The Saddle Club-The Mane Event (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Menu Animation & Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	72:18
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Peter Sharpe Arnie Custo
Studio Distributor	Crawfords Australia Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Keenan MacWilliam Sophie Bennett Lara Jean Marshall Heli Simpson
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Auto Pan & Scan Encoded	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	Yes, Behind scenes music recording over end titles

   The stars of the series are the young female trio who make up The Saddle Club, namely Lisa (Lara Jean Marshall), Carole (Keenan MacWilliam) and Stevie (Sophie Bennett). The club apparently has two rules; members have to love horses and they have to help each other out whatever problems are being faced.

   The "Mane" event referred to in the title is the impending wedding of Max (Brett Tucker), the owner of the stables, and his attractive girlfriend Deborah (Cathy Godbold). There are several storylines running through the short movie and, despite the non-sequential nature of the component episodes, they flow together rather well. In this movie they have to solve the mystery of why leading stable-hand Red O'Malley (Nathan Phillips) refuses to ride horses, try and fix Phil (Glenn Meldrum) up on a date with Stevie and ensure that Max and Deborah's wedding goes ahead despite a major upset after Lisa falls from her horse.

    Citizen Kane this isn't. It is, however, wholesome, positive and occasionally funny family entertainment. I would hazard that its target audience is primarily pre-teenage girls, but it is well enough produced, scripted and acted to allow the occasional co-viewing with Mum and Dad without too much stress. The theme song Hello World is performed exceptionally well by the three young lead actresses and, mark my words, will have you humming it for days - in the mall, at work and in the pub!

Video

    The transfer, as would be expected for such recent programming, is generally of a high standard. Thanks to the natural beauty of the Yarra Valley in Victoria, the cinematography is very pleasing.

    Whilst the transfer can appear slightly soft on occasion, there is no significant grain.

    Colours are bright and vibrant with no colour bleed and skin tones look clean and natural.

    There are no compression artefacts and edge enhancement and aliasing are absent.

    There are English subtitles for the Hearing Impaired present on the disc and these follow the dialogue and sound effects closely.

    This is a single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The dialogue was always clear with no obvious issues with audio sync.

    The surround channels were used subtly to support the music and environmental effects.

    Subwoofer activity was not evident during the movie.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The Mane Event is feel-good children's programming which does not patronise its target, young female, audience.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall