The Wiggles-Whoo Hoo! Wiggly Gremlins!

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Main Menu Audio & Animation Menu Animation & Audio Gallery-Photo Music Video-The Dancing Flowers, Go To Sleep Jeff (Brahm's Lullaby) Featurette-Lights, Camera, Action, Wiggles! from TV series
Rating
Year Of Production	?
Running Time	47:25 (Case: 72)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Nicholas Bufalo
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Murray Cook Jeff Fatt Anthony Field Greg Page
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	The Wiggles

    After their animated adventure Space Dancing, The Wiggles return to their popular formula with Whoo Hoo! Wiggly Gremlins! Plenty of singing, dancing, and hijinks, and a few new characters.

    As I wrote in a previous review, " . . . if you are somehow unaware of who they are, the Wiggles (Anthony Field, Greg Page, Murray Cook, and Jeff Fatt) are a musical group who entertain children. The Wiggles are often thought of in reference to the 1980s pop-band, The Cockroaches (of which two were members), however, three of the Wiggles met while at Macquarie University, Sydney, studying early childhood degrees. Indeed, they started writing songs as a great learning and development tool for young children . . . It is common knowledge that the Wiggles are very popular in Australia, where it is estimated that half of all Australian children own a Wiggles video, CD or DVD. However, following the Disney Channel beginning to broadcast the Wiggles in the US, their fan base has grown into the millions".

    As for the 'plot' of Whoo Hoo! Wiggly Gremlins!: The Wiggles are enroute to their television studio, Network Wiggles, when a Wiggly Gremlin starts reeking havoc with the Big Red Car. Meanwhile, back at the studio, Captain Feathersword, Wags the Dog, Henry the Octopus, and Dorothy the Dinosaur are experiencing a series of strange problems (caused by another Wiggly Gremlin). While the Wiggles and friends set about solving the mystery of the strange happenings, there is plenty to sing about, and a few fun games and dances too.

Video

    As with other recent Wiggles DVDs, the transfer is of broadcast quality, and problem-free.

    Considering that the advent of Digital Television has allowed many programs, including children's programs such as High 5, to be broadcast with a widescreen image, I am disappointed that the Wiggles' DVDs persist with transfers in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (full frame). As a result, at times some of the dancers and action at the sides of the screen are cut off, such as at 15:56.

    The sharpness and shadow detail are both fine, although some natural lighting is used which appears a little harsh at times. As one would expect, the colour is brilliant, and features bright primary colours

    There are no problems with MPEG artefacts, film-to-video artefacts, or film artefacts. However, very rarely, there is a slight shimmer on some objects.

    Only English subtitles (including lyrics) are offered, which are accurate to the spoken (and sung) word.

    This is a single-sided single-layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The only audio option is English Dolby Digital Stereo (224Kb/s), which is clear, and exhibits a good dynamic range.

    The dialogue quality is excellent, but the audio sync suffers a little. At times some of the song-miming is obviously out of time, but I don't think this will bother the kids.

    The music is provided by the Wiggles, and there are a number of songs encompassing a variety of styles. I thought the better tunes were Lights, Camera, Action, Wiggles! and Music With Murray.

    As a Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track, there is no surround presence or LFE activity.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are a few extras.

Menu

    An animated menu, presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

Lights, Camera, Action, Wiggles (24:28)

    This is an television episode of the Wiggles, presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (slightly letterboxed), with Dolby Digital stereo audio. This episode includes material taken from Whoo Hoo! Wiggly Gremlins! and Wiggle Bay.

Easter Egg

    This very obvious Easter Egg merely provides a snippet of the Wiggly Gremlins hiding behind a door

Photo Gallery

    A series of stills, including publicly stills and behind-the-scenes shots set to music.

Songs Jukebox

    Select your favourite tunes from Whoo Hoo! Wiggly Gremlins! There are also two bonus songs: Go To Sleep Jeff and The Dancing Flowers.

    From what I can tell, this DVD has not yet been released in Region 1.

   While there is nothing remotely original about Whoo Hoo! Wiggly Gremlins! (even many of the songs sound the same), it does provide another dose of Wiggle-Fun for the kiddies. My toddler gave it the thumbs up.

    The video quality is excellent, but should have been presented in widescreen.

    The audio quality is very good for a stereo track.

    The extras are few, but the additional episode of television is a nice touch.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall