Busy Buses (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Menu Animation & Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	136:19 (Case: 130)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Terry Ward
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Brian Conley
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	Mark London Francis Haines

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	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Busy Buses is a 26 part series that was shown recently on the ABC as part of the daily ABC Kids offerings. It's a BBC production basically about 8 buses that live together in harmony in a depot in the village of Chumley. They all talk (of course!) and are looked after by Mr Spector (the Inspector).

    This series is animated in a manner similar to Noddy, Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine. The producer and director have resisted the temptation to go overboard, with the positive result that this show is not as garish or loud as some from across the Atlantic.

    Busy Buses uses a 'minimalist' approach to animation, where the focus is on the title characters, whilst the backgrounds and minor characters tend to be a little simplistically rendered and generally motionless. Whether this was a cost driven decision or an artistic one, the results are pleasant. The main characters, the 8 buses, are all voiced by the one person, who is also the narrator. This could explain why some of the 'female' buses still have somewhat deep voices!

    This single DVD contains all 26 episodes of the series. Each episode is around 4 1/2 minutes long.

Video

    This is an excellent video transfer, which I was pleasantly surprised to find was in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and 16x9 enhanced, not 4:3 as stated on the packaging. I dare say that 1.78:1 is its original ratio for European widescreen broadcast.

    As one would expect for a very recent children's TV show, the colour in Busy Buses is rich, but is never oversaturated. In fact, in comparison with some recent children's shows, the colour might seem slightly muted.

    This series was probably filmed in digital video, which helps explain the complete lack of film artefacts.

    The only artefact I noticed with the transfer was some slight aliasing, for example at 6:09, and some possible macroblocking of the background shed roofline during the opening credits of each episode.

    There is good shadow detail and a sharp transfer has been provided.

    Surprisingly, there were no subtitles at all.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    As seems to be typical of the recent releases of ABC Kids DVDs, the audio is in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with no surround encoding. There is only 1 audio track offered.

    The dialogue is clear at all times, making it easy to understand even some of the stronger North English accents of some of the 'booses'. There is no lip sync at all! That's not a problem with the transfer, but more the animators' choice not to bother too much about syncing the bus's lips (i.e. radiator grilles) in the first place. There is enough animated lip movement to tell that a particular bus is speaking, but the movements don't follow the actual words themselves.

    My rear surrounds had a rest during this entire disc. My subwoofer stayed awake, but mainly because of some redirected bass in the music.

    The music itself, by Mark London and Francis Haines, is typical of the genre, a catchy theme which is oft-repeated during the episode. In fact, on this disc one gets to hear the complete theme, used at the opening and closing credits of each episode, no less than 52 times (well 53, if you include the menu music)!! This tune gets deep into one's subconscious so you start humming it when you least want to.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    The main menu is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. It is animated and has the show's theme playing through it. The menu allows you to play all episodes or select a particular episode. If you select the latter option, it goes into a submenu which, by stark contrast, is still and silent.

    Aside from the animated main menu, there were no extras at all on this DVD. I guess with 26 episodes on here there wasn't much room or need for anything else!

    I believe this title has only been released in Region 4.

    Busy Buses might not be as vibrant as Bob the Builder, nor as widely appealing as say, Noddy, but is not without its charm. The dialogue and narration perhaps suit children slightly older than the target audience of the other 2 shows. It's nice to have the whole series on the one DVD which offers good picture quality and decent (for the genre) audio.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall