Beatrix Potter-The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends (1992)

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1992
Running Time	127:53 (Case: 125)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Geoff Dunbar Dianne Jackson
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Dianne Jackson Beatrix Potter Niamh Cusack
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	Colin Towns Martin Wiseman

    Beatrix Potter wrote what are probably the most loved children's stories of all time, certainly in the western world. She was born in London in 1866 and her first book was published in 1902. Just about everyone had the books as children and as you watch this DVD memories come flooding back. This DVD contains five episodes of what was a 9 episode series made in 1992 for English television, featuring Niamh Cusack as Beatrix Potter. Niamh Cusack is probably best known as Dr Kate Rowan in Heartbeat, another English television series.

    The format of each episode is a live action introduction featuring Beatrix Potter writing a letter to a child she knows, including an illustrated story, followed by an approximately 20 minute animated version of the story and concluding with a live action epilogue. The live action portions are actually filmed at the farm which Beatrix Potter owned and lived in for many years, Hill Top Farm. The live action segments are virtually the same in each episode except for The Tailor of Gloucester. The animation is very consistent with the look of the books and is well done. It is great to see that the original stories and pictures have been maintained rather than trying to modernise them or make them more politically correct. Some episodes contain only one Beatrix Potter story whereas others include two different stories, combined together.

    The episodes included here are:

• The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny - The classic tale which started it all featuring Peter's adventures in Mr MacGregor's garden, when he loses his coat and shoes and then his return visit with Benjamin Bunny to retrieve his clothes. The Tale of Peter Rabbit was the first book published by Beatrix Potter.
• The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle and Mr Jeremy Fisher - This story involves a little girl called Lucie who loses her hankie and in the process of trying to recover it, meets up with a hedgehog, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle and a frog, Mr Fisher who tells them a story about a fishing trip.
• The Tailor of Gloucester - A slightly darker story about a poor tailor who becomes ill and gets some help from an unexpected source to finish a major order which will earn him a lot of money.
• The Tale of Tom Kitten and Jemima Puddle-Duck - A combination of two original stories including Tom Kitten getting into trouble before his mother's tea party and the story of a duck who wants to raise a clutch of eggs but chooses a very bad location to do it.
• The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or The Roly-Poly Pudding - Another story involving Tom Kitten but this time a little darker as he comes up against a couple of rats who have evil plans for him.

    This is a lovely series, very well presented and kept faithful to the original stories, which is a relief if you have ever seen Thomas & the Magic Railroad.

Video

    The video quality is good but not perfect, reflecting its heritage as early 1990s television.

    The feature is presented in a 1.29:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was generally clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise, although there was some light grain especially in the live action sequences.

    The colour was very good throughout with no issues to report.

    Artefacts were fairly minimal and included some white specks in the live action sequences and some white specks and lines in the animation. These were occasional only and not distracting.

    There are no subtitles and the layer change is sensibly hidden between episodes.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is very good.

    This DVD contains one audio option, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand.

    The music by Colin Towns is good and suitable to the whimsical nature of the stories.

    The surround speakers add atmosphere such as bird noises when played with Dolby Pro Logic II.

     The subwoofer is not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu is simple and includes the ability to select episodes or play all.

    This series is available in Region 2 in quite a different format. The nine episodes are split over three DVDs and are available either separately or in a box set. I think the Region 4 release represents better value and will give it the nod on the assumption that the other episodes will be released here in due course.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The disc has no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall