Tweenies-Song Time is Fab-a-rooney/Song Time 2 (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Menu Animation & Audio Web Links
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	98:51 (Case: 100)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Kay Benbow Phillip Hawthorn Helen Sheppard Kathryn Wolfe
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	C.H. Beck Samantha Dodd Simon Grover Tamsin Heatley Jenny Hutchingon Alan Riley Matthew Lyons Kate Ryan Colleen Daley Justin Fletcher Bob Golding Sally Proisig Sinead Rushe
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$23.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This is the second Tweenies DVD to be released in Australia. While the first DVD contained two episodes of the TV show, this disc contains only one section of the show - Song Time. The regular show has a number of different sections including making things, outside visits and usually a musical number or two. They have taken the songs from a very large number of shows and compiled them into a single disc. As they tell us on the cover that this DVD contains two titles, Song Time 2 and Song time is Fab-a-rooney, I have to assume that these were two separate VHS releases.

    I was in two minds about having just one section of the show on this disc (variety is the spice of life), but my co-reviewer (now a big four year old) sat through the disc in only two sittings. He was either sitting and enjoying or up and dancing with the actions that go with many of the songs on this disc.

    There are a wide range of kids songs on this disc of which I recognised about half. Popular numbers like I'm a Little Teapot and How Much is That Doggy in the Window are always crowd pleasers. The rest are all very well written children's songs that the kiddies will love to sing along with. The Tweenies, who are actors in very bright costumes with foam heads, all get involved in the songs with lots of actions, dancing and carrying on. They sometimes dress up in simple costumes and at other times they are transported into a world appropriate to the song by the wonders of blue screen technology. Speaking of which, the blue screen work is nothing short of amazing - the animated worlds are simple but very colourful and the characters are inserted almost seamlessly. Considering this is a weekly show, the production values are nothing short of amazing.

    The songs in the two sections are as follows:

Video

    Presented in a wonderfully colourful aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and 16x9 enhanced, this disc is a joy to watch on the big screen.

    The characters and backgrounds are pin sharp most of the time. There is some motion blur, an example being at 1:59, but this is only really noticeable if you are single stepping the transfer. As all scenes are brightly lit, there was no opportunity to see any shadows to examine for detail. The transfer is free of any low level noise.

    The colours are brilliant, consisting of rich vibrant colours that just beam off the screen without any oversaturation (although they do come close occasionally) or chroma noise. This really does give the impression of a very three dimensional image on screen.

    There is some blocking on fast moving objects - at 1:50 the character in the floral dress moves past the camera and is quite badly pixelated. I suspect that digital video cameras were used to capture these images, leaving us with no source artefacts other than the motion blur.

    The subtitles were easy to read and accurate. The only complaint is that if you are using them to sing along with the songs until you learn the words then they sometimes appear a little after the next musical phrase has already begun.

    This is a single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Dialogue quality is excellent through almost all of the disc. There was one song, Runaway Train, where I had a little trouble picking up one of the phrases but a quick look at the subtitles soon cleared up the confusion.

    Audio sync is spot-on, although I think that the puppet work on the lips is not as good on this disc as it was on the first. It may be that music is harder to sync up.

    The music is perfect for younger kids, and the dancing and actions make this a fun disc.

    The surrounds were quiet for the duration. The subwoofer sprang to life in a couple of songs with a good bass beat but most of the time just supported the music unobtrusively.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    A simple but colourful menu with a CD player boom box streaming out animated musical notes. Presented at 1.78:1 and accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Web Link

A single page with the Tweenie web link . Also presented at 1.78:1 and accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

    From the advertising printed inside the DVD cover, it would appear the other VHS offerings include Messy Time and Songs and Surprises. I am a little lost as to why they would break the show into separate titles as my son and I enjoyed the first disc both for its content and variety. Still, this is a very good disc with some very entertaining material.

    The video is good.

    The audio is good.

    They could have done somewhat better in the extras department.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall