The Trojan Horse

Using a patented system called “Action Captions,” in which the dialogue spoken by actors also appears as words streaming from their mouths, The Trojan Horse is one of three new titles designed to help students learn to read. A very professional-looking production with nice costumes, sets, and solid effects in which elementary-aged school children act out the parts (this is not parents with camcorders in their backyards), this dramatization of the ancient tale of how the Greeks were able to overcome the Trojans in the infamous years-long war (begun when the Trojan prince Paris ran off with Helen, the wife of the Greek king Menelaus) is not strictly accurate (the box calls this "Homer's legendary tale," but Homer never actually wrote of the Trojan Horse in either The Iliad or The Odyssey, nor of the solider named "Zelda," a name that for most people signifies either F. Scott Fitzgerald's high-strung wife, or a Nintendo game character). The onscreen words in this "Reading Movie" appear and disappear very quickly (although the producers claim that the objective here is "association" not "one-to-one communication"). In addition to the film, the disc also boasts interactive features, including vocabulary building “Golden Words,” reading comprehension, and pop quiz games. According to the accompanying press materials, the "Reading Movies" program--of which this is part--was given a trial run by the New York City Department of Education with successful results. The other titles in the series are 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Tales of Gulliver's Travels. Recommended, overall. Aud: E, I. (L. Stevens)