'Camp' and 'Season of a Lifetime": Two uplifting, inspirational family films

When it comes to television, my husband and I prefer down-and-dirty dramas. Think Breaking Bad, Justified, Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy. Family fare is rarely on the series agenda for us.

When it comes to feature films, though, we enjoy and appreciate a far wider variety, everything from documentaries and dramas to comedies, musicals, family films. We recently had the opportunity courtesy Word Films to enjoy two powerful movies available on DVD that not only entertain but that uplift and inspire, as well.

The first is Camp, a film inspired by the true stories of folks who volunteer at Royal Family Kids Camp for abused and neglected children — not to be confused with the recent television series of the same name. In Camp, a jaded financial advisor named Ken (Michael Mattera) volunteers to help at a Christian-based summer camp for kids in the foster care system. He's paired with 10-year-old Eli (Miles Elliot), who recently lost his mother to a heroin overdose and who's not too thrilled at the prospect of spending time at camp. The two butt heads along the way to an understanding and acceptance of one another.

While Camp, rated PG-13, will appeal to adults as well as older kids, I do want to point out that the first few minutes give an unflinching glimpse into the life of an abused youngster, the lead child character in the film. It's not graphic but does show the reality some kiddos face at the hands of horrendous parents, and I imagine it may be a bit too realistic for some kids. I suggest grandparents and parents watch it first (at least the first few minutes) in advance of viewing with kids.

Overall, though, Camp is certainly worth sharing with teens. And the special features should be watched by all adults. I must admit I was inspired to consider volunteering at a camp myself after hearing the stories of those who have and how it changed not only the lives of the children they met but their own lives, too.

Find more information on the movie and DVD/Blu-ray availability at TheCampMovie.com.

The second DVD I received free for review from Word Films was Season of a Lifetime. It's a documentary on the incredible true story of Jeremy Williams, a high-school football coach who, when faced with Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS), chose to continue coaching his team for one last season. The tagline of the film is "Faith. Family. Football.," and Season of a Lifetime (not rated) powerfully shares all three.

The challenges faced by the terminally ill Williams and his family are heart wrenching, but he faces them with such heart, strength and spirit that it's impossible not to cheer for him — and for his team. Season of a Lifetime had a slight Friday Night Lights feel (one of the more wholesome series my husband and I have watched and loved), and the interviews with Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, made famous in 1993's Rudy, and other fans, friends and family underscore the unflinching courage of Jeremy Williams and what a true hero he is.

Find out more about Jeremy Williams and the film on the Season of a Lifetime website.

Disclosure: I received the two movies free for review. Opinions and anecdotes are my own.

'Lettuce Love One Another' — A VeggieTales DVD for Valentine's Day

Beloved Bob and Larry from VeggieTales are off and running with a new DVD just in time for Valentine's Day, VeggieTales Lettuce Love One Another.

For this love-filled collection, the rotund tomato and perky cucumber characters share three favorite VeggieTales episodes plus five brand-new "Bible Bits."

VeggieTales episodes in the collection, presented by Bob the Tomato, include:

• Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry's Big River

• Abe & The Amazing Promise

• King George & the Ducky

And Larry the Cucumber shares the five Bible Bits, each a lesson in and example of forgiving, helping, giving, praying, or sharing.

Bonus fun: Three silly songs, two story book tales, instructions on how to draw Abe and King George, and more.

Take a look:

VeggieTales offers up some fun printables to go along with Lettuce Love One Another. The Service Coupons make perfect last-minute Valentine's Day gifts for kids to give and get, and the Kindness Chart keeps kindness front of mind on a daily basis. And, of course, there's a VeggieTales Valentine's Day card for printing on cardstock, too. Click on the graphics thumbnails below for the full-sized printable pages (if you have trouble printing from the page, right-click the full-size image to save to your computer, then print from that).

Lettuce Love One Another Service Coupons

Lettuce Love One Another Kindness Chart

Lettuce Love One Another Valentine

VeggieTales Lettuce Love One Another, released Jan. 15, is available at all major retail outlets for SRP $12.99.

Disclosure: I received a copy of the DVD for review. Opinions are my own.

Overcoming fear, VeggieTales style: The League of Incredible Vegetables

The world can be a scary place, and not just for grown ups. Unfortunately that applies more than ever to little ones, too, considering the inexplicable tragedies of 2012 and the virtually unavoidable 24/7 news on those events.

Teaching kids how to keep their fears—real or imagined—in check can be tough, but there's a new tool parents, grandparents and other caregivers may want to consider. It's one of the latest DVDs from VeggieTales, called The League of Incredible Vegetables: A Lesson in Handling Fear. In the wacky ways typical of all VeggieTales tales that came before, Larry, Bob, and the rest of the gang address important issues with understanding, empathy, and, most importantly, humor.

Super heroes are super cool with kids, and this is the fourth title in a series of DVD releases starring the popular “LarryBoy” super hero. This time around though, when the dastardly Dr. Flurry plans to freeze an entire city with fear, LarryBoy must call for backup. He turns to league of incredible vegetables, four new super heroes with super silly powers: Bob the Tomato, Petunia Rhubarb, Junior Asparagus and Mr. Lunt. Their tagline: "They came. They thawed. They conquered."

Take a look:

It's a normal day in Bumblyburg . . . until Dr. Flurry comes to town with an army of penguins! Sounds like a job for Larry-Boy, but he gets frozen by his enemy's superior tactics.

In addition to the fun—tinged with comforting and helpful lessons on handling fear—are several bonus features, as is always the case with the VeggieTales DVDs. There's a requisite silly song (always my favorite part of VeggieTales shows!) called "Supper Hero" by LarryBoy, a League of Incredible Vegetables music video and singalong, behind-the-scenes features and more. Plus, The League of Incredible Vegetables features the new theme song and music video from Newsboys.

VeggieTales The League of Incredible Vegetables: A Lesson in Handling Fear DVD is available at all major retail outlets for SRP $14.97. Visit the VeggieTales website for more fun and products. And be sure to submit your own incredible story of an everyday hero in your life on the VeggieTales - Incredible Heroes Facebook page.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of the DVD for review. Opinions are my own.

3-2-1 Penguins! Win Season One

When I was a kid, Saturday mornings meant hours in front of the TV watching animated (and live action) characters such as H.R. Pufnstuf, Archie and Josey and the gang, Bugs Bunny, Pixie & Dixie, and that always infuriating Woody Woodpecker.

When my daughters were kids, Saturday mornings featured Pound Puppies, Muppet Babies, Smurfs and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Saturday mornings for my grandsons? Well, I'm not so sure Saturday-morning television holds as much charm for them as they did for my daughters and me.

Perhaps that's partially because they've yet to discover 3-2-1 Penguins. As I'm no longer in charge of what kids, mine or otherwise, watch on Saturday mornings, I hadn't heard of the flightless space birds. That is, until I received the 3-2-1 Penguins! Complete Season One DVD free for review. Seems Zidgel, Fidgel, Midgel and Kevin are apparently quite popular and must-see TV for many youngsters on Saturday mornings.

Do the kids in your family know about 3-2-1 Penguins? Do you? Here's a taste of the fun I had the privilege of sampling:

What I loved most about 3-2-1 Penguins! Complete Season One: The silly space pals are entertaining, but I especially liked that the Grandma to the two human characters—Michelle and Jason—has a fairly prominent spot in their lives and in the show. I also appreciated that common sense (and a good dose of faith) made the difference in solving the crisis of each episode.

What I didn't love so much: That grandma mentioned above? Well, she's the stereotypical grandma—gray hair up in a bun, chubby, clothed in a dress and apron. Plus, you never see her face. Just a pet peeve of this grandma who wishes the media wouldn't support the out-dated stereotype of grandmas.

3-2-1 Penguins! Complete Season One features 13 episodes—nearly 5 hours running time—plus bonus features such as a recipe for Midgel's Cool Blue Space Fuel and directions on how to draw Midgel. 3-2-1 Penguins: Complete Season One is from Big Idea Entertainment, the makers of VeggieTales, and can be purchased for $14.99 on the VeggieTales website.

Enter to win 3-2-1 Penguins! Complete Season One! Enter via Rafflecopter below and you just might be the winner, selected by random Oct. 3, of five hours of animated space penguin fun.

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Disclosure: I received a free DVD for review and the offer of one for giveaway, to be shipped to the winner by the sponsor. Opinions and anecdotes are my own.

Veggie Tales' Little Ones Can Do Big Things Too: A review and giveaway

I have two grandsons, ages four and one. They're brothers. Which means the youngest is forever wanting to get involved in what the oldest is doing. It can be frustrating for both boys at times, and the idea that little ones can do big things, too, is the underlying theme of many conversations in their household.

That's also the theme of the most recent VeggieTales release, titled appropriately, Little Ones Can Do Big Things Too. The DVD is a collection of stories—so far easier for little ones to follow than one full-length movie—about the big things performed by little ones. Most of the stories are biblical retellings, VeggieTale style, but the collection also includes a lesson in listening to your parents that's based on Pinocchio, only instead of Pinocchio and Gepetto, Pistachio and Gelatto are the stars. (See? VeggieTale style!)

Here's a peek at the fun—and important messages—featured in VeggieTales' Little Ones Can Do Big Things Too:

What I loved most about Little Ones Can Do Big Things Too: VeggieTales stories never fail to make me chuckle, thanks to the sprinkle of irreverency and subtle humor meant for adults in the midst of the fun and messages directed at children. I was happy to see the pea characters having a larger role than usual in each story (they are indeed such sweet peas), often reminding me of the chorus in Greek tragedies and tales.

My favorite part of every VeggieTales DVD is the interviews with the Veggie Kids, as I love their nasally, rambling musings on important matters. This DVD took that feature one step further, courtesy a Behind the Scenes extra that shows the real kids as they answer the questions that were then made part of the animated feature. So cute. I always wondered if they were real kids, and that they are.

VeggieTales' Little Ones Can Do Big Things Too is available for $12.99 from the VeggieTales website as well as other retailers, online and off.

But wait...you can win your very own DVD of VeggieTales' Little Ones Can Do Big Things Too. Here are the details:

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Disclosure: I received a free copy of this DVD for review, as well as an offer of one as a giveaway prize. All opinions are my own.

DVD review: Frozen Planet

When I was in elementary school, my favorite days were the "movie days" when we got to watch nature films. I was equally delighted and educated by the scenic stories of beavers building dams, otters floating on their backs and breaking open shells on their bellies, rams and sheep battling one another in shows of strength and masculinity. So breathtaking were those breaks from everyday lessons.

Watching Frozen Planet—the epic three-disc series from BBC Earth, makers of Planet Earth—reminds me of those long-ago moments in a dark classroom learning of animals and insects and environments I'd surely never experience first hand.

As a kid, my main take away of the nature films was "Wow!". As an adult, I have a far larger vocabulary and more adjectives for the experience. Still, "Wow!" is the first to come to mind when watch Frozen Planet. Others: Spectacular. Riveting. Astonishing. Thought-provoking. Extraordinary.

I love this series. The show premiered on the Discovery Channel in March, but having no cable, I didn't watch it on TV and was thrilled to have been provided the DVD for free to review. Together Jim and I marveled at the amazing photography in the seven-part series narrated by the legendary and brilliant Sir David Attenborough.

Highlights? Sheesh...I don't even know where to begin. Filmed at the North Pole and the South Pole, teams of photographers captured footage of seasonal changes that continually astonished. Soaring birds and whales. Penguins humorously flying through ocean waves (and waddling obliviously around the film makers on the beach). A caterpillar that goes through fourteen years of freezing each winter then thawing each spring before finally metamorphosing. Undersea animals that look like Dr. Seuss characters. A mother polar bear and her two cubs and how they survive through the seasons of change. And that's just the tip of the figurative iceberg. (There's no shortage of real icebergs throughout the series).

The groundbreaking series also focuses on the land and sea and all the changes between ice forming and melting in the North Pole and South Pole regions. There's also much mention of what the changes in the Arctic Ocean mean not only for the animals but for the humans who live there and the countries scrambling to stake their claim in new oil-drilling opportunities available thanks to formerly ice-covered regions warming twice as fast as the rest of the Earth.

One of my biggest questions from the outset, when I first put in the first DVD, was How in the world do the photographers manage to capture such things? Thanks to the seven "making of" featurettes and 47 (yes, forty seven) videos in the Production Video Diaries, I no longer wonder, only applaud their amazingly successful efforts. Other bonus features include a feature on scientific exploration in the South Pole, a music-only viewing option, and more.

What I loved about the DVD series: Frozen Planet is a series that all ages will enjoy again and again. There's so much information and extraordinary imagery that I can't imagine ever tiring of watching.

Earth Day is April 22 and though it isn't typically a day that folks exchange gifts, Frozen Planet is the perfect gift for the occasion—for yourself and others. It arrives on shelves just in time, on April 17, retailing for $39.98 DVD and $54.98 Blu-ray. For more information, visit BBC Earth.