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Monkey Monkey Music

The Videos with Meredith Levande
NOT- -AVAIL-ABL-E.
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PreS-K—Fifteen songs written for young children and sung by a joyful Meredith Levande set the stage for this DVD. With a background of draped cloth and colorful cardboard props in many of the videos, the diverse boys and girls dance and dramatize the lyrics, sometimes lip-synching to prerecorded music, with Levande either playing the guitar and singing or lip-synching. The lip-synching aspect is a drawback, especially when the synchronization is off. A few of the songs are illustrated by animated figures or still art moving across a well-executed, chalked background. "Let's Fly" has a 1930s black-and-white film background with a juxtaposed color video of Meredith and a child seated in a soaring, ink-drawn plane. Another video shows Meredith and a young girl happily hopping around "Chinatown," eating with chopsticks and then playing a good rhythm with them. Among the other songs are "Hello," "Jump High," "Can You Paint a Rainbow," and "Hop on My Bike." All in all, the DVD features varied, creative artwork and cinematography, proving how much can be done with a low budget. The lyrics are fun, child-friendly, and sung clearly, with well-executed, catchy guitar and vocal accompaniment. There is an option to display the lyrics at the bottom of the screen.—Jennifer Ward, Albany Public Library, NY
In this beautiful, heartrending, yet horrifying film, North Koreans tell their stories of imprisonment, sexual slavery, torture, murder, and escape to China or South Korea during the nearly 50-year regime of Kim Il Sung (1912—94). The interviews are illustrated through the interspersion of dance sequences, archival news footage, and drawings. Particularly interesting are the North Korean propaganda films celebrating Kim Il Sung as God and showing in the face of mass starvation happy workers, elaborate military displays, and the creation of a new flower in 1988 in honor of the 46th birthday of Kim's son and successor, Kim Jong Il. A valuable time line traces 20th-century events in Korea. Bonus features include previously unreleased footage of camp refugees. This mesmerizing film displays excellent production values and is highly recommended for Asia collections.—Kitty Chen Dean, formerly with Nassau Community Coll., Garden City, NY
Reviewed by Kitty Chen Dean , May 01, 2011

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