Climbing up the kid-vid sales charts to challenge Disney's dominance in the field are a couple of straight-to-video November releases from Warner Bros. Family Entertainment.
- "Billboard Dad" stars the Olsen twins, Mary-Kate and Ashley (priced at $20), and is virtually a rehash of their insufferable 1995 comedy, "It Takes Two," which was already a thinly disguised retread of "The Parent Trap."This time they play sisters who paint a personals ad on a large Hollywood billboard in order to find their single father (Tom Ar-mandes) a new wife. When he meets Ms. Right (Jessica Tuck), she turns out to have a son (Sam Sel-lata) who doesn't get along with the girls. Carl Banks plays dad's con-artist agent.
- "Richie Rich's Christmas Wish" (also $20) continues the adventures of the wealthy, 12-year-old Harvey Comics character, first played by Macaulay Culkin in an underwhelming 1994 theatrical movie. David Gallagher, star of the television series, "7th Heaven," takes over the role in the sequel, which borrows much of its plot, in an unforgivably gimmicky manner, from "It's a Wonderful Life."
Bored with his official holiday duties, Richie wants to experience Christmas Eve as a normal child, but his spoiled cousin Reggie (Jake Richardson) ruins his plans. Richie wishes he'd never been born. Thanks to a wishing machine created by Richie's personal inventor (Eugene Levy), he gets to experience the holidays as a poor boy living in joyless Richville, where his cousin has threatened to cancel Christmas.
Michelle Trachtenberg, who had the title role in the movie version of "Harriet the Spy," is Richie's best friend, Gloria. Lesley Ann Warren and Martin Mull play Richie's parents, and Marla Maples is Richie's aunt. For all the experience they bring to the picture, they behave like direction-less kids in a particularly unfortunate junior high school production.
Several other video companies have added movies and specials to their holiday lists. Also available this month:
- "The Story of Santa Claus" (CBS Video, $15) is a 47-minute cartoon special that played on network television a couple of years ago. Ed Asner provides the voice for Nicholas Clause, a toy maker who goes bankrupt, ends up at the North Pole and battles a wizard (Tim Curry).
- "An All Dogs Christmas Carol" (MGM Home Entertainment, $25) is a sing-along collection of songs from "All Dogs Go to Heaven." Bebe Neuwirth, Dom DeLuise and Steven Weber provide the voices on this 73-minute tape.
- "Dr. Seuss Classics" (CBS Video, $13 apiece) includes two tapes with two Seuss stories apiece. "The Cat in the Hat" and "Hoober Bloob Highway" appear on Vol. 1, "Green Eggs and Ham" and "Grinch Night" on Vol. 2. (Another Seuss classic, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," is available on a $25 MGM tape with "Horton Hears a Who!")