Childrens

• Toy Story 1/Toy Story 2 | DVD | (10/05/2010) from £9.99  |  Saving you £13.00 (56.50%)  |  RRP £22.99

  Toy Story: As six-year-old Andy's favorite toy Woody (Tom Hanks) a take-charge pull-string cowboy is confident in his role as room leader. But after Andy's birthday party newcomer Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) a flashy space ranger with laser action and pop-out wings crash-lands into Woody's world. Buzz instantly wins the admiration of Andy's other toys igniting a rivalry that lands the duo inside the home of Sid - the toy-torturing boy next door. To escape Sid's evil plans Woody and Buzz must work together and realize they've got the perfect friend...in each other! Toy Story 2: The original all-star voice cast from Toy Story is joined in Toy Story 2 by a new gang of unforgettable characters including Jessie the cowgirl Bullseye the horse and Stinky Pete the prospector. While Andy is away Woody is abducted by a greedy toy collector. Before you can say to infinity and beyond Buzz Lightyear Mr. Potato Head Hamm Rex and Slinky Dog spring into action in this thrilling and hilarious rescue mission. Winner of the Golden Globe for Best Picture Toy Story 2 won raves from critics and audiences alike..

• Up (Disney Pixar) (1 Disc) | DVD | (15/02/2010) from £7.90  |  Saving you £12.04 (60.20%)  |  RRP £19.99

  At a time when too many animated films consist of anthropomorphized animals cracking sitcom one-liners and flatulence jokes, the warmth, originality, humor, and unflagging imagination of Up feel as welcome as rain in a desert. Carl Fredericksen (voice by Ed Asner) ranks among the most unlikely heroes in recent animation history. A 78-year-old curmudgeon, he enjoyed his modest life as a balloon seller because he shared it with his adventurous wife Ellie (Ellie Docter). But she died, leaving him with memories and the awareness that they never made their dream journey to Paradise Falls in South America. When well-meaning officials consign Carl to Shady Oaks Retirement Home, he rigs thousands of helium balloons to his house and floats to South America. The journey's scarcely begun when he discovers a stowaway: Russell (Jordan Nagai), a chubby, maladroit Wilderness Explorer Scout who's out to earn his Elderly Assistance Badge. In the tropical jungle, Carl and Russell find more than they bargained for: Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer), a crazed explorer whose newsreels once inspired Carl and Ellie; Kevin, an exotic bird with a weakness for chocolate; and Dug (Bob Peterson), an endearingly dim golden retriever fitted with a voice box. More importantly, the travelers discover they need each other: Russell needs a (grand)father figure; Carl needs someone to enliven his life without Ellie. Together, they learn that sharing ice-cream cones and counting the passing cars can be more meaningful than feats of daring-do and distant horizons. Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.) and Bob Peterson direct the film with consummate skill and taste, allowing the poignant moments to unfold without dialogue to Michael Giacchnio's vibrant score. Building on their work in The Incredibles and Ratatouille, the Pixar crew offers nuanced animation of the stylized characters. Even by Pixar's elevated standards, Up is an exceptional film that will appeal of audiences of all ages. Rated PG for some peril and action. --Charles Solomon

• Nanny McPhee & The Big Bang | DVD | (19/07/2010) from £7.99  |  Saving you £10.00 (50.00%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Oscar winning actress and screenwriter Emma Thompson returns to the role of the magical nanny who appears when she's needed the most and wanted the least in the next chapter of the hilarious and heartwarming fable that has enchanted children around the world. In this latest installment Nanny McPhee appears at the door of a harried young mother Mrs. Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who is trying to run the family farm while her husband is away at war. But once she's arrived Nanny McPhee discovers that Mrs. Green's children are fighting a war of their own against two spoiled city cousins who have just moved in and refuse to leave. Relying on everything from a flying motorcycle and a statue that comes to life to a tree climbing piglet and a baby elephant who turns up in the oddest places Nanny McPhee uses her magic to teach her mischievous charges five new lessons.

• Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince | DVD | (07/12/2009) from £3.99  |  Saving you £20.04 (80.20%)  |  RRP £24.99

• Finding Nemo (Disney Pixar) | DVD | (27/02/2004) from £4.99  |  Saving you £15.00 (75.00%)  |  RRP £19.99

  A delightful undersea world unfolds in Pixar's animated adventure Finding Nemo. When his son Nemo is captured by a scuba diver, a nervous clownfish named Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks) sets off into the vast--and astonishingly detailed--ocean to find him. Along the way he hooks up with a scatterbrained blue tang fish named Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), who's both a help and a hindrance, sometimes at the same time. Faced with sharks, deep-sea anglers, fields of poisonous jellyfish, sea turtles, pelicans and much more, Marlin rises above his neuroses in this wonderfully funny and thrilling ride--rarely do more than 10 minutes pass without a sequence appearing that's destined to become a theme-park attraction. Pixar continues its run of impeccable artistic and economic successes (Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc). Supporting voices here include Willem Dafoe, Geoffrey Rush and Allison Janney. --Bret Fetzer

• Alice in Wonderland | DVD | (04/06/2010) from £9.95  |  Saving you £10.04 (50.20%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Tim Burton was born to bring Alice in Wonderland to the big screen. Ironically, his version of the Victorian text plays more like The Wizard of Oz than a Lewis Carroll adaptation. On the day of her engagement party, the 19-year-old Alice (a nicely understated Mia Wasikowska) is lead by a white-gloved rabbit to an alternate reality that looks strangely familiar--she's been dreaming about it since she was 6 years old. Stranded in a hall of doors, she sips from a potion that makes her shrink and nibbles on a cake that makes her grow. Once she gets the balance right, she walks through the door that leads her to Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Matt Lucas), the Dormouse (Barbara Windsor), the Blue Caterpillar (Alan Rickman), and the Cheshire Cat (a delightful Stephen Fry), who inform her that only she can free them from the wrath of the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter channeling Bette Davis) by slaying the Jabberwocky. To pull off the feat, she teams up with the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp in glam-rock garb), rebel bloodhound Bayard (Timothy Spall), and Red's sweet sister, the White Queen (Anne Hathaway in goth-rock makeup). While Red welcomes Alice with open arms, she plans an execution for the hat-maker when he displeases her ("Off with his head!"). Drawing from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Burton creates a candy-colored action-adventure tale with a feminist twist. If it drags towards the end, his 3-D extravaganza still offers a trippy good time with a poignant aftertaste. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs | DVD | (25/01/2010) from £3.99  |  Saving you £16.00 (80.00%)  |  RRP £19.99

• Humf Volume 1 | DVD | (16/08/2010) from £7.53  |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)  |  RRP £N/A

  Humf Vol.1

• The Princess and the Frog | DVD | (21/06/2010) from £10.99  |  Saving you £6.00 (33.40%)  |  RRP £17.99

  After the visual bombast of many contemporary CGI and motion-capture features, the drawn characters in The Princess and the Frog, Walt Disney Studio's eagerly awaited return to traditional animation, feel doubly welcome. Directed by John Musker and Ron Clements (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin), The Princess and the Frog moves the classic fairy tale to a snazzy version of 1920s New Orleans. Tiana (voice by Anika Noni Rose), the first African-American Disney heroine, is not a princess, but a young woman who hopes to fulfill her father's dream of opening a restaurant to serve food that will bring together people from all walks of life. Tiana may wish upon a star, but she believes that hard work is the way to fulfill your aspirations. Her dedication clashes with the cheerful idleness of the visiting prince Naveen (Bruno Campos). A voodoo spell cast by Dr. Facilier (Keith David) in a showstopping number by composer Randy Newman initiates the events that will bring the mismatched hero and heroine together. However, the animation of three supporting characters--Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley), a jazz-playing alligator; Ray (Jim Cummings), a Cajun firefly; and 197-year-old voodoo priestess Mama Odie (Jenifer Lewis)--is so outstanding, it nearly steals the film. Alternately funny, touching, and dramatic, The Princess and the Frog is an all-too-rare example of a movie a family can enjoy together, with the most and least sophisticated members appreciating different elements. The film is also a welcome sign that the beleaguered Disney Feature Animation Studio has turned away from such disasters as Home on the Range, Chicken Little, and Meet the Robinsons and is once again moving in the right direction. --Charles Solomon Stills from Princess and the Frog (Click for larger image)

• Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Complete Book 3 Fire DVD Collection | DVD | (01/02/2010) from £10.85  |  Saving you £14.14 (56.60%)  |  RRP £24.99

  Japanese anime gets an American makeover in the original Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Legend Of Aang (aka Avatar: The Last Airbender). On a futuristic Earth torn between the warring elements of Air Earth Water and Fire only one special being known as the Avatar can bring peace to the conflicted planet. The trouble is the Avatar is an immature 12-year-old boy called Aang who would rather wander the world having fun-filled adventures than settle down and face his heroic destiny. Avatar ably blends kids-oriented comedy with martial-arts action-adventure worthy of its Japanese counterparts. This collection presents the third series in its entirety.

• Monsters, Inc. (Disney Pixar) Fullscreen (4:3) Single-Disc Edition | DVD | (07/09/2002) from £5.47  |  Saving you £12.52 (69.60%)  |  RRP £17.99

  The monsters in Monsters, Inc. are just so incredibly cute--and they know it. Whereas Woody, Buzz and pals in the Toy Story saga were filled with self-doubt about just how much the children in their lives would continue to love them, here our heroic monsters and their impossibly lovable human ward Boo have no such worries, at least when it comes to the cinema audience. And that's why Monsters, Inc., for all its wondrous computer-animated artistry, its smart humour and its family-friendly appeal, doesn't quite capture the naïve charm of its predecessors. Nevertheless, John Goodman and Billy Crystal, as scare-champions Sulley and Mike, are a great double-act whose comedy never goes over kids' heads but still reaches up to make their parents laugh. The film's central conceit--that monsters in the bedroom closet are just doing a night's work in order to generate power from screams for the city of Monstropolis--is funny and cleverly worked out; and kids will of course love the fact that the monsters are mortally afraid of the very children they are trying to frighten. The animation is extraordinarily detailed (Sulley's fur is a marvel in itself) and the set-piece action sequences top anything that has gone before for sheer audaciousness. But overall Pixar play things very safe, from the hissable villain to the end credit "outtakes". A bolder film might have taken inspiration from The Nightmare Before Christmas; instead, a little of that Disney disease of knowing cuteness seems to have crept into the formula. --Mark Walker

• Cars (Disney Pixar) | DVD | (27/11/2006) from £5.99  |  Saving you £16.00 (72.80%)  |  RRP £21.99

  Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) is a cocky rookie race car. Speeding on his way to a big race he crashes into Radiator Springs destroying lots of the inhabitants' belongings! In order to make up for what he did the raucous roadster is sentenced to community service. Though he will do anything to get away from the work McQueen must learn to respect and bond with the Radiator Springs inhabitants in order to get out of the town and back on the racetrack... After taking moviegoers magically into the realm of toys bugs monsters fish and superheroes the masterful storytellers and technical wizards at Pixar Animation Studios (The Incredibles Finding Nemo Monsters Inc.) and Academy Award-winning director John Lasseter (Toy Story A Bug's Life) hit the road with a fast-paced comedy adventure set inside the world of cars. Fuelled with plenty of humour action heartfelt drama and amazing new technical feats Cars is a high octane delight for moviegoers of all ages.

• How To Train Your Dragon | DVD | (15/11/2010) from £9.99  |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)  |  RRP £N/A

  From the creators of Shrek Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda come How To Train Your Dragon an animated adventure comedy set in a mythical world of burly vikings and wild dragons based on the book by Cressida Cowell. The story centres around a viking teenager who lives on the island of Berk where fighting dragons is a way of life. Initiation is coming and this is his one chance to prove his worthiness to his tribe and father. But when he encounters and ultimately befriends an injured dragon his world is turned upside down.

• Avatar - The Legend Of Aang - Book 2 - Complete | DVD | (20/07/2009) from £10.85  |  Saving you £14.14 (56.60%)  |  RRP £24.99

  The Avatar returns to the world searching for excitement adventure and a good time! New friends celebrity status and the ruthless Fire Nation on his tail...can Aang face his destiny to save the world?

• Nanny McPhee | DVD | (13/02/2006) from £3.49  |  Saving you £16.50 (82.50%)  |  RRP £19.99

  A recently widowed Mr Brown employs the services of a nanny in the hope that order will be restored to his household and his seven children. However, the children have other ideas having already dispatched seventeen nannies, who also thought that they knew better.

• Up Combi Pack (Disney Pixar) (Blu-ray + DVD) | Blu Ray | (15/02/2010) from £10.94  |  Saving you £13.05 (54.40%)  |  RRP £23.99

• The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (Disney) | DVD | (20/05/2002) from £2.99  |  Saving you £14.00 (77.80%)  |  RRP £17.99

  Acclaimed adaptation of the Victor Hugo story of disfigured bellringer Quasimodo who smitten by gypsy dancing girl Esmeralda must assert his independence from a nasty government minister and ultimately save the life of his friend...

• Avatar - Book 1 | DVD | (26/01/2009) from £9.99  |  Saving you £15.00 (60.00%)  |  RRP £24.99

  The Avatar returns to the world searching for excitement adventure and a good time! New friends celebrity status and the ruthless Fire Nation on his tail...can Aang face his destiny to save the world?

• Where The Wild Things Are | DVD | (10/05/2010) from £4.85  |  Saving you £11.14 (69.70%)  |  RRP £15.99

  Through his handcrafted ode to the trials of childhood, Spike Jonze puts his own unique imprint on Maurice Sendak's enduring classic. In the prologue, 9-year-old Max (Max Records) stomps around the house, feeling neglected. When his mom (Catherine Keener) sends him to bed without supper, Max runs away (something he doesn't do in the book). He finds a boat and sails to a distant land where fuzzy monsters are raising a rumpus in the forest. Since his wolf suit allows him to fit right in, he joins the fray, catching the eye of Carol (James Gandolfini), who notes, approvingly, "I like the way you destroy stuff. There's a spark to your work that can't be taught." With that, they pronounce the diminutive creature king, hoping he can bring cohesion to their fractured family. After Max comes across Carol's scale-model town, he decides they should build a real one, but the project stalls as Alexander (Paul Dano) and Douglas (Chris Cooper) mope, Judith (Catherine O'Hara) browbeats Ira (Forest Whitaker), and Carol pines for K.W. (Lauren Ambrose), who prefers the company of owls Bob and Terry. Max realises he has to make a choice: stay with the wild things or return home, where he has to keep his aggressive impulses in check.For readers of Sendak's slim tome, his decision won't come as a surprise, but Jonze ends the story on a lovely grace note. Until that time, the squabbling is a bit much--these monsters never stop talking--but Jonze, cowriter Dave Eggers, the Jim Henson Company, and singer/songwriter Karen O. have gone all-out to re-create the inner world of a child with as much empathy as was mustered for the inner adult world of Jonze's Being John Malkovich. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

• A Bug's Life (Disney Pixar) | DVD | (08/01/2001) from £4.99  |  Saving you £13.00 (72.30%)  |  RRP £17.99

  There was a rare magic on the big screen in 1995, when the people at Pixar came up with the first fully computer-animated film, Toy Story, and their second feature film, A Bug's Life, may miss the bull's-eye but Pixar's target is so lofty that it's hard to find the film anything less than irresistible. Brighter and more colourful than the other animated insect movie of 1998 (Antz), A Bug's Life is the sweetly told story of Flik (voiced by David Foley), an ant searching for better ways to be a bug. His colony unfortunately revolves around feeding and fearing the local grasshoppers (lead by Hopper, voiced with gleeful menace by Kevin Spacey). When Flik accidentally destroys the seasonal food supply for the grasshoppers he decides to look for help ("We need bigger bugs!"). The ants, led by Princess Atta (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), are eager to dispose of the troublesome Flik. Yet he finds help--a hearty bunch of bug warriors--and brings them back to the colony. Unfortunately they are just travelling performers, afraid of conflict. As with Toy Story, the ensemble of creatures and voices is remarkable and often inspired. Highlights include wiseacre comedian Denis Leary as an un-ladylike ladybird, Joe Ranft as the German-accented caterpillar, David Hyde Pierce as a stick insect and Michael McShane as a pair of unintelligible woodlice. The scene-stealer is Atta's squeaky-voiced sister, baby Dot (Hayden Panettiere), who has a big soft spot for Flik. More gentle and kid-friendly than Antz, A Bug Life's still has some good suspense and a wonderful demise in store for the villain. However, the film--a worldwide hit--will be remembered for its most creative touch: "outtakes" over the end credits à la many live-action comedy films. These dozen or so scenes (both "editions" of outtakes are contained here) are brilliant and deserve a special place in film history right along with 1998's other most talked-about sequence: the opening Normandy invasion in Saving Private Ryan. --Doug Thomas