The Scholastic Storybook Treasures DVD series often features contributions of stars—names recognizable to the parents of the intended audience of four-eight year olds. The animated short stories on the new “Young Artists Collection Featuring Zin! Zin! Zoin a Violin” includes narrations by James Earl Jones, Calista Flockhart, Zach Braff and others as well as a singing performance by Aretha Franklin.
Generally, Scholastic culls from adaptations of published children's stories and a kind of house style is apparent across the many teams of animators, with characters moving amid largely still backdrops resembling storybook illustrations. The new collection focuses on encouraging children to be creative, whether in the face of demeaning classmates (“Shrinking Violet”) or drawing from one's heritage (“Catherine the Great”). Scholastic respects the aptitude of its audience—Dostoyevsky is mentioned—and includes many neat learning tips. The order of the solar system can be memorized by saying “My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nice Pizza,” the first letter of each word corresponding to the first letter of each planet.
