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Under Review

Early in The Shaun White Album, pro skateboarders Tony Hawk and Bucky Lasek notice a skinny red-headed kid hanging around their turf. The skaters decide to have some fun with him, grabbing his skateboard as he rides up a vert ramp. White--a snowboarding and skateboarding phenom--takes it all in stride. His life is good these days, so a little hazing isn't going to bother him.

White is rich, famous and 18, and his fabulous existence is documented on this 30-minute DVD. Album has entertaining footage of White--the only athlete to qualify for the Summer and Winter X Games in different sports--on his snowboard, shredding rails in Utah and launching off a big lip and landing a 900 in the mountains of New Zealand. We also see him on his skateboard, riding with Hawk at an indoor vert ramp in California. Most interesting, though, is the glimpse Album offers of his celebrity, making it easy to see why many kids want to be pro snowboarders or skaters. A girls' swim team asks him to autograph their suits, he gets stopped in Tokyo by a businessman who shakes his hand, and he is cheered at the 2003 Summer X Games by fans holding posters that read SHAUN 3:16. Says White, "I just want to be the guy that inspires other kids to come do what I'm doing." --Yi-Wyn Yen