NEW YORK — The Academy Award-nominated documentary, Super Size Me, is about to get a whole new audience.
After the original version's success, Director Morgan Spurlock scheduled a tour of schools across the country to ensure that young people got his message about the importance of health and the life-threatening consequences of a poor diet. The Super Size Me Educationally Enhanced edition DVD is his newest attempt to help change young people's awareness and lifestyles before bad health habits set in.
Spurlock re-edited the film and removed certain language and scenes to create a PG version that viewers can watch in a family or educational environment, or they can choose from a series of menu options with learning tools. One tool is a series of pop-up screens that provide additional facts and figures related to scenes in the movie. Another option is to turn directly to 24 standardized lessons in health education, life skills and language arts, integrated with math, science and social studies. In schools, teachers can play games from the disc that challenge students and test their understanding of the documentary. Other assessment and quizzes are also available. Each DVD is also geared for educators with the inclusion of a teacher's guide, printable lesson plans, student handouts and links to other resources and Web sites. The curriculum is designed to be either a core portion of a teacher's lesson plans or as reinforcement to lessons already taught.
The Super Size Me Educationally Enhanced edition was released on DVD February 28, 2005.