SAN FRANCISCO -- CARE BEARS FLURRIES OF FUN Holiday DVDs -- the ones with candy canes, winter wonderlands and starry skies on the covers -- are piling up on reviewers' desks. There are the usual reissues of seasonal classics, but also plenty of collections of recently made spun-sugar fare starring familiar figures such as the Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake. The contents are safe and predictable, and most parents already know whether their preschoolers have a taste for these things. The new "Care Bears: Flurries of Fun" set offers three stories, all previously released individually, including "Oopsy Does It!," in which Cheer and Grumpy build a Care-a-Lot amusement park, only to have it accidentally wrecked by Oopsy. This disc includes a "We Are the Care Bears" music video, and the set comes with an activity booklet and card game. A similar new package from Fox is the "Strawberry Shortcake Holiday Dreams Collection," a three-DVD release of adventures ("Berry Merry Christmas," "Let's Dance" and "Big Country Fun") starring the ever-upbeat Strawberry and such friends as Angel Cake (but beware of the Peculiar Purple Pie Man). This box includes five greeting cards.CARE BEARS FLURRIES OF FUN2007NOT RATEDFOX HOME VIDEO$26.98 (THREE DISCS)ANIMAL HOUSE: 30TH ANNIVERSARY GIFT EDITION"I think this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture." Words to live by, even 30 years later. "Animal House" was a primal howl of crass comedy, and its numerous offspring are still showing up in movie theaters and on DVD shelves. It made a movie star out of John Belushi and Hollywood players out of writer Harold Ramis and director John Landis. And it made a national phenomenon of the low-down blowout called a toga party. Several generations of college students thought this was how life on campus was supposed to be. The film, about a group of misfits at a frat house at fictional Faber College, is based on National Lampoon writer Chris Miller's memories of life at Dartmouth in the early 1960s. Extras in the basic set include a favorite-scenes game and interviews with many of the principals (including actors Kevin Bacon, Peter Riegert and Karen Allen). The edition is also available in a more expensive gift set that comes in a special box shaped like a frat house and includes two additional features: new interviews and a "collectible" Faber College yearbook. (Note: "Animal House" has had several previous incarnations on DVD, including the "Double Secret Probation Edition" of 2003.)ANIMAL HOUSE: 30TH ANNIVERSARY GIFT EDITION1978RATED RUNIVERSAL STUDIOS$34.98(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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