Don Quixote (Animated Version)

Rating:
Summary: Nothing like the real story by Cervantes.
Review: I purchased this DVD based on what it says on the back cover, namely, that it was significantly based on the story by Spain's 15th century writer, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. This version is practically nothing like the real masterpiece by Cervantes (even as a spoof), and was not funny even to my 6 and 9 year old niece and nephew. They stopped watching it after 10 minutes (I was not surprised, as I had already reviewed it).

The animation is of the simplest kind. This was made by Australians, and unfortunately they apparantly suffer from the same ethnic misconceptions as many Americans. Based on the way Sancho's and other characters' accents and dark skin tones were represented here, you would think that they were of Mexican (predominantly Central American Indian descent) instead of European. La Mancha is just south of Madrid, Spain; and Spain is in Europe, not south of the Rio Grande! By the way Australians: there are no tigers in Africa (nor kangaroos).

In summary, stay away from this video. If you are looking for something different or educational (like I was), don't bother. Your children are better off watching reruns of Chicken Run, Toy Story, Disney, et cetera. I gave it 1 star only because there was no option for zero stars.

Rating:
Summary: huge disappointment
Review: I should have heeded the advice of the previous reviewer, but being an elementary school Spanish teacher and having a lot of trouble finding materials to teach el Quijote, I thought it would be worth it even if I could only use a couple short clips here and there to support my lessons. Unfortunately, the video is so off base that I couldn't even find a short clip to use. There is no mention of Quixana, Sancho calls him Don Quixote from the start, even before he decide to become a knight. Sancho is the one that gets thrown by the windmill in this DVD instead of Quixote (Quixote just got knocked over.) Quixote's cousins follow him around on his adventures (trying to steal his inheritance), so you have a horse and buggy following Quixote and Sancho most of the time. His cousin (the main evil character) instigates encounters that in the real book are caused by Quixote's imagination (such as getting Quixote to release the prisioners). I also would give it zero stars if that were an option.