Smart Discs

by Chris Raley
Summer 2001

Many DVDs, CD-ROMS and audio CDs have enhanced and interactive features. They range from choose-your-own-ending feature films to music CDs with added videos. Here's our take on some of these smart titles.

Baby Einstein
The Baby Einstein Company
DVD-Video
[www.babyeinstein.com]
The Baby Einstein Company is dedicated to bringing together language and arts for babies and toddlers. We looked at three DVDs - Baby Einstein, Baby Bach (recommended for children from one month) and Baby Mozart (recommended for children from one to 36 months). Your child can listen to music while watching colorful toys and puppets on the screen, or learn words in any of seven different languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Hebrew, Japanese and Russian.
On the Bach and Mozart DVDs the music is synthesized versions of the composers' work, while the Einstein DVD features rhymes spoken in different languages over more generic children's music. Other features include practicing the alphabet and counting in any of the seven languages listed above. The Language Lab is the most highly interactive part of the DVDs. Infants and toddlers will be entranced by the images and interested in the music. $25 each

Your Yoga Practice
Marin Digital
DVD-Video
[www.onyourhead.com]
Jason Moring leads you through Iyengar Yoga in this interactive DVD. Your Yoga Practice is for beginners as well as more advanced Yoga practitioners. It's meant to complement the instruction of a qualified Yoga teacher. The disc is straightforward, easy-to-use and a model of how interactive discs can be more than just entertainment. Moring performs and describes Yoga stances organized into 312 different practice sessions. The DVD allows you to eliminate Moring's voice and the music if you choose. Your Yoga Practice is a practical, interactive DVD that provides instruction and can spice up your Yoga routine. $25

Ace Ventura Pet Detective:
The Case of the Serial Shaver
Brilliant Digital Entertainment
DVD-Video
[www.brilliantdigital.com]
For those who love interactivity, Brilliant Digital Entertainment created The Case of the Serial Shaver. This animated Ace Ventura adventure allows you to select different story lines and multiple endings. In The Case of the Serial Shaver, someone is shaving zoo animals and Ace must find the culprit. You interact by selecting icons that take you through different plot lines. The video-game-like graphics are quirky and create comedy in themselves. It's a disk for all ages, but especially youngsters (and the young-at-heart). $20

Keb' Mo', Just Like You
Epic Records Group
Enhanced Audio CD
[www.epicrecords.com]
Just Like You from blues man Keb' Mo' is an enhanced audio CD with video features that create an "Inside the Music" feel. The video-based featurettes require QuickTime to play. The disc includes short interviews and video of Keb' Mo' performing four acoustic songs from the album. You can watch as the program takes you through all the features, bouncing back and forth between songs and interviews, or you can click through the items individually. While the video is not full screen, the title includes attractive graphics and it has a stylish presentation stylishly that should be enjoyable on your computer or PC/TV. The music ain't bad neither! $16

Shadoan
Virtual Image Productions
DVD-Video, DVD-ROM features
[www.digitalversatiledisc.com]
Rick Dyer, the creator of Dragon's Lair, brings us Shadoan, a fantasy adventure game that takes you into a world that's part Walt Disney and part J.R.R. Tolkien. You play the character Lathan Kandor and you must use magic and make action decisions in order to recover two lost magic relics. Meanwhile, the evil Torlock is working against you. If he gets them first, he gains complete control of the world.
With its highly interactive, nonlinear plot, Shadoan brings role-playing to your DVD player. The title is also available on DVD-ROM, which might be worth considering since you can't save your game on a regular DVD. $50