5/5 Tickles the Funny Bone
  by Gord Wilson (Bellingham, WA USA)
Roger Hargreaves' Mr. Men characters, created for Price, Sloan, and Stern, have been an international sensation for decades. PSS is best known for Mad-Libs and humorous greeting cards. Never have their Mr. Men characters been marketed solely for children until now. The Mr. Men Show, which ran on Cartoon Network in the U.S., is undoubtedly a hit with small kids, but it's also one of the few kids' shows grown-ups will want to watch with them. It's also a hit on UK, French, and Australian TV.

Mr. Tickle is one of two DVDs from Season One, the other being Little Miss Sunshine Mr. Men Show - Little Miss Sunshine Presents: Fun in the Sun! The extras on each DVD center around these upbeat title characters, but the shows included don't. That's because each of the shows is about the various inhabitants of DillyDale, and how they all get involved differently, in the town. The six episodes on "Mr. Tickle" are: Parade, Sightseeing, Movies, Mall, Farm, and Dillydale Day. The episodes on Little Miss Sunshine are: Fair, Wildlife, Amusement Park, Beach, Lake, and Science.

The cover shows some 31 characters, but they're not all in each episode. Part of the fun is seeing how they live up to their names: Mr. Grumpy, Miss Scary, Mr. Rude, Miss Daredevil, etc. Each DVD includes a 16 page, full-color, 4 X 5 inch book, published by Penguin, Bonus features include "How to Draw Mr. Tickle" (or "Little Miss Sunshine" on the other DVD); a find Mr. Tickle game; "Dance, Dance, Dance" a montage of the music videos which segue throughout the episodes, DVD ROM parts which work when inserted into a computer, and previews for unrelated Sony shows on DVD. A website is listed, Mr[...], with this disclaimer: "The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites and their content." A reminder not to let kids surf the Internet unsupervised.

This reviewer prefers cartoons to be released by the season, rather than volumes with just a few shows. But there's no denying the half dozen episodes on these discs, along with the enclosed storybook, in bright packaging, and at a reasonable price, will appeal to kids-- of all ages.