Play School-Nursery Rhymes (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Storybook-4 Featurette-Animations - 10 Featurette-Make and Do - 4
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	65:18 (Case: 100)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Mark Barnard
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Justine Clarke Noni Hazelhurst Jay Laga'aia Deborah Mailman Andrew McFarlane Rhys Muldoon Karen Pang
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Peter Dasent

    Featured on this DVD is a full hour of Play School fun, games, activities and stories that any child familiar with the series will love. Just about every nursery rhyme one can imagine is sung by the presenters, with help from the many characters we all know and love - Big Ted, Gemima, Little Ted and Diddle just to name a few. The presenters on this DVD include many familiar faces; Justine Clarke, Noni Hazelhurst, Jay Laga'aia (who made an appearance in Star Wars: Episode II), Deborah Mailman (of The Secret Life Of Us), Andrew McFarlane, Rhys Muldoon and Karen Pang.

    The presenters may be different, and the theme music may have changed over the years, but Play School still remains an important, defining program in the early development of generations of Australian children despite the mega-success of The Wiggles and Hi-5. I can't imagine having grown up without it.

Video

    This is quite a good video transfer, with very little artefacting or compression problems.

    The video transfer is presented in 1.33:1, full frame.

    The transfer has a lot of sharpness evident and is very easy on the eyes. Blacks appear bold and true and there were no examples of low level noise.

    Colours were bright and bold, very contrasting and eye-catching at times. A number of frames containing bright flaring are present at 9:35, when a prop briefly reflects the bright studio lighting into the camera lens. There were no signs of bleeding or oversaturation in the transfer.

    I didn't note any signs of MPEG over-compression or grain, which was a relief. Aliasing was very well controlled considering the amount of sharpness inherent in the transfer. Although there were a few small examples present, they are of the mildest variety and are hardly worth mentioning.

    English hard of hearing subtitles are optional and are absolutely true to the spoken word, paced accurately with the action on-screen. There was great attention to detail here, as the subtitle stream appeared under the presenter that was speaking rather than being constantly centred on screen.

    This disc is single layered.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only one audio track present on the disc, an unspectacular English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) soundtrack.

    The programme is recorded in a controlled studio environment, which lends itself to crystal clear vocal recordings with no interference or distortion. All of the presenters enunciate very clearly and are easy to understand during all of the songs and stories. There were no issues with audio sync during the transfer.

    Simple musical accompaniment during the many songs and games is provided by Peter Dasent on piano. This is clever, very lively and melodic music that flows well with the action on screen.

    There are no examples of left-to-right panning on this stereo soundtrack - all of the music and narration is situated evenly between the front speakers. My surrounds and subwoofer were given the day off.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    We have a great little package of extras here, all of which are presented with optional English subtitles.

Menu

Stories (4)

Animations (9)

    This is a brief collection of animated short films covering popular nursery rhymes and songs, some of which feature excellent claymation. Included are: This Little Piggy (0:44), Dingle Dangle Scarecrow (1:13), Standing On One Leg (1:03), My Dog Bill (0:43), Jack and Jill (0:27), Hey Diddle Diddle (0:18), I'm A Little Teapot (0:53), Three Little Ducks (1:11) and Dino Stomp (0:43).

Make & Do (4)

    It's not always a good idea to let the kids run riot in the kitchen, but here we have a couple of creative activities that might keep them busy for an afternoon or two. In Blob Butterfly (2:03) Karen paints a very easy butterfly by squishing paint between a folded piece of paper. Rhys has a go at making Vegemite Roly Poly Sandwiches (1:45) while singing a great variation of the Rawhide theme song. Karen makes some delicious Berry Treats (2:39) with yoghurt for herself and Jay, and in Animal Make (2:43) Jay and Deborah create some amazing animals out of household items.

    Go on, you know you want it.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall