U.S. That's Us!

In the opening episode on the first volume of the two-video U.S. That's Us!, a very clever video series that employs a variety of mediums to re-enact important events and central characters in American history, a young girl meets a talking horse who is a descendant of Paul Revere's midnight riding steed. In other episodes on the two tapes, a "magic penny" found by two children on a playground comes alive as Abe Lincoln offers his one cent's worth on the subjects of slavery and Harriet Tubman; a jar of peanut butter tells his best friend--a jar of jelly--about his hero, George Washington Carver; and a trio of apples (Cora, Red and Mac) all gather round to hear Granny Smith tell them the story of Johnny Appleseed. Combining animation, live action, and claymation, as well as original songs and plenty of maps and archival photographs and drawings, some of the episodes are admittedly better than others. Even so, any weaknesses here are usually compensated for by the quality of the episode as a whole: while Susan B. Anthony probably did NOT do a song-and-dance number in that fateful voting queue, the idea of gender inequality is certainly creatively and effectively communicated. It's also worth noting that the video includes women and minorities in its lineup of “American heroes.” Recommended. Aud: E, I. (E. Gieschen)