Product Description

Caught on opposite sides of the revolution, Benjamin Franklin s teenage reporters, American colonist James and young Englishwoman Sarah, confront the real, physical dangers of war. As the conflict rages, James and Sarah are compelled to choose between their friendship and their countries, their understanding of good and evil, and the moral dilemmas inherent in war. All the while they try
to look after the mischievous Henri, an immigrant French boy whose comical escapades constantly lead them into trouble, as the three bear witness to the highs and lows of the American Revolution.

Starring news legend Walter Cronkite as Benjamin Franklin and including guest starring roles by award-winning actors and real-life historical figures like Dustin Hoffman, Annette Bening, Michael Douglas, General Norman Schwarzkopf, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Billy Crystal, Ben Stiller, Whoopi Goldberg, Liam Neeson and many more, the complete Emmy and Humanitas Award-nominated Liberty s Kids is finally available on DVD in one six-disc collectors set!

Bonus Features:

* A Look Back At Liberty s Kids with the series creators

* Benjamin Franklin s Newsbytes

* Continental Cartoons

* Now & Then

* Mystery Guest Game

* Original Pencil Test

* 40-Page Collectible Booklet with fold out US map.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1837 in DVD
• Brand: Uni
• Released on: 2008-10-14
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, Box set, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 900 minutes

Amazon.com
History comes alive in this excellent Emmy and Humanitas Award-nominated 40-episode, animated series about the experiences of two young teens during the American Revolution. Far more than a simple chronicle of the battles and major events of the American Revolution, Liberty’s Kids tells the story of the cultural, scientific, political, and social forces that helped shape America’s fight for independence from the perspective of two young teens from very different backgrounds. Sarah is a young English woman living in America who maintains a strong sense of loyalty to England and James is a printer’s apprentice living the American dream, but feeling the constraints of British oppression. Working together on Benjamin Franklin’s newspaper the "Pennsylvania Gazette," Sarah and James often find their interpretations of current events differ markedly and the pair constantly grapples with tough issues like slavery, self-governance, fair representation, and the role of women in battle and politics. The juxtaposition of the two teens’ opposing viewpoints sparks spirited arguments in the series and inspires a fuller understanding of the complexity of the events and issues of the American Revolution for both Franklin’s newspaper audiences and modern viewers. Another strength of the series is that legendary historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, and Abigail Adams come across as real, believable people engaged in a genuine struggle to determine right from wrong and to act in the best interest of their families, community, and country. An amazing cast of voice talent includes Walter Cronkite as Ben Franklin, Dustin Hoffman as Benedict Arnold, Annette Bening as Abigail Adams, Billy Crystal as John Adams, Michael Douglas as Patrick Henry, as well as General Norman Schwarzkopf, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ben Stiller, Whoopi Goldberg, and many others. Bonus features include an interesting look back at the series with creator Kevin O’Donnell and others including executive producers Andy Heyward and Mike Maliani, story editors Doug McIntyre and Jay Abramowitz, and casting director Marsha Goodman. Also included are Benjamin Franklin’s Newsbytes, Continental Cartoons, Now and Then, Mystery Guest Game, original pencil tests, a 40-page booklet with a historical timeline, and a pullout poster with a United States map. Liberty’s Kids is highly recommended as great entertainment and important educational programming for ages 7 and older. --Tami Horiuchi

Review
If you think an educational cartoon is an oxymoron, this Emmy-nominated series just might change your mindpound for pound, the 40-episode series does a better job of explaining the creation of the United States to 7-to-12-year-olds than some textbooks --Christian Science Monitor

Customer Reviews

Just what I've been waiting for -- October can't come soon enough!!
See? What did I tell ya? Patience is a virtue, and I'm absolutely willing to wait for October to get the ENTIRE series of Liberty's Kids for the far-more reasonable price of forty-four bucks!

As I've mentioned in the Teacher's Edition, this is the far better deal out there (seriously, what teacher can pay 500+ dollars for ONE show? Is PBS really that unaware of most teachers' ridiculously low salaries? I don't know . . . maybe they expect "the school" to buy it for their library or something -- but which school would pay that much cash for a six-disc DVD set?)

So . . . on with my review of the series:

I've loved this show since I first saw it back in early 2003. During AP US History, this show actually helped incite curiosity and understanding for the complex period that is the American Revolution. It's also the series that made me curious into looking into American History deeper, and reading up on the finer details of America's birth.

The timeline, which features events from the Boston Massacre to the ratification for the US Constitution, is actually quite accurate -- they merely paint into the story the fictional characters of James (the teenage American-patriot), Sarah (the unsure British-loyalist), and Henri (the younger French-sidekick) alongside the historical Founding Fathers.

First airing on PBS, the 40 half-hour episodes are actually quite close to being a half-hour long each (with no commercials originally intended, we get to enjoy more story, as well as fun trivia breaks in between the main story, hosted by James, Sarah, Henri, and even Dr. Franklin).

Among other things to enjoy are the theme song, "Through My Own Eyes," as well as the wide range of voice actors (the cast ranges from Walter Cronkite as Ben Franklin to Billy Crystal as John Adams, with Governor Schwartzenegger, Whoopi Goldberg, Aaron Carter and many more familar voices from Hollywood).

So, yes be sure to buy this series, you won't be dissapointed -- it's wonderfully smart, historically accurate, and great fun for the whole family and you'll be surprised to actually learn loads from it . . . again, just be sure to order THIS one -- the one with the better price. :)

Homeschoolers dream for American History
As a Homeschooling mom this is been a dream come true. It provides the informations in a fun fact filled way that kids really understand what our founding fathers and our people went through to become the United States of America.
I would recommend it for kids ages 4-101! I love watching it too.
To get the complete series in one set is great because watching the individual episodes online at KEWL cartoons is hard because they only offer 5 at a time and generally out of order.
We own a few of the DVD's which were hard to find and we watch them over and over. So, I'm really thrilled to get the complete set all at once and I'll use it in my lesson plans for our Homeschool co-op too.
I know no one who buys this will be disapointed except if your a History Major or professor and you'd only be disapointed that it didn't last longer into the Civil War and the War of 1812.
Maybe they'll carry on at a later date.
My 2 cents thanks for the read.

THRILLED to have this available!
I have waited a long time for this wonderful series to come out on DVD. My son was 4 when we first saw it on PBS. He was enraptured by the story lines and the history lessons which don't seem like lessons. Thus began his fascination in history and wars (as most boys are). He is now 10 and has a reputation in school for being a history nut giving his fellow classmates "quizzes" on history details and I give Liberty's Kids the reason why he is so into history.