Clifford the Big Red Dog-Welcome to Birdwell Island (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Menu Audio Short Film-Big Ideas: 4 Clips Storybook-Speckle's Storytime
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	103:10
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	John Over
Studio Distributor	Scholastic Warner Home Video	Starring	John Ritter Grey DeLisle Cree Summer Kel Mitchell Cam Clarke
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	Josh Mancell Mark Mothersbaugh Barry Caldwell

    Norman Bridwell's series of classic children's books comes to life in this animated series from publisher Scholastic. Clifford the big red dog and his owner Emily Elizabeth Howard live on the island of Birdwell, along with his friends T-Bone and Cleo. Their exciting adventures help youngsters to understand the importance of friendship and teamwork. Between each episode is a short one minute piece that gives kids a short message, be it sharing or the joys of reading.

    1. To Catch A Bird - Emily's friend Jedda wins a spelling contest, but loses her medal while playing soccer, accusing Emily of theft. The dogs follow many clues to find the true culprit.

    2. The Best Party Ever - Emily plans a party, but worries that it won't be exciting enough. Her friend Jedda skips the party for fear of losing face, but soon realises what a great time she is missing.

    3. Come Back, Mac - Jedda loses her favourite 'sweater' and enlists Clifford's help to find it. When they realise her dog Mac is missing also, the search turns towards her missing dog instead.

    4. Boo - It's Halloween on Birdwell Island and Jedda claims to be not at all scared. Clifford joins in the festivities and shows Jedda that it's okay to be scared sometimes.

    5. Little Clifford - Emily Elizabeth has a birthday, and is promised a puppy by her parents. She chooses the smallest runt of the litter and begins to worry that he'll be tiny forever. She learns about caring for a puppy, and accepting responsibility.

    6. Welcome To Birdwell Island - Emily remembers their first day on Birdwell Island and the cautious reception the Howards received when they arrived with their big red dog. The townspeople's opinion quickly changes when Clifford saves the island from a bushfire.

    7. Little Big Pup - Clifford, the biggest dog on Birdwell island, meets the smallest dog on Birdwell Island and they become friends. Initially, the little dog is jealous of Clifford's size, but Clifford soon teaches him that being small certainly has its advantages.

    8. Getting To Know You - Clifford and T-Bone recall the problems they had when they first started playing together, and the issues their different sizes raised. Once they sort out their differences, their friendship strengthens.

Video

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

    The quality of the animation is quite good and comes across with a great degree of detail. Some jagged edges appear now and then, coupled with some mild interlacing issues, betraying the NTSC source. The colour palette is bright and bold at all times, with no visible bleeding or oversaturation. Low level noise is absent.

    Compression artefacts are nowhere to be found in this transfer, and although a little grain can be seen on occasions it is barely noticeable. I experienced some playback problems initially due to my review disc being dirty, but once I cleaned it up there were no problems at all.

    Contrary to the cover slick, there are no subtitles on this disc.

    This disc is DVD5 formatted, being comprised of a single layer.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only one audio track included on the disc, a Dolby Digital stereo track encoded at 320Kb/s.

    The mouth movements roughly follow the dialogue that is heard, and don't present any considerable synchronisation problems.

    The soundtrack isn't particularly lively, but does a decent job all round. There are no dropouts or moments of distortion to be concerned about.

    The soundtrack music is entirely electronic but succeeds in bringing across the playful nature of the show with ease.

    There was no surround activity or subwoofer response in this soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The main menu is static and is accompanied by an audio clip of the show's theme. Selecting the play all function on the main menu will play all the episodes in sequence, along with a short one minute story after each episode and credits after every second episode. If you select play all from the scene selection menu only the episodes themselves are played. The feature begins playback automatically after the menu is idle for one minute.

Big Ideas (4)

    These four short one minute pieces are included in the feature if you select play all from the main menu.

Speckle's Storytime (4)

    These stories run for ninety seconds each and are included in the feature if the viewer selects play all from the main menu.

    The video transfer is colourful and sharp.

    The audio transfer is acceptable.

    A couple of little extras are included.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall