Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3921 in VHS
• Released on: 1996-06-04
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 88 minutes

Customer Reviews

A Magical Adventure
This was an excellent movie about a boy, named Brandon who believes his father survived the plane crash when everyone tells him his father is dead. When Brandon and his mother move to the family's old summer house/mansion he discovers a doorway to another world. In this land, Storyland, he finds out that he is "the one" , or the boy who must rescue Prince Arthur and save the country. On this quest he meets many friends and learns many life lessons. To say anymore would ruin the magic of this wonderful movie!

Okay...
Although a more childish movie, STORYBOOK is a family fun filled adventure to find one boy's faith in himself. Brandon believes his father is still alive, even though he's been missing for a long time. His mother and him move to his uncle's house, where Brandon is completely unhappy. But one night, he walks into a closet, and finds he has stumbled upon Storyland. There, he must overthrow the evil queen ruling the land with the help of some strange but cute cast of characters. Even then, will there be a way for Brandon to return home?

Storybook - Spritual Values for kids (and grownup kids)
Storybook
"Anything is possible if you believe"

Eight-year-old Brandon has a lot more faith than most people. When everybody else assumes his fighter-pilot father has been killed in action, Brandon continues to believe he will return. It's the unshakable faith that Brandon needs most when he finds a magical Storybook and accidentally crosses over into enchanted Storyland.
Storyland has been held under the dark rule of Queen Evilia and her sorcerer snake, Hiss, for years. When Brandon shows up, the people and animals believe he's "The One" who has come to find Prince Arthur's magic sword, free Prince Arthur and restore happiness to the kingdom. That's a tall order for a mere boy, but his faith gives him the power he needs. With help of his dog Leo and his friends Woody the Woodsman, Pouch the Boxing Kangaroo and Hoot the Wise Owl, the seemingly impossible comes true. And in the process of the quest, Brandon learns that his greatest power in his belief in himself.
Storybook is a heartwarming story filled with mystery, magic and adventure in the tradition of a fairy tale.

Analysis for review with your kids:
Try to take this analysis and make them age-appropiate questions for your children.
Having faith in what you believe regardless of what others around you are saying.
The military scenes in the film are symbols of how discipline and obedience help family harmony, and foster personal development of self-discipline. Later during a dog fight in which Leo was badly hurt, Brendon obeyed the woodcutter to stay back and was protected from harm.
The scary house scenes are symbols for relying on your intuition to confront your fears, especially of the unknown. Brendon used his intuition to face his fear and follow Leo because of his concern and commitment for the dog's welfare.
The dog's name is Leo, for the "Lion" and he shows his courage many times in the story.
When Brendon was asked what he prayed for, he prayed for God to return his Dad home safely. This is an example of a good type of prayer.
Storyland is a symbol of the wonder and mystery of life and for the causal world because ideas are materialized in physical forms and actors. But Storyland is an example of our world and its dual-natured conflict and irrational behavior. Even though Brendon helps to resolve Storyland's conflict between good and evil, he still wants to return to his Mom and the "real" world, just like we want to return to "real" world of God. Brendon is like our soul, struggling to deal with an irrational world, always yearning to get back to a place of peace, love and rationality.
This would be a good discussion topic to help your children understand why the world has so much conflict which never seems to end. It is thru this conflict that we grow into spiritual beings able to return to the higher realms of light, thought and wisdom. That is the purpose of the physical world, to be a school, and the dark forces must always be there to be our "teachers" through the struggle. We can help this world the most by changing ourselves first, and focusing on God through meditation, then radiating God into the world around us.

During the story, the Queen and Prince Arthur both struggle to pull Brendon to their side, just as the dark and light forces of creation exert pulls on our ego which the soul is expressing through.
The Storybook is like a plan of life. When you rely on your intuition, you can discover your own plan to control your life. Queen Evilia was using raw power to try to control her life and others, and eventually fails, as most do when using power without intuition and faith.
The rats are "rats of doubts" knowing away at Brendon's ropes of beliefs. The woodcutter was brave, but also had doubts which had to be addressed before he would take decisive action. The dogs are "Dogs of Darkness" in which the woodcutter uses torches of the "light of God" to dispel the darkness. The sword is the symbol of finding our purpose in life and commitment to it.
"Only real failures in life are the ones who never try". May have been said by Dad.
In the cave of faith, Brendon was presented 3 questions by the wizard. This is a symbol that we decided to come here to work on certain issues. We will have to resolve those questions before we can "graduate". We will keep drawing chances to resolve these issues until we finally work thru them. This is why we getting the same type problems over and over again.
The last question was: "What is more important: seeing or believing?" Answer: "Being able to see truth is important, but sometimes you have to believe in something even if you can't see it." The wizard went on: "Faith is another word for believing. You can only find the cave of faith if you believe in it. Power comes from the strength of the heart. Faith is power. (Power without faith will corrupt).
Why did the guard free Prince Arthur?: Because he trusted him more than the Queen. That trust had built up over years of the Prince's imprisonment.
The closer Brendon came to solving the mystery of Storyland, the more the Queen threw all of her evil resources at him. Deception was a major tool of the Queen, you have to follow your heart to be aware of it.
Why couldn't Arthur help Brendon find his way home? Because the key was in the sword, just like we each to find our unique key to the mystery of life and the way home for ourselves
The ending unification of Brendon's with his mother was like the ecstatic union we will experience when we return. When Brendon told his mom that "Nothing is impossible if you believe, his Dad returned.
From the ending song:
"Deep inside someone seems to be guiding them".
"Victory goes to those whose hearts are pure"
"If you believe, your dreams will come true, if you believe, there's nothing you can't do".
"The hero will be you"
"In the end, no matter what the story, good will win"