Real Wheels:
Rescue Adventures & Mega Truck Adventures (2003)
Film:
DVD:

Features:

• Bloopers with Dave
  
• Interactive Zones
  
• Sing-Along Songs
  
• What's That? Glossary
  

Released by Warner Brothers
Rating: NR
Region: 1
Anamorphic: N/A; episodes appear in their original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: If you have young boys in your family, buy them or the kids will gnaw on you.

Meet Dave Hood. He's here to explain how all manner of vehicle works and what they're used for. Over the course of two DVDs, he'll take you through bulldozers, tanks, monster trucks, police cars, rescue vehicles, ambulances and more.

Here's the bottom line: if you're around five or six years old and into cars, trucks and modes of transport--you'll think these DVDs are cooler than hell. Dave and his amigos take you through the ins and outs of various vehicles, what they're used for, what cool gadgets they come with--and so forth. And there's actually some good information to be gleaned from these discs--it's not all fluff. Be warned, parents: they present this info in a way that will make the ears of adults bleed. You know what I'm talking about--the level of humor, Dave's tone of voice, everything is all geared to the rugrats, to keeping them in front of the boob tube and paying attention. Still, kudos to these guys for nailing their demographic completely.

The features fall along the same lines: perfect for their target audience. First up, you have blooper reels on each disc that I found fairly bland (the usual line-flubs along with some physical gags), but little kids will eat that stuff up--nothing makes kids happier than adults looking like utter goofbags. There are sing-along songs that were steeped in Velveeta, but again, if I was six, who knows, I might just want to karaoke with "We Are the Fire Fighters."

There's also a visual quiz which they call the "Interactive Dispatch Center" (on the Rescue Hero disc) and an "Interactive Construction Zone" (on the Mega Truck disc). While the "Dispatch Center" presents the viewer with two items and asked to pick which one would be appropriate for a given scenario, the "Construction Zone" lets the viewer pick from four structures and then, using a control device, blow them up. My eyebrows raised as Dave asked me to choose which structure I wanted to implode. Never thought I'd hear that on a kids' DVD. Also nice is the inclusion of a glossary, since kids might not always retain the words on their first viewing.

If you have kids in the given age bracket for these things, you might as well surrender and buy them now: for that crowd, they would be seen as sacred objects. But once you get out of that bracket, just remember: it's not your bag anymore.