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The
Series:
If its one thing that the Disney Channel has done
marvelously well, it has been capturing the tween market, especially
the
girls. With shows like Hanna Montana and
the High School Musical franchise,
the channel has really tapped into what youngsters
want to see, a mix of music, fashion, and comedy with a large dollop of
cool. Another hit show that targets the
same demographic is The Wizards of
Waverly Street. The second DVD to
be released, subtitled
Supernaturally Stylin' has a quartet of amusing shows that are sure to
appeal
to the preteens out there.
Alex Russo (Selena Gomez) appears to by a typical student at
her school, but she isn't. She and her
brothers, older sibling Justin (David Henrie) and younger bro Max (Jake
T.
Austin) have a secret: They can perform
magic. They're not supposed to do it in
school, of
course, but resisting the urge to use magical abilities isn't easiest
thing in
the world.
Alex and her brothers live with their (non-magical) Mom (Maria
Canals Barrera) and (used to do magic but gave it up to marry his wife)
Dad (David
DeLuise) who run a sandwich shop in Manhattan. They
all live above the restaurant and that's
where Dad teaches his offspring magical spells.
Spells that are used to get the kids both in and out of trouble.
While the show has a certain formulistic style to it, I have
to admit that it wasn't all bad. Yes
most of the jokes are very lame and predictable, but they occasionally
hit the
mark with a gag that works well or a bit that's pretty amusing. The Gielsjay-Timesday spell, which freezes
time but only as long as you can hop on one foot was a cute idea, and
the
continually outrageous clothes (often accented with real fruit) that
Alex's
best friend Harper (Jennifer Stone) wears are a great running gag.
A lot of the show's charm has to do with star Selena
Gomez. She really shines and carries the
weaker moments of the show. She has a
lot of screen presence and her perky, upbeat demeanor is rather
infectious. Even when they lines she's
delivering are mediocre-bordering-on-bad, you can't help but like her
character.
The episodes on this disc are:
Credit Check: When
Alex gets a job interning at a fashion magazine, the editor ends up
taking all
of her ideas. She and Harper come up
with a great idea to get back at her boss, but when it backfires Alex
finds
herself in a jam.
Smarty Pants: Harper
needs a new teammate for the school scholastic competition and Alex
joins to
show up her brother. She dons the
magical Smarty Pants which make her a genius, but she should have paid
attention to the side effects.
Beware Wolf:
Justin
meets a girl on Wizface and arranges for a date. She
turns out to be attractive, fun,
intelligent.... and a werewolf.
Graphic Novel: Alex's
journal, one she where she can use a magic spell to enter the pictures
that
she's drawn, is stolen by her brothers and falls into the hands of her
enemy
Gigi. When Justin and Max find out, they
panic and send Gigi into the book. Now
Alex has to find a way to get her out before all of her secrets,
including who
she has a crush on, are revealed.
The one thing that really mars the show is the laugh
track. It's one of the more up front and
annoying tracks I've heard in quite some time.
Loud, brash and intrusive, even the slightest throw-away joke
gets
mechanical guffaws. The show would be
much better if the person mixing the laughs used a bit of restraint or
better
yet just left it off altogether.
The
DVD:
Audio:
The stereo soundtrack was about what you'd expect for a
recent show. Clean and clear, it did the
job but isn't anything to write home about.
Video:
The full frame image is okay. The colors
are bright and the lines are
fairly sharp. There was some aliasing in
the background but that was about it.
Extras:
In addition to some previews, this disc also has an 8-minute
featurette, Fashionista Presto Chango.
In this short Selena and her TV brothers show viewers the
wardrobe
building and all of the clothes they have to pick from.
The Fashion Designer for the show makes an
appearance and talks about how they come up with the look for each
character. Eh. It
was there.
Final Thoughts:
While this show doesn't break any comedic ground and it has
its moments and will likely play much better for its intended audience
of young
girls than it did for this jaded aging reviewer. Even
so, there were some amusing moments that
made me smile. If you've got a tween in
the household, this disc comes recommended. |
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