Disney's Karaoke Series: Duets
There is no sense picking upDuetsor any of theDisney Karaokeseries unless you, or whoever you are buying it for, has a karaoke machine, and Disney is forthright about letting potential buyers know it (the cover features a microphone prominently, and a TV screen below it alerts potential buddy-belters to its on-screen lyrics feature). The main consideration here, then, is not the music--which, for karaoke purposes, has to be kept fairly tepid--but the track selection. The producers picked wisely, going deep for half the songs and splitting the difference with a dose plucked from partner Pixar movies; thus, "Winnie the Pooh" butts up against "You've Got a Friend in Me" fromToy Story,etc. Vocal versions arrive on the heels of the instrumentals for anyone requiring a primer on inflection and phrasing, but the big fun, of course, is the side-by-side factor. Something about passing a mike back and forth, even when it's only in someone's basement, says "friends for life" as much as swapping diaries, only in a much cooler, if occasionally off-key, way. --Tammy La Gorce