Holly Hobbie & Friends

This Holly is great grand daughter of the original Holly Hobbie. Holly and her brother, Robbie spend the summer at their Aunt Jessie's house in Upstate New York. The kids plan a surprise party for their aunt with the help of their Uncle Dave. Holly's summer friends, Amy and Carrie are typical kids that really enjoy seeing their friends every year. Holly is a typical girl into lemonade stands, riding her bike and just having fun. Both my nieces and I enjoyed this film quite a lot, to my surprise. It is not the usual sappy, mindless kids' fare that we are bombarded with so often. It's rather thoughtful, in fact and it even has enough substance to keep the adults interested. Highly recommended.

You know, this wasn't as painful as I thought it was going to be. And being the father of a 6 year old, I've seen PLENTY of cheap, horrible PAINFUL animated ripoffs (yeah, I'm talking to YOU, Strawberry Shortcake). Holly Hobbie and Friends: Surprise Party is a pretty gentle and cute story, the voice talent sounded pretty natural (familiar, too. Anyone know who they are?), the songs were clever and well written, and it wasn't trying to sell you cheap toys or tacky lifestyle choices at every turn (Bratz and Barbie immediately come to mind). The producer and director have a pretty good and interesting body of work behind them (Stripperella? They did STRIPPERELLA? Then they did HOLLY HOBBIE? Sheer genius). So, in summary, halfway decent, sounds good, not awful, kind of cute. Stands up to repeated viewings. One and a half thumbs up.

Well, I was dragged into this by a friend from an online club. I tried resisting putting my foot into this pool for some time, but decided to give in last month. And I must say, I'm glad I did.

The storyline was a complex multiple plot story that neatly ties up all lose ends in the end. Pretty cool for a show targeted at younger audiences. Also, I certainly like the character designs and personalities. It's clear that Nickelodeon Studios put a lot of work into the special- as the special features both a full set of characters from both the city and the countryside where Holly is visiting. Animation-wise, it was pretty well done. Animation was fluid and clean. What I liked most about the special, however, was the songs. LeAnn Rhymes performed the main theme song which was pretty good, but the two songs Holly sings in the special? Beautiful and memorable. I hope they eventually put the songs out on CD.

In short, I really loved the special and am looking forward to view the second one soon.