Columbia TriStar Home Video presents

Jay Jay the Jet Plane: Liking Yourself, Inside and Out (2003)

"I can't fly, I'm a truck. And trucks can't fly."- Evan the Truck

Stars: Eve Whittle, Dee Dee Green, Marie Danielle, Julie Renick, C. W. Walken
Other Stars: Gwen Smillie, Beth Bowles
Director: Hugh Martin

Manufacturer: DVSS
MPAA Rating: Not Rated for (kids of all ages)
Run Time: 00h:58m:04s
Release Date: 2003-01-14
Genre: educational

Style Grade	Substance Grade	Image Transfer Grade	Audio Transfer Grade	Extras Grade
B	B	B	B-	D+

 

DVD Review

Jay Jay the Jet Plane: Liking Yourself, Inside and Out collects five more computer-animated adventures of the titular airplane and pals. This time around, all of the shows have to do with issues of self-esteem, and liking yourself for who you are.

In Picture Day, everyone is excited about being photographed except Snuffy, who is self-conscious about his looks (he thinks Jay Jay is much cooler without the propeller). He flies over to the lake to see what he really looks like and learns that everyone has their own unique qualities. In Switch Around Day, Herky the Helicopter and Savannah the Supersonic Jet switch places for a day so that the former can go faster, and the latter can (literally) stop to smell the flowers. Except nothing is getting done, and both are having trouble concentrating on their jobs. Perhaps they should just be themselves?

In Evan Gets His Wings, Herky spots some blimps and wants to show them off, but the only friend he can find is Evan the Truck, who certainly cannot fly. Herky feels sorry for his buddy (even though he's perfectly happy on the ground), so he hooks Evan up to a big balloon and the two go flying about. Evan isn't exactly having fun (especially when he gets blown off course), and the two discover that they are different, and that everyone has their place in the world and their own special talents. In Something Special, the whole crew helps out when someone is in need, and they all get a nice mention in the newspaper, except Jay Jay. This leads him to believe that what he did was nothing special, so he goes on a quest to find something special about himself. To her credit, his pal Tracy tries to convince him that he's fine the way he is. He decides skywriting is the best bet, but the smoke makes him sneeze. Then he considers turning himself into a Jet Copter, except he's a plane, so that's pretty much a failure. But he gets his credit after he races to save someone lost in Crystal Cave. Except the radio really said "a frost" was in the cave. Oops. (I personally heard "crystal meth" cave... look out, Jay Jay!) In the end, he learns that he can be content just being himself (as the oddly omniscient news broadcast informs him).

In the final episode, A Plane of a Different Color, Tracy decides she will be "more special" if she is a different color, so she asks Brenda to give her a new paint job (luckily, Brenda just splurged on a new plane painting machine). At first, she's pleased, but no one else seems impressed. It turns out that they don't judge her by what she looks like. In fact, they barely even notice! She's just as exciting to be with whether she's orange or mauve, the helpful narrator informs us (except when she paints herself blue, and she looks exactly like Jay Jay).

Rating for Style: B
Rating for Substance: B

 

Image Transfer

	One
Aspect Ratio	1.33:1 - Full Frame
Original Aspect Ratio	yes
Anamorphic	no

Image Transfer Review: The CGI images are fairly pleasant. Colors are bright, and detail is fairly good (though the clarity of DVD does show some of the limitations of the rather clunky animation). I did spot some occasional aliasing.

Image Transfer Grade: B
 

Audio Transfer

	Language	Remote Access
DS 2.0	English, Spanish	yes

Audio Transfer Review: Audio is serviceable, but fairly nondescript. The dialogue comes across nice and clear, and the front soundstage livens things up a bit with a nice, solid presentation of the music and sound effects.

Audio Transfer Grade: B- 

Disc Extras

Static menu
Subtitles/Captions in English with remote access
2 Other Trailer(s) featuring Stuart Little 2, Kermit's Swamp Years
Packaging: Amaray
Picture Disc
1 Disc
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: dual

Extra Extras:

1. 4 Sing-A-Long Songs
2. "Think About It" Moments

Extras Review: Brenda offers two "Think About It" moments. The first is about the origins of plants. In the second, Brenda invites us to "smell together" and then lets us know that "sometimes, smelling isn't just for fun." Truer words, lady. Truer words.

Four Sing-A-Longs are also included, along with bonus trailers for Stuart Little 2 and Kermit's Swamp Years. The back of the box promises "Fun Facts about Tarrytown" but they don't seem to be on the disc. Or maybe they are, and I just didn't notice them because they weren't actually fun.

Extras Grade: D+
 

Final Comments

Jay Jay the Jet Plane is fairly engaging, eye-catching children's entertainment. The moral messages and communicated simply and without preaching, and the characters are appealing. And yet another catchy theme song is now lodged in my brain.

Joel Cunningham 2003-02-26