Cheap Franklin - Franklin and the Green Knight (DVD) (John van Bruggen) Price

Franklin's first feature-length film finds the agreeable little green turtle in a first-rate fix. It's almost spring, the season Franklin's due to become a big brother, but winter won't loosen its icy grip on Woodland, home to his reptilian family and a host of animal friends. Franklin's in a freezing-weather-inspired funk and, to complicate matters, not everybody thinks the arrival of a new baby turtle will add up to a barrel of laughs. Beaver warns about babies' attention-hogging habits, and Snail suspects a sibling will spoil his special friendship with Franklin. One snowy day, Franklin's mom relates the tale of the Quest of the Green Knight. In it, a fearless frog swaggers into the forest on a mission to retrieve a reticent springtime for his townspeople. The frog runs into a few snags--fire-breathing dragons and such--but is ultimately successful. Franklin is inspired; if he can secure spring for Woodland, the grownups in his life will stop the syrupy baby talk and celebrate his heroics. With Snail as his squire, he sets off, glory bound. Instead of returning with green grass and daffodils, though, Franklin comes home with his humility. Along the journey, a fierce-looking but friendly eagle and a scrappy mother warbler (the guardian of a cherry tree bearing magical springtime-spreading blossoms), imparted a life-changing lesson: "Sometimes doing something good isn't good enough if you're doing it for the wrong reasons." Franklin and the Green Knight is perfectly paced for the very young. Children ages 2 to 6--especially those on the verge of becoming big brothers or sisters themselves--will be taken in by its gentleness and uncomplicated, kindly characters. Three non-grating songs interspersed in the 70-minute video deliver, in warm voices, lyrics that linger--a bonus because subsequent hummings bring to mind the movie's never overbearing message, one that every youngster, only child or not, ought to meet up with on the bumpy road to becoming a big kid. --Tammy La Gorce

CATEGORY:	DVD
DIRECTOR:	John van Bruggen
THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE:	01 January, 2000
MANUFACTURER:	Umvd
MPAA RATING:	G (General Audience)
FEATURES:	Animated, Color, Closed-captioned
TYPE:	Children's Video
MEDIA:	DVD
# OF MEDIA:	1
UPC:	025192276729