Please notice the cover says for ages 2-5 – my 8yo daughter, who loves Hello Kitty, does not like this series from MGM. That’s all the review I need, but I watched it anyway. It’s cheaply done cartoon style is more reminiscent of the Saturday Morning cartoons from the 80s than the Hello Kitty my family knows and loves! I would avoid this title.

This is a review of a series of Hello Kitty DVDs released by MGM in 2003: HK Becomes a Princess, HK Saves the Day, HK Tells Fairy Tales, HK Goes to the Movies, and HK Plays Pretend. These five discs have also been bundled together into the Diamond Collection, as well as paired into a Plays Pretend/Saves The Day 2-Pack (alt url). Finally there’s a “Triple Feature DVD Set” with the discs for Princess, Saves The Day, and Fairy Tales all in one case (this might be exclusive to Target). Whew! Amazon may display this review on the page of another version of this product, for which this review may not apply. After reading this review, please click on the link so that you can be assured that the product this review applies to is the same one you thought it was for.

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For those who don’t already know, contained on this DVD are stories from the 1987 Saturday morning series “Hello Kitty’s Furry Tale Theater”. You wouldn’t know that by watching the disc because there are NO SERIES OPENING TITLES and NO SERIES END CREDITS!!! Yes, you read that correctly. They left out one of the most significant parts of a television series. Remember the catchy theme song? Well, all you’ll have are your memories because that theme won’t be found here. There’s a credits block on the back of the case that lists the voice actors and major crew, but it doesn’t list the minor crew members. Pity all of the poor animators whose work on the series now goes uncredited.

The series consists of 13 half-hour episodes with 2 stories per episode (26 stories total). Yet only 25 of the 26 stories appear on these five discs. Keep in mind that’s only 5 stories per each 10.00 disc (that’s the original price). They could have easily fit the entire series onto two dual-layer discs for 20.00. So not only are you missing a story, and NOT getting the episodes in their original 2-story pairs with the original series opening titles and end credits, but you’re being bilked for what little you DO get!

The previous VHS releases in the late 1990s (Wizard of Paws VHS and Kitty & The Beast VHS) were MUCH better than these five DVDs. Sure they only included four stories each, but they included the series opening titles and end credits, which makes them a vast improvement over these DVDs. I can only hope that someone at MGM wakes up and re-releases this series as a proper “complete series” set, but I doubt that that will ever happen.

This is a cute DVD for children. My son and daughter watch it over and over. Its a little silly and goofy in some parts, but its entertaining for young people. It’s cute how they retell the classic fairy tales in “Hello Kitty” style.