Handy Manny: Motorcycle Adventure begins more as an outing than an adventure. It's time for the family reunion and Manny is packing it up to join everyone for a fun day. It's all going well until they stop at a filling station in the middle of nowhere. A broken pump handle is no match for Manny's skill, but a few of the tools slip away on an errand with Pat and end up in the back of a big rig, heading for who knows where... All this starts when Pat becomes convinced that a smiling hardware store mascot bears enough of a resemblance to be part of Pat's family, and goes on the hunt to meet him. Manny remains cool and heads out to catch Pat and the others, leading to some pretty exciting motorcycle action. The message by the end of this episode is that family is defined by the people around you that care for you, making Pat's ongoing quest unnecessary. Kids will enjoy seeing Manny rev it up a bit, and go beyond just doing fix-it-up work around town. The bonus episode, "A Very Handy Holiday," is perfectly timed considering the DVD release coinciding with Christmas, but sticks to the tried-and-true formula that has propelled Manny to the popularity ranking he enjoys among the younger set. Options for watching this in an interactive DVD-game fashion are cute, and will reward kids that watch these kind of shows tens of times, anyway. At various points, the show will freeze and pop a question that kids can answer using the DVD remote. It might not work as well in the car, depending on your setup, but these expanded features are a clear win for home viewing.
Whether you and your child are new to this series or veteran Manny watchers, Handy Manny: Motorcycle Adventure is most definitely a good one to add to your collection. It's as good an introduction to the character as we've seen, especially since it introduces several of Manny's extended family. There's less stress on building/fixing projects, and not much of the townsfolk that have their features in the regular episodes. You'll still get a dose of this through the bonus episode, and we genuinely like the DVD-game additions. Last but not least, crossover superstars Los Lobos contributed a song to the feature, "Rolling Down the Highway," that will accomplish the rarest of feats by prompting adults to turn up the volume on a kids' show, rather than the opposite. Pure and simple, Handy Manny: Motorcycle Adventure has "stocking stuffer" written all over it.
