelle's bell sounded, except now it's onscreen.