A breakfast cereal box is the last place you'd expect to find foreign-language software, but that's exactly where you'll find Disney DVD samplers with over an hour of read-along stories in English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish. Included in the cereal box selection of multi-language read-along DVDs are three Disney titles (one per box): "Monsters, Inc." ("Monster AG"), "Toy Story 2," and "Lilo and Stitch."

Each Disney read-along sampler DVD features a menu with the reading selection (in any of five languages), vocabulary, and a game. But with each sampler DVD you also get a coupon for $2.00 off when you purchase any of the "complete versions" - which add sing-alongs, music videos, and few other features not available on the preview sampler DVDs.

But the sampler versions found in specially-marked boxes of Kellog's Disney "Hunny Bs" and "Mickey's Magix" breakfast cereal offer more than 60 minutes of "read-along fun" (still pictures with spoken and written text on screen) for each of the five featured languages on the DVD. You can also see and hear words in the vocabulary section, switching among German, English and three other languages. These aren't movie DVDs, but they play on a normal DVD player, a computer with a DVD drive, or a DVD-compatible game console. Using a computer, you can also go online from the DVD to visit selected Disney Web sites.

Regular readers know that I have never before recommended any breakfast cereal, but in this case I'm actually recommending the "prize" more than the cereal. (Personally, I don't eat anything that turns milk blue!) Although the Disney DVDs are clearly aimed at kids, I think adults will also find them a fun diversion for learning German. The only real disadvantage of the sampler DVDs is that you can't tell which one of the three DVDs is in the cereal box. When I bought three different cereal boxes, trying to get at least two of the three DVDs, all three contained the same DVD ("Monsters, Inc."). Pech gehabt! (I'm passing on the duplicates to local German teachers.)

The full read-along DVD versions that you can buy anywhere DVDs and CDs are sold (also see links below) include these Disney titles, in addition to those already mentioned: "Beauty and the Beast," "The Lion King," "Disney's Tarzan," "The Little Mermaid," and "Jungle Book." This review applies only to the U.S. I don't know if the cereal-box DVD offer is also available in other countries, but the full version read-along DVDs (PAL, Region 2) are available in Germany, France, Italy, and the UK.

NEXT > Read-Along DVDs for German

REVIEWS > Reviews of German Materials

WEB > www.DVDReadAlong.com

Monsters, Inc. - DVD Read-Along
Read and hear the story, play games, and learn vocabulary in five languages, including German. This is NOT the movie version. Region 1/NTSC DVD for use in North America.

Toy Story 2 - DVD Read-Along
Read and hear the story, play games, and learn vocabulary in five languages, including German. This is NOT the movie version. Region 1/NTSC DVD for use in North America.

MORE > Read-Along DVDs for German

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