The Best of Dr. Seuss

Description

Contains three Dr. Seuss favorites - Horton Hatches the Egg, The Butter Battle Book, and Daisy Head Mayzie. A must-have for Seuss fans of all ages!

Amazon.com

What parent doesn't get a little kick out of reading Theodor Geisel's (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss) brilliantly charming little tomes to their kids? What child doesn't love hearing the stories--repeatedly, even? The three tales here--"Butter Battle Book," "Daisy-Head Mayzie" (a story discovered after Geisel's 1991 death), and "Horton Hatches the Egg!"--all offer up Dr. Seuss's distinctive storytelling, but each is decidedly different. Produced by Ralph Bakshi, they're excellent animated examples of how children's books should be translated into video. The "Butter Battle Book" offers a witty and sharp allegorical war tale: the Zooks and the Yooks battle over which side of the bread should be buttered. In a twist, this one has a cliffhanger ending and not the kind of shiny-happy-people conclusion most people associate with Dr. Seuss. "Daisy-Head Mayzie," which was posthumously released with much fanfare, is a simple story of a girl who suddenly sprouts a flower atop her head. Disconcerting to her, to her teachers, and to her family, the flower is the cause of peer teasing. Meanwhile, an older classic ("Horton Hatches the Egg!") presents a story with more rudimentary animation (but still an excellent adaptation) about an earnest and loyal elephant. Like Lewis Carroll's Alice, he means what he says, and says what he means: he's faithful. For ages 5 and older. --N.F. Mendoza

Customer Reviews:

Butter Battle.......2007-05-17

I have only watched the Butter Battle video because I use it for a Cold War lesson in my classroom. Pretty good

Remember that Seuss sometimes wrote for adults.......2007-02-20

The Seuss cartoons here are naturally going to provoke outrage from the mamby pamby lovers of Barney and the New Zoo Revue who want all the kids to grow up skipping through daisies holding hands and singing "We are the world", but some things to consider.

The Horton cartoon is from the Looney Tunes folks, albeit in a rough Seussian style. I saw it myself as a child and was not traumatized by the fish shooting itself (NOTE-The fish isn't actually shown doing this act, he goes offscreen with a gun and it is implied), having seen similar scenes in other cartoons at the time (relax folks, your kids are stronger than you think-Tom and Jerry didn't turn anyone into axe-murderers and no one today is complaining about the equally gross antics of Itchy and Scratchy). If anything, the bird's callousness toward Horton and her egg concerned me more than anyhting else as while watching this as a kid.

Daisy head maysie, to me, is essentially a Seuss rewrite of The underground classic "Boy With Green Hair," although her character seems a bit more self-assured.

Likewise, the Butter Battle book is straight out of Jonathan Swift's fable about the people going to war over how to break eggs, although its considered to be a cold war fable.

Yeah, Suess sometimes actually wrote for adults.

Beware Horton Hatches the Egg.......2005-12-03

Daisy-Head Maizie and The Butter Battle Book are excellent animated shorts based on the seuss books. But Horton Hatches the Egg is the worst animated version of a seuss book I have ever seen. My family was watching it with my 4 yr old and we were all very surprised when in the middle of it a fish character pulls out a gun and shoots himself in the head. Not at all appropriate for kids!

Fun for grown-up Seussians........2004-02-08

Don't let the Cat in the Hat on the cover fool you: this grab-bag collection features a trio of relatively obscure animated Seuss tales, each of which deals in a more satirical, "adult" vein of humor than the good Dr. is commonly associated with.

I can remember watching the "Butter Battle Book" in a high school poli-sci class; Seuss's satirical Cold War fable is both amusing and chilling, and a good choice for older children and teens.

"Daisy-Head Mayzie" was produced for cable network TNT and is based on a story published after Seuss's death. As "Butter Battle" does with the arms race, "Mayzie" sends up our culture's obsession with celebrity.

"Horton Hatches The Egg" is actually a Looney Tune cartoon short, originally released in the 1940s and directed by Bob Clampett (not Chuck Jones as a previous reviewer asserts). This item might actually be of greatest interest to animation buffs (such as yours truly), featuring as it does Clampett's trademark rubbery animation and adult-oriented humor. It's also completely restored and uncut on the DVD version.

All in all, I'd recommend this collection for Clampett/Looney Tunes fans and adult Seuss fans. It's probably going to be a little too far over the heads of the kiddies.

dismayed with Dr. Suess.......2000-12-08

This video leaves much to be desired. Especially the scene in "Horton Hatches an Egg" when a fish came out of the water and shot himself in the head. Definitely not what I would expect from a Dr. Suess video.

DVD:

DVD

DVD