#31: Scene-It Disney

Scene-It? Disney

• designer: uncredited
• publisher: Mattel
• date: 2004
• BoardGameGeek rank/rating: 3972/5.63
• age: 6+
• # of players: 2-4 players or teams
• print status: in print
• cost: $14.99 (Boardgame Revolution... this is for the Deluxe [2 DVD] 1st edition)

We're pretty big Disney movie fans here at the Jackson house... I'm sure that I have most of the Pixar films memorized (from my boys watching them over & over & over & over) and I can pretty much sing the soundtracks of The Jungle Book, Mary Poppins & The Aristocats verbatim, thanks to listening to the story/music records (does anyone else remember those?!) 1000 times when I was a kid myself. Which makes us the perfect audience for this particular version of Scene-It?, the DVD pop culture trivia game that swept the nation a few years back.

Look, this is no "You Don't Know Jack" (though wouldn't that be a cool DVD game?!)... but it is a very enjoyable trivia game that works with a wide variety of ages. There are "younger" & "older" (aka "kid" & "adult") question cards in each set, so kids as young as 5 or 6 (with a decent knowledge of Disney films) can do pretty well. There are some "Wheel of Fortune"-like questions that favor adults, but those can be skipped using your DVD remote.

There are multiple editions of the game - and it's not as simple as 1st edition & 2nd edition. Both editions have "deluxe" versions that come in metal tins with a 2nd DVD that contains enough clips for approx. 6 more games. If you can find the deluxe editions for a good price (as listed above), they're worth finding.

Replayability is always an issue with games like these - and that's addressed both with preset games and with multiple questions per clip. We managed to play the 1st edition about 50 times, and have logged 20+ plays on the 2nd edition. Think about it - that's 70+ plays off of two games - and that means (a) it holds up pretty well to repeat play, and (b) my kids keep asking to play it again!

Note: we play that you roll the dice, do the activity (My Play, All Play, trivia question, action card), then get to roll again for movement only if you answer correctly... then it is the next players' turn. This keeps pawns moving (no one is stuck at the start), shortens playing time, and keeps any one player from dominating the game with a string of turns. I recommend this method for all of the various Scene-It? games.

There are other kid-friendly versions of the game (Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, etc.) but since we don't have cable, they aren't Jackson-family friendly and so I can't comment on them. I will, however, let you know that Friends Scene-It? and Movie Scene-It? are both a lot of fun... the underlying game system is solid.