The Wiggles Movie (1997)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Main Menu Audio & Animation Menu Audio Song Lyrics Music Highlights-Song Selection Gallery-Photo Storybook-The Lost Joey
Rating
Year Of Production	1997
Running Time	79:39 (Case: 83)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Dean Covell
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Murray Cook Jeff Fatt Anthony Field Greg Page
Case	?
RPI	$26.95	Music	The Wiggles

    All of the familiar Wiggles characters are present in this movie, including Dorothy the Dinosaur and a lot of their songs that you will instantly recognise. With a runtime of over seventy minutes, this is a very long film for a youngster to sit through, but older children will find it easier going.

    It's Dorothy's birthday and the four Wiggles are planning a surprise party - but Dorothy disappears and is rumoured to be in the company of Wally the magician. The race is on as the dinosaur has to be found before she discovers the planned party. Along the way we meet Henry the Octopus, Captain Feathersword and Wags the Dog who each sing and dance for us.

    This is great, simple entertainment for kids with plenty of action, songs and dancing to keep them interested for a long time.

Video

    The video transfer is presented in what appears to be the intended ratio of 1.33:1, full frame.

    There is a moderate amount of sharpness present in the transfer, however many scenes have a very soft appearance. It is hard to tell if this is intentional or a transfer issue. Take a look at the blurriness of the closing credits and you will see what I mean.

    As you would expect for a children's program the colours used throughout the film are very bold and bright. I didn't notice any instances of oversaturation or bleeding during the transfer. Among the bright splashes of colour skin tones appeared true and consistent.

    I didn't notice any signs of MPEG over-compression or low level noise. Aliasing was very minor when it did pop up, and hardly noticeable. The most distracting problem I encountered was some persistent shimmering on the Wiggles' graphic logo during the opening credits, lasting only for a few seconds.

    There is a lot of artefacting present at the beginning of the movie, but this quickly passes. The remainder of the film is clean and relatively dust free apart from the odd speck here and there.

    English hard of hearing subtitles are available on the disc and seem to follow the dialogue almost perfectly. There is also a sing along lyric subtitle stream that when selected appears as the Wiggles break into song.

    This disc is single layered, so there is no layer transition pause present.

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, English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s).

    There are distinct differences between location and studio audio, with the latter sounding much clearer and slightly louder. All of the dialogue is very easy to understand and most of the ADR work is spot on, but there are a few minor occasions that seem to sway a little. I don't think the average child would find this a problem.

    All of the Wiggles' songs are mimed quite well - but as I mentioned above, the studio recordings are a lot clearer than the rest of the film's soundtrack, so it is quite obvious when a song is coming up. The music and lyrics are bright and cheerful. I have no doubt that anyone who has heard Hot Potato or Dorothy The Dinosaur knows exactly what to expect from the music in this film.

    I did attempt to engage Pro Logic but there were few examples of surround activity or subwoofer reaction. There was a lot of effective panning in the stereo soundfield, such as a plane swooping past at 2:55. A six channel soundtrack would have been nice, but I doubt that it would be really necessary on a film such as this.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

The Lost Joey (3:49)

    While doing some gardening the Wiggles meet Kylie the Kangaroo, who is looking for her lost joey. This is very simply animated, but effective storytelling. The animated story includes subtitles that follow the narration closely.

Gallery (5:36)

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    The audio and video transfers are average, and there are a couple of little extras to round off the package.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall