Beauty and the Beast

I was just about to write a review of Beauty and the Beast, recently arrived in glorious gorgeous Blu-ray Diamond edition, when I remembered R6 has a Belle dress and somewhere there would be a picture of her in it.

So I looked back to 2006 in my pictures folder and found my two little pre-schoolers sweet and innocent and unsullied by school in a succession of pretty princess dresses and then I got all misty eyed and forgot why I had gone into my pictures file in the first place.

Back to the job in hand. 

Which Disney film is your favourite? Beauty and the Beast would definitely be in my top ten. It has a cast of delightful characters a wonderfully comic candlestick and very handsome scary Beast (both as Beast and as Prince Adam) and a very good baddie - Gaston  - with amusing side-kick. There's a charming horse in it too - Phillipe - and of course Belle is lovely. We love it and the new edition (which comes with DVD as well as Blu-ray) also has a host of additional features - backstage films, a quest game, the untold story etc.

Synopsis:

• Set in and around a quaint French village during the late 18th century, Beauty and the Beast follows the fantastic adventures of Belle, a bright and beautiful young woman who finds escape from her ordinary life, and the advances of a boorish suitor, Gaston, by reading books. Meanwhile, off in a castle in the distance, a cruel young prince is cast under the spell of an enchantress who turns him into a tormented beast, while transforming his servants into animated household objects. In order to remove the curse, the Beast must discover a true love who will return his affection before the last petal falls from an enchanted rose. When Belle’s inventor father stumbles upon the Beast’s castle and is taken prisoner, Belle comes to the rescue and agrees to take her father’s place. With the help of the castle’s enchanted staff, she sees beneath the Beast’s exterior and discovers the heart and soul of a human prince.

R6's Belle dress, all golden yellow and flouncy is still going strong. She goes through a phase of wearing it after school from time to time. When it was new we had to pin up the hem it was so long, now it's the perfect length. I rue the day she grows out of it.

Review: The Princess and the Frog

When Disney's The Princess and the Frog came out I have to confess I wasn't all that keen. I thought my daughters might be a bit past all that princessy stuff now. I thought it looked a bit dull.

Yeah, yeah, so it's a princess who kisses a frog and he really is a prince and they fall in love and then live happily ever after lah-dih-dah. The End. Yawn. Take me to Pixar.

Except it isn't. This fairytale has been set in New Orleans and marinated in voodoo and gumbo. So things aren't quite what they seem.

Tiana is a black left-handed waitress and Prince Naveen is a penniless, ukelele-playing good-for-nothing. He gets turned into a frog by scheming voodoo magician Dr Facilier and only a princess's kiss can turn him back into a human. But he kisses waitress Tiana by mistake and she too turns into a frog. The pair then journey down the Bayou looking for voodoo queen Madam Odie to break the spell, on the way picking up help in the form of trumpet playing alligator Louis and a firefly called Ray.

Surprisingly it's fun. I enjoyed the Randy Newman soundtrack and the fact that the film - Disney's 49th animated adventure - was hand-drawn. The Blu-ray has some fascinating and very watchable short films about the process too.

It looks lovely on Blu-ray. Crisp and magical - just as a good animated film should be. Dr Facilier and his shadows are perfectly scary too - my six-year-old put her hands over her eyes for those parts.

It has a message (this is Disney after all) - you can get what you want from a bit of wishing and a lot of hard work but never lose sight of what is really important. Of course the froggy voodoo spell cannot be broken until Tiana and Naveen finally realise what really is important and only then do we get the happy ending.

We enjoyed it. It is simple and straightforward. There aren't the knowing over-the-kids'-heads-in-jokes that Pixar is so brilliant at but the characters - especially Ray and Louis - are funny and lovable. I much prefer it to Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, so it's currently vying for top spot with Cinderella as my favourite Disney princess film so far. It's highly entertaining and I'd recommend it.

STAR RATING: 4.5 out of 5.

Review: Up

Apparently it takes a village to raise a child, which is one way of saying 'don't try to do it alone, idiot'. Grandparents and the older generation at large are a vital part, of course. There's a lot of common ground between the oldies and the little 'uns. Neither has the cares of the ones in the middle - the parents - who have mortgages to feed, jobs to cling on to and bills to worry about.

Not that the older generation are free of all of that, of course, but maybe they are wise enough to want less and worry less. To live for the day, perhaps, as fewer become available. Of course the main difference between the old and the young is that for the old breakfast is every five minutes and Christmas is once a week and for the young there's a whole lifetime between each December 25th.

It's that relationship between old and young which is highlighted in Up. It opens with the life story of Carl, starting with him as little boy with dreams of being an explorer and follows him until he becomes a widowed, cantankerous old ex-balloon seller defending his property from greedy developers. It manages to cover his dreams and those of Ellie, his wife, the pain of childlessness, the annoyance of petty little bills and never having quite enough to make ends meet, to death, grief, a spot of common assault, a court appearance and the threat of eviction.

So much in such a short time. It doesn't sound much like fun either, but it's clever. It draws you in, you become attached to the characters and then it breaks your heart. Not since Simba's father died in 'Lion King' have I wanted to cry so much in a movie. Animation is king of the 'show don't tell' school and pictures paint so much more than mere words.

Carl's life, in his little house surrounded by sky-scrapers, looks bleak indeed, but then he meets eight-year-old Adventure Scout Russell who needs to earn his 'assisting the elderly' badge. He is determined to assist Carl and in doing so win his final badge, graduate to senior scouts and perhaps attract his father's attention. Quite a lot there too - a broken home, new marriage, busy parents with little time for their son. Carl sends him off to find a fictional 'snipe' then unleashes a housefull of balloons and soars up into the sky and away.

Russell accidentally tags along and joins Carl on his quest to fly the house to Paradise Falls in South America.

Surely this is all thoroughly boring for kids? Um, from time to time, perhaps, but just as they start getting fidgety in comes Dug the dog (NOTE: Hilarious link for dog lovers - and Dug lovers!) and Kevin the bird (and mother figure). Dug is very lovably 'dog'. Not since Bolt has there been such a loveable doggie. Poor Dug is quite bullied by the other dogs, but he's loyal and trustworthy even when the others are mean to him. Moralising Pixar-style, but you can't help but love it.

All we need now is a baddie and he turns out to be none other explorer Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer), Carl's childhood hero. He's a very good baddie too. Cue a great fight scene with walking sticks, false teeth and bad backs. My kids roared with laughter.

There's much to love about Up. It's basically a lesson in the tenacity of children and the elderly in the face of a world which largely ignores their needs. It focuses on friendship - age difference no barrier - and the fact that not only have the young much to learn from the elderly, but the elderly can learn a lot from the very young too. For once those in the middle - the parents - are disappointing and ignored.

Up is a surprising film and, after the saccharine of The Princess and the Frog, it's a real tonic. It comes with a brilliant new short film 'Dug's Special Mission' which looks at Dug's day before he meets Carl and Russell. It's quite the funniest thing I have watched in ages. In fact I watched it twice on the trot and cried with laughter both times. Brilliant.

It's a blu-ray Christmas...

Right, so Christmas will soon be upon us and, as you've read my ravings about how totally fabulous blu-ray is you'll have a nice shiny new blu-ray player sitting under the tree ready for the festive season. Won't you? Hmm?

Now you'll want to know what to watch on it, so here's a seasonal round-up of the blu-rays (and DVDs) that you might want to buy for a bit of family viewing.

G-Force. Lovable guinea-pigs trained as an elite squad of half pint-sized agents help to foil the evil plans of corrupt electronics boss Leonard Saber (Bill Nighy) who has programmed coffee makers and other consumer durables to malfunction and overtake the planet. It sounds ridiculous but is great fun, particularly for guinea pig lovers. There are some great laughs some fast-paced action and of course the GPs save the day. This is real people (and guinea pigs) with a bit of clever CGI. Plenty of nods to grown-up action movies to keep the adults entertained too. You have to see it, if only for the scene in which a guinea pig fights a fully armed and dangerous coffee maker. Really good family entertainment and my number one choice for a Christmas Day film.

Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure. Another in the series of charming animated fairy adventures featuring Disney's fairy Tinkerbell. Cute tales about friendship and bravery, never letting a small thing like being a tiny fairy defeat you and sticking up for what you know is right. In this one Tink goes on a quest to find a treasure and discovers that there is no greater treasure than a true friend. Saccharine perhaps but my girls aged seven and six loved this one. It looks great on screen - the blu-ray really does it justice. We've bought some great Disney Fairies merchandise too: Pretty, sparkly (but sturdy) fairy toys. For presents for little girls you can't go far wrong with Disney Fairies and it makes a nice change from the world-dominating (and sometimes too grown-up) High School Musical and Hannah Montana.

Santa Buddies The Legend of Santa Paws. Ho ho ho. Real talking dogs save the spirit of Christmas when the magical Christmas icicle starts to melt and the world forgets the true meaning of Christmas. The usual gags are here: Man puts the lights on the tree, switches them on, everyone says 'aah!', the lights go out. Don't you just wish that just once in a film the lights would just work? *Sigh*. Anyway. Odd film this. It has a big moral that Christmas is about what you give, not what you get and eating turkey. My children liked it in a lukewarm way. Dogs aren't supposed to talk and these puppies looked oddly bored when they were talking excitedly. Their expressions had been slightly animated, but the dogs looked sad and tired. As did Santa who looked as if he'd been at the brandy. There was a little too much forced jollity there. Very American, very Christmas, but not the worst I've seen. If you like Beverley Hills Chihuahua and the previous Buddies outings (Space Buddies, Snow Buddies and Air Buddies), you'll probably like Santa Buddies, but it wasn't my cup of tea.

Others you might consider:

Bolt and Wall-E. Not seasonal, but two of the best animated films ever. Bolt features Rhino the hamster who is so funny that we once had to turn the film off because R6 was in danger of injuring herself through the medium of laughter. Adults (even those without children) love this one too. Wall-E is very clever indeed. Who'd have thought a rubbish compacting solar-powered robot could be so cute? This is very much an animated An Inconvenient Truth, but it's so beautifully entertaining you won't notice. Funny, heart-warming, poignant and ultimately full of hope.

Cars. Sumptuous on Blu-ray. One of my all-time favourites - I mean one of my CHILDREN'S all time favourites. Terrific petrolhead fun for kids young and old. This is one of the films that was an utter revelation on blu-ray. The shiny cars look lovely, there's great sound and detail and you can Porsche- and Ferrari- spot to your heart's content. Nice cameos too from Clarkson and Schumacher.

Of course there's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs currently out in special edition and the everlasting Sleeping Beauty. We watched these over and over again when my children were very small, but I find my girls are growing out of them now. They like them, but like modern young ladies they aren't totally convinced by the lying-around-on-your-princess-bed-waiting-for-true-love's kiss thing. It was nice to see them scrubbed up on blu-ray, but it's not as spectacular as watching Cars or Tinkerbell.

Then there is High School Musical Three. Awesome. I hate to admit it, but I quite like the High School Musical films. I think Two is the weakest of the bunch (too much golf) and Three (on blu-ray) has the best songs. I haven't met a small female yet who isn't enthralled by these films. I'm told boys like them too.

Apparently, according to my Number One Pester Power Person (H7), there's also something called Hannah Montana. It might even be out on blu-ray, but we have so far avoided it (except H has Hannah Montana on everything.) I know nothing about it beyond an interview with Miley Cyrus on Newsround which was rather terrifying. She's only 17? Ew.

Many of these are available as a blu-ray and DVD combi pack - double bubble. Ideal if you've got a blu-ray in the living room but a DVD upstairs or in the car. The Bolt combi pack is currently on Amazon at £10.98 while the DVD on its own is £7.98. It might be worth getting the combi pack if you've got plans to upgrade to blu-ray in the future. DVD players do break and (according to this woman) you'd be mad not to consider replacing it with a blu-ray if you've got an HD-ready TV.

Finally, why blu-ray? For one thing it's high definition, so if you've got an HD-ready TV you literally won't believe your eyes. The discs are tougher than DVDs and they hold a lot more, so the discs also have a whole pile of extras for added entertainment. The players aren't ridiculously expensive either and will play all your old DVDs too (which instantly look better).

Happy blu-ray Christmas!

Half term film festival

We had a half term film festival last week. The weather was iffy and, between Halloween themed dances and other things the occasional space popped up in which we could watch a film in its entirety rather than in bite-sized installments bounded by dinner and bedtime.

First on the menu was Mamma Mia - a riot of ABBA fun which we've watched hundreds of times already. H7 and R5 know it word by word and either watch it sing-a-long or song by song, again with the words on the screen. They dance and sing to it too - but adults are banned.

Next up was Monsters Inc on Blu-ray. We had it on DVD originally and it's always been a huge favourite. I didn't think Blu-ray would make a difference to this one, but again it surprised me. The bit where they are flying through the air on the doors is utterly brilliant. R5 still hides her eyes at the scary beginning too.

I thought Monsters was going to be our Halloween movie this year, but it was trumped by Snow White. I haven't seen it for ages but, again on Blu-ray in a special diamond edition, it proved me wrong. It has the best witch, complete with wart and cackle and a really spooky running-through- the-woods-rather-than-being-killed-by-the-hunter bit.

Snow White is 'the one that started it all' , hand-animated and - by today's standards - very low tech. Blu-ray brings this 1937 film bang up to date with clear sounds and sharp pictures and we all loved it. I bet you can remember all the songs: Whistle While You Work, Some Day My Prince Will Come... Ah, memories.

Blu-ray discs have masses of capacity compared to DVD and this one has the best game I've ever found. It's a jewellery catching game where you use the remote to move Grumpy's truck, catch gems and score points. I began with 160, H7 followed with zero and R5 got 80. Of course there were tears! H7 had another go and improved to 120. I managed a lack-lustre 120 and R5 topped the whole thing off by scoring 1,320. More tears and tantrums (but only from me).

The last film of the week was Up in 3D at Theatr Mwldan. It was Disney-Pixar at its very best. The hero is an old man called Karl who is widowed and ends up in court on an assault charge. It doesn't sound a promising start does it! But Karl attaches balloons to his house and floats it off to Venezuela. A stowaway is adventure scout Russel and when they land they encounter a colourful bird called Kevin and a dog called Doug who can talk via his collar. (Squirrel!) We cried and we laughed and, of course, there's a happy ending.

And the best thing of all? A trailer for Toy Story 3! It was, when buying Toy Story 2, I thought that I really should have children of my own to give me some excuse for this love of Disney and my massive collection of videos, so I did (eventually). I can't wait to see Toy Story 3 (out 2010) with them.

Fame at last!

Back in July I was lucky enough to be treated to a fabulous trip to London where I took part - in my role as one of Disney's Blu-ray ambassadors - in the filming of three Disney adverts promoting the wonders of Blu-ray.

It was enormous fun and quite bonkers. We had hair and make-up done, then sat on a sofa and chatted about Blu-ray while they shone big shiny lights at us, stuffed microphones down our cleavages and pointed cameras in our direction. There were two groups - one in the morning which was three female bloggers (sorry I don't know who they were), and one in the afternoon which was (left to right as you look at the screen) Jo Beaufoix, Dan of All That Comes With It, Linda's lovely twins and me.

I honestly thought I'd end up on the cutting room floor, but there I am waving my hands around and saying: "Are you mad?" in 'Picture and Sound'. I thought I'd hate seeing myself on screen, but I find it absolutely hilarious for some reason. The best laugh I've had in ages. I loved every minute of it and I'd do it again tomorrow. Oh, and by the way, Blu-ray really is fabulous, you know, and Christmas is coming...

So, if you've got a few minutes to spare, here are the adverts:

Picture and Sound:

Ease of Use:

Perfect gift:

London or bust

Crikey. It's only the first Tuesday of the school hols and already we have done so much. Less surprisingly it is raining and I have long since given up shaking my fist at the sky and saying: "Why? Why? Why?" in anguished tones. Now I just open up the curtains at the crack of doom, look at the weather and say: "You bastard!"

Will the children of today remember long , hot summer days of childhood, as I do? Somehow I doubt it. Memories have to be made of other things not reliant on weather.

There was a film recently where the main character (was it Jim Carrey?) had to say 'yes' to every suggestion. I haven't seen the film, but the premise lodged in my mind, so when Kerry at Think Parents.Net/Digital Outlook asked me, as one of Disney's blogging Blu-ray ambassadors, to come up to London and be filmed for an internet advert extolling the virtues of the glorious Blu-ray, what else could I say, but 'yes'?

So we got on a train, all four of us, on Saturday at 7.33 am and headed for Paddington. H7 and R5 hadn't been on a train before. We broke their duck with three different types: Arriva slow but comfortable with a buffet trolley, Great Western fast thing with buffet car and Underground fast, mad, hot, squashed thing.

Brian and the girls headed off to find the hotel (Crowne Plaza) and then got back on the Tube again because two small girls had a whim to see where their Harrods bears were 'born'. There was a sale at Harrods. They had to come back out again to breathe and washed up on the steps of the V&A some time later.

Meanwhile I Undergrounded up north to Kentish Town to meet other Blu-ray bloggers: Gorgeous Jo, Handsome Dan and Lovely Linda and her Terrific Twins to sit on a squishy sofa in someone's living room and talk about the wonders of Blu-ray. Not difficult because we LOVE Blu-ray. (And if you've got an HD-ready TV and no Blu-ray player, you're MAD). Rachel, the hair and make-up artist, attempted to make a silk purse out of this sow's ear ready for the filming, then we sat and talked and then paused while Underground trains tunnelled underneath and a helicopter circled noisily overhead.

Handsome director said: "Can you say that good bit you were just saying again please?"

Me (thinks): Er, what was I saying?

It was a different way to spend a Saturday afternoon and was enormous fun.

Then it was back onto the squash of the Tube to the V&A to be reunited with the rest of my family and have a quick tour of the fashion exhibition.

H7 (in a loud voice): "Why are we looking at these? They're just dresses. Boring." Said in front of a heavily embroidered evening dress from 1775, just down from Diana's iconic beaded number.

The V&A provided refreshments in the form of brownies and cappuccino, then it was off on the Underground and back to the hotel.

"You're not going to believe this Mummy," said R5 skipping down the Embankment in the direction of the Hotel. She hadn't stayed in anything like this before.

It was pure Hotel Babylon of course. Which was why Brian and I were grinning so hilariously at the staff. I bet they knew why.

In the room the children discovered the mini bar while we discovered the prices. Then, after one of the children (OK, me) had removed the mini Glenfiddich and said how much! we discovered that it electronically counted what you had removed. Oops. We had to confess and blame it on the children.

H7: "Why blame it on me? It wasn't my fault!"

Then we hoofed across Blackfriars Bridge to Tate Modern for a whistlestop tour of my favourite paintings: Barnet Newmann's Adam and Eve (reunited at last); a Jackson Pollock; one of Monet's later Waterlilies; the full-sized version of the Rothko that we have a print of hanging on our stairs and finally The Snail by Matisse.

R5: "That isn't a snail Mummy."

Mummy: "Yes it is, see the way its shell curves."

R5, firmly: "It isn't a snail Mummy."

Dinner was back at the hotel in its Locatelli-satellite Italian restaurant. The food was utterly divine, from the complimentary Parmesan crisps to the tiramisu. The staff were adorably attentive and looked after the children brilliantly, bringing their ice-cream (Which flavour? Everything! No problem.) while we ate our entrees and polished off the Pinot Grigio.

By 8.30pm we were all asleep in our beds.

At midnight I awoke to an anguished gaze from H7 who was sharing a double bed with R5. The latter had her feet in H7's lap. We swapped.

At 2.30am R5 kicked me thoroughly on the bottom. I turned over to defend my posterior and she sneezed in my face. Twice. You swine. Swine flu? Eek!

Breakfast was a buffet. Anything you wanted to eat served up with a sea of coffee.

Bleary Mummy: "Any more coffee in the pot?"

Waitress (appearing as if by magic): "Do you need more coffee?"

I love hotels.

We then spent £30 on taxis taking the suitcase over to Paddington station. Are we mad? No. It's not as if we had to pay for anything else and it was convenient. And worth it for the sheer joy for H7 and R5 of travelling in a taxi for the first time.

We spent the morning in the Vue in Leicester Square watching the first showing in the UK of a Disney film, but I'm not allowed to mention it because it's embargoed until the end of the month. It was in 3D which we've never seen before and it was fantastic.

(To buy a similar fabulous spotty bag for London trips, picnics, on the beach etc, see Pipany.co.uk.)

We then walked to Paddington. Quite mad, yes, but we saw Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery (more Monets, toilets); called in on Liz and Phil (who were out) and then walked through hoards of Race for Lifers across Hyde Park. We hadn't planned to walk all the way, but the tube was full of the aforementioned runners and we'd had enough of the Tube after yesterday.

Then it was Paddington and, ultimately, home and we felt as if we'd been away for a week.

Dog days

We've been watching films here in the PM household over the last couple of days. It's been raining and, after a spell of lovely sunny weather it's sometimes nice just to kick back with a good movie (or three).

Yesterday we headed over to Cardigan to watch Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs at Theatr Mwldan. This was one of those Saturday cinema visits when they have to turn up the volume to cover the good-natured crunching of a hundred little hands into buckets of popcorn. It didn't drown out R5, however, who laughed so joyously at Sid the Sloth's antics with his three dinosaur eggs that people had to turn around and Look.

It is totally hilarious. Sometimes sequels can be disappointing, but I think Ice Age gets better and better with every film. The biggest laugh of all though was when we heard the first cry of Ellie the Mammoth's new baby and it was answered by the baby in the audience.

We've also been watching two more Disney Blu-ray discs supplied by ThinkParents.Net. This time we were treated to Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Bolt. The former has real life action and has a somewhat thin plot whereby Chloe the Beverly Hills chihuahua gets lost in Mexico and roughneck chihuahua Papi goes to rescue her. On the way Chloe discovers her 'bark' and that, though diminutive, chihuahuas can be tough and save the day. Not my cup of tea, admittedly, but H7 and R5 loved it to bits. Real dogs 'talking' is very much their kind of thing.

Much more to my taste was the animated Bolt, with the lead (geddit?) voiced by John Travolta. I'm not a massive Travolta fan, but he does good dog. Astonishingly even the annoying Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana) is excellent as the voice of Penny, Bolt's devoted co-star.

Bolt is the super-powered dog star (with Penny) of the biggest show in Hollywood, but he does not know that really he just an ordinary dog with special effects. He accidentally gets sent in a parcel to New York and has to find his way home aided and abetted by Mittens the cynical cat and Rhino the hamster. In Disney-speak on the journey from East cost to West Bolt discovers that he doesn't need his superpowers to be a hero.

I roared with laughter all the way through. So much so that H7 and R5 were forced to turn around and Look. Like Ice Age III it has many levels, the kids laugh at the slapstick and the toilet humour (as do the dads) and the mums laugh knowingly at the other bits. Clever stuff.

Brain-washing Disney-style

We have had one of those weeks when the children have taken it in turns to be ill. Both have been visited by the sick bug and today R5 succumbed to one of her regular ear infections.

One thing it has meant is more telly than usual and, of course, good old Disney. Rosie revisited 'Bedtime Stories' on Monday and since then we've watched 'Sleeping Beauty'. The latter is a visual delight on Blu-ray, all cleaned up and glossy and gorgeous. It's a good old-fashioned princess tale of course. The heroine is slim, pretty, blond and blue-eyed, the kind fairies are tubby and jolly, the evil witch is bony and green-eyed.

I'm sure I remember reading somewhere about some boffin saying such films are "bad" for children. That they give them delusions about life; they're not terribly feminist - the heroine only wants to fall in love and get married. Where's the career, the feistiness, the girls-are-just-as-good-as-if-not-better-than-boys-ness? Not in this tale, that's true. But does it actually do any harm? My two little girls have always adored it. They adored it so when they were really little that they insisted on watching it every single night before bed. They wanted to be woken with a kiss too, but not by any smelly old handsome prince. Mummy and Daddy were good substitutes fortunately. Neither expect to be a princess when they grow up (maybe there was a brief interlude of that, especially with R5 who wore her Sleeping Beauty dress-up dress incessantly).

It's a cute tale, if old-fashioned, but we've just watched it again today and it's still gorgeous. Dare I suggest too that it's a work of art? Hand drawn animation rather than CGI? Rather clever really.

One thing Sleeping Beauty has which you don't get in the current crop of films is that it's only on one simple level. Good triumphs over evil, they fall in love and live happily ever after. Not so Wall-E, a recent offering from the Disney Pixar stable. We managed to miss this one at the cinema (for no good reason) so were delighted when it (like Sleeping Beauty) arrived courtesy of Think Parents.

This time there are many levels. Wall-E is a lovable solar-powered rubbish disposal robot, living alone for hundreds of years on Planet Earth after it has been abandoned as a rubbish dump by humans. Then one day he encounters EVE, a sleek search robot, sent back to the planet to look for signs of life. When she returns to the space station with a plant, Wall-E hitches a lift and the tiny pair find themselves in a battle to save the plant evidence and convince the humans that Earth is worth saving.

I didn't see it in the cinema and I wonder how I would have felt if I had. The humans in the film sit in what look much like cinema seats, wiggling their fat useless limbs, slurping cola from giant-sized drinks cartons, eating popcorn. Like looking in a mirror for some, perhaps.

This is an animated 'Inconvenient Truth'. More palatable perhaps, or more insidious. Do children know they are being brain-washed in this way? But is this a bad thing? My seven and five-year-old know a great deal more about saving the planet than I did at their age, and not by being scared witless by Al Gore, but by gentle preaching courtesy of the likes of Wall-E and the dancing penguins in 'Happy Feet'. Both show the 'little guy' triumphing in the face of massive global ignorance. Both include the message that you may be small, insignificant and gender non-specific, but you can still save the planet. As far as the kids are concerned, Wall-E's cute and his message is 'grow your own greens' and 'tidy up the planet' (to quote H7).

So which is better? Tell little girls that they're going to grow up to be princesses and get married, or tell them they can save the planet? I'd probably say the latter, but I still love a good fairytale.

* The photograph is of today's bargain, a metal patio set from Tesco. Two chairs and a 60cm table for £35 and I didn't even have to build it myself. As I unpacked it I automatically wondered where it had been made, by whom, and what was its cost to the environment. But I still bought it.

Blu-ray? Who-ray?

It begins earlier this year. February to be exact and H6 is about to become H7. HSM3 (if you’ve got young daughters you’ll know what that means) is due out too.

“Mummy, High School Musical 3 is available on Blu-ray.” Is it? So?

“Yes dear,” I am deaf to such things. It passes me by. When somebody says ‘Blu-ray’ I hear ‘Betamax’ and my brain hits the off button.

I was burned to a crisp in the Betamax v VHS war. I remember the day clearly. Mum and I went to a major electrical retailer to buy new Hoover bags or a five amp fuse or something and wandered innocently past a display of the new fangled video recorders. A weasely salesman whisked out, rubbing his greasy paws and thinking of commission.

Oh why not, we thought, gullibly. But which? Betamax, with its smaller tapes and better quality, or big, clunky VHS? No-brainer, surely? A week later all the rentals plumped for VHS. We were obsolete.

So you see, say “Blu-ray” and I am Not Keen. But, earlier this year we quite fancied a wide screen TV and bought a 32 inch Samsung, not huge, but we live in a cottage not in the local Odeon*, and well, it’s ‘HD ready’. I harbour a fantasy that, someday (when I’ve paid for the new telly) I might be able to afford a new Sky doo-dah and the monthly subscription and get to watch the lovely Toby on Gardeners World in High Definition. Blu-ray never crossed my mind. It didn’t get the slightest peek. I dismissed it completely. Ridiculous idea. What’s wrong with good old DVD?

Ah hah. Then I was invited, as a member of Think Parents Network, to become one of ten Blu-ray ambassadors. What did I know about Blu-ray? (Little.) Would I like to be a Blu-ray ambassador? Would I!

The player (Panasonic) arrived with its HDMI (that's 'High Definition Multimedia Interface' Get me!) cable. Plug it in (one cable, one plug, not rocket science). Switch it on. Insert a Blu-ray disc (it looks exactly like a DVD, but it's blue. Of course, pay attention at the back). Press play.

“Oh. Wow.” (That was me.)

The kids on the sofa are silent (for once) and open-mouthed. It’s only the Blu-ray trailer. But, oh, what a trailer. Pirate Jack-Johnny Sparrow-Depp, Lightning McQueen and Zac Ephron, jump out of the screen at us. I fetch Granny from the Annexe.

“Oh. Wow.” Says G from the A. “You should’ve bought a bigger telly.”

It is so beautiful I nearly cry. This is not Betamax. This is bloody marvellous.

Honestly, I didn’t think I would be able to tell.

The colours sizzle. It is so wonderfully clear you feel you could reach into the TV and touch things, Johnny Depp’s face, for example. It is almost 3D. It is utterly astonishing.

I phone my husband at work: “You’ve got to see this!” I shriek. He sounds unimpressed. “Wait ‘til you get home, you won’t believe it!” (bugger, I’ve turned into Victor Meldrew, but a happy Victor Meldrew.)

The free disc in the Blu-ray box is a PG and not suitable for children at tea-time, so I take it out and toss in the DVD of HSM3 (see, hints of Betamax idiocy still lurk. I did buy it on DVD. But, in my defence, I didn’t know.). Halleluiah! It plays in the new machine (as do CDs and a whole herd of other formats I haven’t heard of.). The difference is remarkable. It looks better on the Blu-ray player than on the DVD player, but it’s just not the same. Yes, you can play all your old DVDs on the Blu-ray player, but you won’t want to. Yes, yes, I admit it. I’m converted.

* Actually the picture is so fantastic and the sound's so good, perhaps we do live in the Odeon after all.