5/5 A FAV around our house
  by donkee (USA)
We own every Scholastic Video in the series & we think this is one of the best! These "stories that sing" are very catchy. My kids love to run around the coffee table (their form of dancing) to "There Was an Old Lady..." I admit when I first watched from afar the second story "Antarctic Antics", I thought the illustrations were kinda boring, just because I am not a huge fan of penguins...but since my kids request this one ALL the time, I have since grown to LOVE it. You are walked thru the life of a penguin. It is educational, but very entertaining with very funny lyrics like..."Antarctica, you'd better bring your partika" I find myself singing this often :) Lots of talented singers to be enjoyed (including singer from the Mavericks.) We love the bonus stories also (only on the DVD version.) Favorite author Lois Ehlert's "Waiting for Wings" is FABULOUS, I mean truly FABULOUS!!! This one is a winner.

5/5 One of the best in the series!
  by txbari (Texas)
We own about 15 of the Scholastic Video DVDs, and have owned 11 of those for almost a year. This was one of the new releases and is our absolute favorite of the new ones so far. My son is 4.5 and my class of 3 year olds also adored it. My former kindergarten class would still love it as first graders.

"There was an old woman..." is hysterical, the illustrations, the narration and song by Cyndi Lauper of all people. "Antarctic Antics" is I think my favorite selection of all times even topping "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom". It is based on a book of poetry about Antarctica (I haven't seem the book - yet) and it's a mini rock musical of these poems. It has some great science and geography teaching too, but I really love the music. My son walks around singing these songs.

"Musical Max" is good. "Keeping House" is odd but cute. "Waiting for Wings" is another all-time favorite.

2/5 Not up to Scholastic Video Collection Standards
  by Glenn Fink (Maryland USA)
Let me start out by saying we have a few DVDs from the Scholastic Video Collection and my family really likes them, especially "Chicka-Chicka Boom Boom" and "Where the Wild Things Are."
I really did not like this DVD and was disappointed with it. The main story was not too bad but the first read through was half sung and half read. After the reading of the story, there was the Cyndi Lauper version which was really bad. I don't know if it was the tempo, her accent or what but no one was going to be singing along. I guess I went blindly into this DVD because I like the other Scholastic Videos so much. I was thinking that my girls (2 and 4) might find some cool songs to sing. Sorry, no such thing here. As for the "and more stories that sing" part, that was completely off. The whole Antarctic Antics was sung but you are not going to be singing along with it, especially the part where they sing about penguin regurgitation.
I don't write a lot of reviews but I had to post this one because the new release of this DVD was really a let down based on the quality I feel I have been getting from the Scholastic DVDs. I've been so impressed at how they turned the books I like to read with my kids into video and song but this DVD which I thought was a natural, and would be great fun for my girls to sing along with, let me down. I almost feel like Scholastic has been so successful with the products they spent a lot of time producing that they have just started churning new DVDs out with out the same care and attention.

2/5 Buy the book instead
  by Jennifer M. Johnson Porter (New York, New York)
I purchased the video: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly because my daughter loves the book. I wanted my daughter to see the book come to life. Previously, we had read Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathman and watched that video; it was a huge success and very well done. However, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly is read in Cyndi Lauper's loud and affected Brooklyn accent. It leaves the watcher feeling flat (and annoyed!). My suggestion is to buy the Child's Play book and read it over and over. It has holes that get progressively bigger as the old lady eats each animal. As the adage goes, the book is better.

4/5 Why is this song such a hit?
  by Cynthia (Connecticut)
I borrowed this DVD from our library. I don't know why this was a popular song when I was growing up, but I guess you can say there is some educational value- my children can identify the animals. The story is read first, and then sung. Being from NYC, I wasn't at all bothered by the accent, and the humor is very NYC. My 2 year old loves the Antartic songs, and the animation is cute but the vocabulary is for a 12 year old and the songs are long and more like broadway story songs. There is another version of "I Know an Old Lady" on the Scholastic Video collection with Wheels on the Bus, sung by Burl Ives, and the pictures aren't as dark but the song's tempo is slow and the intonation monotonous. I highly recommend that video with a beautiful version of Over in the Meadow, and Dem Bones. Another very strange choice for a Scholastic song, but another one of my children's favorites. The songs on this collection are more "singable". We highly recommend the Goodnight Gorilla scholastic tape, and also buy the book with the cd of The Napping House - it's worth it!