Review - Chinese/English DVDs

Timothy got a set of Chinese/English Disney DVDs from his Grandma for Christmas. She ordered them off the internet. The set is called 100 years of Magic

The DVDs included are:

1. Snow White
2. Pinocchio
3. Peter Pan
4. The Sword in the Stone
5. Bambi
6. Cinderella
7. Alice in Wonderland
8. Dumbo
9. Sleeping Beauty
10. The Three Cabelleros
11. The Fox and the Hound
12. Fantasia
13. The Tortoise and the Hare
14. Mickey & Minnie
15. Lady and the Tramp
16. Beauty and the Beast
17. Goofy Sport
18. Felix the Cat
19. Casper
20. Donald Duck & the Gorilla
21. Life with Mickey Town
22. Gulliver's Travels
23. Daffy Duck

The total price was around $75 for 23 Disney DVDs, so the price was excellent. At around $3 per DVD, you really can't go wrong. The set also came in a really nice wooden box with a magnetic closure, which we think is really AWESOME! However, you cannot put this magnetic box anywhere near your television or DVD player (don't make the same mistake we did). The DVDs are region free, so my foreign exchange student informs us they are probably copies. They're so professional looking, though, you would really never know it.

All of the DVDs give you a choice of spoken languages (Chinese or English) and written language/subtitles (English, traditional Chinese, or simplified Chinese). We let Timothy watch one a night before bed (he only ends up watching a bit before he falls asleep) and we give him a choice of which language to watch it in. Every single night he's chosen Chinese! Our resident Chinese speaker informs us that the Chinese pronunciation and writing is spot-on perfect Mandarin Chinese. I love that we can watch familiar stories in either language we want, and I love that Timothy has that exposure to another language.

Now--here's the bad news. Many times, we've put the spoken language on Chinese and the written language on English so that daddy and I can read along. The English subtitles are terrible! They must have translated English subtitles from the Chinese (poorly), because it actually has curse words in several parts whereas the spoken part just says "Oh no!" or something like this. So, be warned about that.

Overall, I'm really thrilled to have these DVDs. I really do think that they help reinforce the language skills that Timothy's learning in Chinese, and at the very least we all get to watch a movie together.