Ballet Beautiful: Total Body Workout

The best workout -- ever!!
I stumbled on Mary Helen Bowers series of DVD's through Amazon and have enjoyed them, her streaming videos on her website, her book and her live classes. This is DVD is the foundation of my workouts and I alternate the other DVD and streaming videos along with a live class. I have been the DVD workout queen for over 15 years and never, ever, have I enjoyed the results I have from just 3 months of Ballet Beautiful. I have done them all and enjoyed many, however, I have the best posture, core strength, elongated strong legs and stamina I have ever had (and this is 1 1/2 years after falling from my horse and breaking a vertebrae) and above all - I look forward to my workouts, I enjoy them and feel great afterwards. In fact, I try to get in at least 30 minutes before going to ride, makes a huge difference for me in my performance. I am not sure where the guy who reviewed this is getting his comments from, but I can honestly say the proof is not only in the physical appearance, but I...

A beautiful, minimalist workout
Pros: you only need a towel or mat ~ no weights, ballet barre, chair or other props required; you'll develop beautiful, streamlined muscles; the DVD is chaptered, so you can easily select one or two segments if you're short on time; Mary Helen's cuing is excellent and her voice is encouraging, but never over-bubbly or grating like a drill sergeant; the set is serene and, combined with the music and elegant moves, you'll feel as though you're taking a class in a ballet studio.

Cons: you may curse like a sailor the first time you try this workout.

I bought this DVD because I wanted to add something new and different to my workout routine. I'd been doing Physique 57 (Volumes 1 and 2) for a few years, in addition to strength training with free weights, body weight exercises, walking, and jogging occasionally. I've been physically active my whole life - I'm no stranger to exercise and consider myself to be above average when it comes to fitness. That being said,...

Great workout, there's pros and cons
I have to say first, the only person I really workout with anymore is Tracy Anderson because I'm very short and petite and I bulk very easily. I used to work out to everything from Jillian Michaels and Jackie Werner to Leslie Sansone or Jennifer Galardi. They were effective in making me stronger but I also looked a little too strong--BULK! I was getting in better shape, yet my were getting tighter from my quads getting overly muscular. Also, the fast paced high-intensity boot camp style of working out just wasn't working for me anymore. When I discovered Tracy Anderson I was in love because she worked the accessory muscles that normal workouts don't get to and she used the attitude position for a lot of her leg/butt workouts which is very ballet inspired, and she also did most of her leg workouts on the floor (on all fours) so instead of just squatting and putting all your weight on your legs, you were doing much more varied movements without the pressure on your legs and many...

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Mad Monster Party Combo Pack BD + DVD [Blu-ray]

At Last! The Best of the Rankin/Bass "Animagics"
Aesthetically, the best Rankin/Bass "Animagic" flick of them all. Well worth watching, if for no other reason, just too see the fantastic in-the-round MAD MAGAZINE-like caricatures of the entire array of classic monsters. Those of us who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s fondly remember seeing this classic on TV a few times around Halloween. And now, thanks to the cool folks at Anchor Bay, we can nostalgically relive that childhood experience over and over again--in more vivid color and with crisper images than ever before, as the DVD was digitally remastered (for the first time ever for home video) from a rare original 35mm print!

Unlike their other Christmas and Easter productions, this one-and-only Halloween flick from the Rankin/Bass team is not overly saccharin or maudlin. Not only did MAD MAGAZINE's Harvey Kurtzman and Jack Davis have their hands in the writing and the visual artistry, but the master of macabre himself, Boris Karloff, voiced the animated puppet version of...

A Halloween Blast from the Past
I was thrilled to come across this newly repackaged DVD version of "Mad Monster Party" - thank you, Anchor Bay!

Like other reviewers, MMP was a staple of my early TV viewing years. KTTV in Los Angeles used to show this program every year, around Columbus Day (I think), and it quickly became a holiday tradition. Then, and now, I don't think MMP ever got the respect it richly deserved. It dropped from the airwaves sometime in the late 60's.

This newly re-mastered DVD has captured the film in all it's colorful richness. The sound is what you'd expect, (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), but on my home theater it still looked and sounded great. And there were a few more surprises.

For example, I was surprised to find that the film is 95 minutes long - I guess it's a product of looking back through 30+ years, but I hadn't realized that this was intended to be a full featured theatrical release, competing with Disney's total dominance of the youth and family film...

Groovy retro puppet monster classic is better than ever!
Not too long ago, this lost Rankin/Bass puppet-animated feature film was virtually forgotten about under the pile of other holiday classics - including "RUDOLPH", "FROSTY" and "SANTA CLAUS" - from the same creators. Now, thanks to verification from Rick Goldschmidt (and his wonderful books about R/B) that this film really did exist and wasn't just a childhood dream, "MAD MONSTER PARTY" has acheived cult status with its own website, a CD soundtrack, several airings during the past couple Halloween seasons and is finally released in this gorgeous collector's DVD.

When Dr. Baron Von Frankenstein decides to retire from his long career as the head of the "Worldwide Organization of Monsters", he invites all of his creations - Frankenstein, The Mummy, Count Dracula, The Invisible Man, The Werewolf and many others - for one final bash to announce that his successor will be his long-lost nephew, a nerdy boy named Felix Flankin. This does not sit well with the monsters, who each covet the...

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