The Baby Sitters Club: The Movie

Ann M. Martin's extremely popular YA series The Baby Sitters Club makes a reasonably entertaining, if predictably trite, transition to the big screen. The BSC decides to run a summer day camp, while subplots have the girls dealing with boys, a crotchety neighbor (Ellen Burstyn), and--in a more serious vein--Kristy's long-gone father returning with more empty promises than he can keep. The low price and popularity of Martin's books make this one hard to pass up. (R. Pitman)[DVD Review--Oct. 7, 2003--Columbia TriStar, 94 min., PG-13, $19.95--Granted, the audience for this big screen feature inspired by Ann M. Martin's popular series probably wouldn't have cared about aspect ratio fidelity eight years ago, but those 'tweens are now nostalgic twentysomethings with home theater tastes, and they might not be too happy that the transfer here is soft and dirty in spots and cropped to full screen to boot. On the plus side, the jacket says that the audio is Dolby Digital, but doesn't mention that it's a full Dolby Digital 5.1. Bottom line: seems like Columbia TriStar could have ponied up more for this release--at least a widescreen version and maybe some extras. As it is, this is strictly optional.]