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This fantastic film is one of the very few DVDs that I would recommend sight-unseen to anyone. If you are a little tired of `It's a Wonderful Life' and `Holiday Inn' then I can't think of anything else which will get you into the Christmas spirit more easily.

The Box of delights is one of the best children's productions the BBC have ever done, and for a variety of reasons has managed to achieve longevity. A key factor is the approach to visual effects. A generous helping of animation mixed with real action has helped keep it seeming different and fresh, even though it's now over 20 years old. There just aren't many films or programmes which have made use of this technique so well. At the other end of the scale, a lot of it feels like a theatre production. There are people in animal suits for example - no attempt to try to make them look anything other than what they are, and it works really well.

The other great thing is that John Masefield's story has been left intact. True, there is more happening in the book than occurs on screen, but omissions are purely practical (the budget was big, but not unlimited) and the story doesn't suffer, and all characters are intact.

Set in the 1930s at the start of the school Christmas holidays for young Kay Harker, returning from boarding school, it captures a rare innocence and spirit of adventure. The time-set and social placing of the characters makes it doubly interesting. Foreign viewers probably think England still is like this: the wealthy parents gone away skiing, the charming governess and humble driver, the avuncular village constable and the snow covered rolling hills. It's the sense of an idealised pre-WWII world which gives the whole thing it's viability. If it had been set in the 1980s (when it was made) I don't think it would have worn so well, but placing it during the era that the book was written is a masterstroke.

The other really smart move they made was to cast superb actors in the adult roles. Patrick Troughton is brilliant as the aged, magical showman. He exudes mystery and wonder - anyone who thinks he was good in Doctor Who really should check this out. And also Robert Stephens as the diabolical Abner Brown, chomping his way magnificently through every scene he is in. The story is dotted with great character actors: the magic-trick obsessed PC, the enigmatic Hotel Landlady ,and I still maintain that the Herne the Hunter appearing here deserves his own series...
You could almost get lost in some side-street story of these peripheral characters alone. In a way, there is a sense of a very early Harry-Potter type world and adventures going on. And the language! You could ponder for weeks on phrases like `the purple pym' or `my ruby, my graven image' the words just drip from the tongue...

Devin Stanfield as young Kay Harker is just the right balance of upper-class `Gosh and Golly' and daring-do adventure. It is strange then, as the chunky-length interviews with him and director Renny Rye show, he didn't want to pursue acting and this was the last role he took on.

It's a tribute to such whimsical story telling that the very end, which should by all reasonable standards make you groan out loud, actually enhances the whole thing! It almost drags you back the beginning, like some sort of Escher painting.
It has always been a mystery to me why the BBC only really showed this series twice. I remember clearly the first run of 6 half-hour shows, finishing on Christmas Eve. Then they showed it again slightly trimmed down a couple of years later - infact I think I'm right in saying that the US version was heavily edited down to around 90mins! Well, here's your chance to enjoy the full experience.

The DVD is lovingly done: a solid interview with grown-up Kay (AKA Devin Stanfield) and director Renny Rye. A commentary track would have been wonderful, but perhaps too much to hope for. There are some other features/mini documentaries, but the 3-ish hour `film' (for that is really what it amounts to) is the main event. Picture quality is very good, and the lovely music rings out clearly.
Like other reviewers, the watching of this has become and annual event for me. I'm all grown up, but don't intend to stop watching it at Christmas anytime soon.

For some reason it seems as though the copies of this DVD are running out! It was only released a few years ago but as of winter 2008 Amazon don't seem to have any in stock and the only option is to buy second-hand. So act quickly, and get your own copy to bring out once a year and watch: it's becoming a generational thing. I'm planning on saving my DVD for my future grandchildren!!

Our two girls, now aged 25 and 23, loved this video and now our ten-month-old grandson sits entranced through it after lunch each week, when he comes to us for the day. I must have watched it more than 50 times over the years, but I never tire of it. The musical quality is very high, the children's singing is tuneful and they obviously enjoyed acting in it. The animation may not be high tech, but it's inventive and fun. Wonderful!

This is a film about a mother who discovers she has inoperable cancer and has to find good homes for all her many children. Her husband, though well-meaning, is a hopeless drunkard totally unable to cope or to help much. They live in a house far from town, somewhere in "Darkest America", I think Iowa or Michigan (not sure about that). The story takes one up and down, through all sorts of trauma and eventually comes up with as happy an ending as possible under the trying circumstances. The last ten minutes keep you guessing as it seems one child (quite normal save for mild epilepsy) looks like being abandoned alone in a state orphanage...this is a 5-star tearjerker and a half! Great film though and not schmaltzy at all, really, bearing in mind the subject-matter. Apparently it is a true story. My wife loved it and kept the Kleenex handy. But it is a great film and is recommended, even for men --lol--!

my 3 yr old is addicted and has been for years we watch it all year and i want another 10 copies

I have had this on video for years, and have watched it many many times, it's one of those musicals you can never get bored of.
I had a dream to see this live, and my wish finaly came true last weekend and i got to see it live at the Theatre.
What can i say but Wow! I didn't think it would be as good as the video, but i was wrong, the whole cast were fantastic, and really out done themselves.
I recommend this musical to anyone,especially those people who love Cats.

For those who didn't know, and I was one of them, a Hobson's choice is a free choice, but where only one option is really available. At the end of Hobson's Choice, a fine, vulgar, poignant and very funny film directed by David Lean, this is what Henry Horatio Hobson faces. Elements of the plot are discussed.

Hobson (Charles Laughton) is a prosperous shoe and boot merchant in the small town of Salford, England. The time is the 1880s. Hobson is a widower, a blusterer, a man accustomed to his comforts, his drink and his ease. He is, thanks to Laughton, larger than life, a man we can laugh at but not a man we'd probably want as a neighbor. He has three daughters. Maggie (Brenda De Banzie) is 30. She is, says her father, "a bit ripe" for marriage at her age, and he plans to keep it that way. Maggie runs the store, keeps the books, sees to dinner and keeps the home above the store neat. Henry Hobson, or course, doesn't pay her wages because she is, after all, his daughter. His two younger daughters both have suitors, and that's just fine with him until he realizes he must give them dowries if they are to marry. There'll be no dowries from Henry Hobson.

And now we watch Maggie come into her own. She is a plain woman with an iron will, a determination that recognizes no barriers, and a very shrewd mind. If she is ever to get away from her father, she will have to find a man to marry her. And now we meet Willie Mossop (John Mills), the shoe worker who makes the shoes in the dingy basement under the store. Willie is just about illiterate, shy to a fault, naive, slow, honest and with very dirty hands. He is quite satisfied to stay in the basement making shoes. In Willie Mossop, however, Maggie sees not just escape from her father, but a man who makes marvelous shoes, and a man she could make into a success with his own...their own...shop. She knows she can do this, and she'll find a way to secure dowries from their father for her two sisters while she's at it. It should come as no surprise that Maggie accomplishes all she sets out to do; that Willie becomes William Mossop whose shoes sell, who is endearing and honest and who has a far better haircut after Maggie takes charge. While Henry Hobson roars about, deep in the drink, full of self-pity and bluster (and as entertaining as only Charles Laughton could make him), we settle back and enjoy the sight of Maggie using her head, with energy and determination, to get the better of her old rogue of a father. Maggie not only finds Willie, but love, too. By the end of the movie, we've come to know a contented and successful couple, and William with Maggie by his side have given Henry Hobson a choice he would be foolish to refuse.

This is a vastly entertaining and satisfying movie, thanks to Lean, Laughton, Mills and, especially De Banzie. Laughton came to loath De Banzie during the filming, and the reason is as plain as De Banzie's plain but attractive face. The movie ostensibly is a showcase for Laughton. He plays Hobson bolder than life, vulgar, squinting, staggering drunk, too smart for his own good...a man full of faults and foibles we can laugh at more readily than laugh with. He has two major bits playing the drunk or hungover Hobson and he's very good. There are two major sly and finagling scenes with him which are even better. But Brenda De Banzie, a marvelous actor, steals the show. Just as Maggie carries the day, it is De Banzie who carries the movie. Laughton must have realized this would happen during their first scenes together. De Banzie starts by giving us a no-nonsense woman who knows how to get things done. Her decision to make Willie Mossop her man, to marry him, slowly lets us see just a little vulnerability. She's not going to take "no" from Willie, she will make him a success, but we begin to realize without her saying a word that she wants Willie to not find her unattractive. Their wedding night and the morning after is played for smiles, but they're tender smiles. We realize that Maggie made a good choice in Willie and that Willie realizes just how lucky he was. Henry Hobson may continue to bluster, enjoy his drink, expect his comforts and make us appreciate Laughton's bits of over-acting, but it is Maggie and William we feel good about. Together, they're going to be running things...and successfully, too.

The movie deserves a first-rate DVD treatment, along with some long over-due recognition of just how fine an actor Brenda De Banzie was.

Yes, my little guy is at last starting to vigourously count everything! "If Barney does it, it must be ok" says his logic. Though I don't advocate parking children in front of TV sets, I think Barney is an excellent interactive tool that generally promotes values we would like our kids to pick up on ... As for this video in particular, it seemed to do the trick!

This hysterically funny film features Wallace, a bumbling inventor, and his wise dog, Gromit. It's Gromit's birthday, and to his horror, Wallace gives him not only a collar and leash (!) but a mechanical, walking pair of trousers to take him out on "walkies." To make matters worse, a mysterious penguin has moved in, taken over Gromit's room, and, it seems, his spot in Wallace's heart. Gromit leaves home and discovers the penguin is the wanted criminal "Feathers," who plans to use the mechanical pants to steal a priceless diamond.

The story is very clever, and the wonderful claymation completely enchanted me. It's very droll and sly, often poignant, and really, really funny. Clever Gromit, absent-minded Wallace, and the sinister penguin are comic characters you can enjoy over and over.

This Academy Award-winning 30-minute film can be enjoyed by all ages, and I think adults may laugh even louder than the children.