Tales from Avonlea Season One DVD Box Set Review

“Tales from Avonlea” is a 2 disc DVD collection from the first season of the 1989 Walt Disney family series Avonlea. This box collection was first released back in November 2005, and it comes in two different versions, a two disc set and a three disc set. You can find the two disc set at most online DVD retailers for about $23.99, and you can find the three disc set at http://www.disneystore.com for about $34.99. The product descriptions don’t explain what additional materials are found on the three disc set, but it is safe to assume that the third disc probably contains behind the scenes featurettes.

What’s On the Discs

I personally bought the two disc set, which contains all of the episodes from the first season. Each disc contains four different episodes. On the first disc you can watch how Sarah Stanley arrives in Avonlea and how she becomes a part of the King family. The episodes that are included on disc one are: The Journey Begins, the Proof of the Pudding, the Quarantine at Alexander Abraham’s, and the Materializing of Duncan. The guest stars that are featured on this disc include some old favorites from the Anne of Greene Gables movie collection including Patricia Hamilton as Mrs. Rachel Lynde, and Colleen Dewhurst as Marilla Cuthbert. Other featured guest stars include Frances Hyland, Doris Petrie, W.O. Mitchell, and Tom Peacock.

On the second disc Sarah Settles into her life on the small island, her cousin Felicity feels growing pains, Miss Stacey from the original Anne of Greene Gables returns to the island, and a new character, Gus Pike is introduced. Disc two also contains four full length episodes including The Witch of Avonlea, Nothing Endures but Change, How Kissing Was Discovered, and Aunt Hetty’s Ordeal. Guest stars that appear in this set of episodes include: Kay Tremblay and Marilyn Lightstone.

Pros and Cons of this Set

This is one of my favorite TV series. The storylines are great, and the authenticity of the characters and setting are fantastic. You can really fall in love with everyone in Avonlea, even the cranky characters. The only real drawbacks that this set has is that the picture quality is not great. The picture is a little grainy, however, it’s not too bad. The other Anne of Greene Gables and Anne of Avonlea films had the same picture quality issues.

DVD Information

The two disc set has a run time of 396 minutes. Each disc has two sets of two episodes, so it plays like two feature length films on each of the two discs. There is no rating for this collection, however, it is a family friendly series that is appropriate for all ages. The actors speak English, and it is in color. Unfortunately this collection does not have a closed captioned option. If you are looking for this TV series collection you can search by its name, or you can search by its UPC number, which is 786936691252.

Where You Can Find “Tales from Avonlea”

As mentioned above the DisneyStore.com carries the three disc set of “Tales from Avonlea.” You can also find “Tales from Avonlea” at most online DVD retailers. For example the two disc set can be found at Amazon.com, DeepDiscountDVD.com, and at Netflix.com. You can find other retailers and compare prices by searching for “Tales from Avonlea” on http://shopping.yahoo.com.

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