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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Piglet's Big Movie (2003)

Piglet's Big Movie (2003)

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Released 18-Nov-2003

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Family Main Menu Introduction
Main Menu Audio & Animation
Menu Audio
Game-Piglet's Book Of Memories
Featurette-The World According To Piglet
Song Lyrics-Sing-Along With The Movie
DVD-ROM Extras
Rating Rated G
Year Of Production 2003
Running Time 71:49
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (33:59) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Francis Glebas
Studio
Distributor

Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.
Starring John Fiedler
Jim Cummings
Andre Stojka
Kath Soucie
Nikita Hopkins
Peter Cullen
Ken Sansom
Tom Wheatley
Case Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI $36.95 Music Carl Johnson
Carly Simon


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.70:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
English for the Hearing Impaired
Spanish
Portuguese
English Song Lyrics
Spanish Song Lyrics
Portuguese Song Lyrics
Spanish Titling
Portuguese Titling
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits Yes, Carly Simon music video

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    The latest of Disney's animated Winnie The Pooh films, Piglet's Big Adventure, has arrived on DVD. A feel-good family film about friendship, Piglet's Big Adventure carries a message of courage, in that it is far more important to be "big on the inside, not the outside".

    A pupil of H.G. Wells, A.A. Milne published the first of his "Bear of Very Little Brain" Winnie The Pooh stories in 1926. Although Milne also wrote 25 plays and a number of more serious books, he will always be remembered for Pooh. Indeed, in his autobiography, It's Too Late Now, he wrote "I wanted to escape from them (the Pooh stories) . . . as I have always wanted to escape. In vain ..." It is estimated that over seventy million copies of the four Pooh books have been sold since their first publication. They have been translated into over 30 languages, from Japanese to Russian.

    Pooh was purchased by Disney, and Walt Disney Pictures' first Pooh animated feature film, The Tigger Movie, appeared in 2000. However, this time it's Piglet's turn to take centre-stage in this enjoyable family movie.

    The story is set in the Hundred Acre Wood, and opens with Piglet (the voice of John Feidler) being excluded from Pooh (the voice of Jim Cummings), Tigger (also the voice of Jim Cummings), Eeyore (the voice of Peter Cullen), and Rabbit's (the voice of Ken Sansom) plan to score a lot of "hunny". Dejected, Piglet wanders off into the wood, and his friends rely on Piglet's scrap-book to find him. Each page in the scrapbook records a past event, which provides the chapters in the film, as each page is a self-contained short story.

    The film features beautiful and smoothly-animated artwork of a traditional hand-drawn, two-dimensional appearance. The voice casting is perfect, and the characters really do come to life on-screen.

    For those interested, the official Disney web site for this film and DVD can be found here.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    Overall, the transfer is excellent.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.70:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness and black level are excellent.

    The colour is also excellent, and very much in the original style of the Pooh picture books.

    There are no problems with MPEG, film-to-video, or film artefacts.

    The following subtitles are provided on this dual-layered disc: English, English for the Hearing Impaired, Spanish, Portuguese, English Song Lyrics, Spanish Song Lyrics, Portuguese Song Lyrics, Spanish Titling, and Portuguese Titling. The layer change is placed at 33:59.

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

Audio

    The feature has three audio options: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s), and Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s).

    The dialogue quality and audio sync are excellent, and interestingly, there is clever use of directional dialogue, such as when Eeyore speaks left of screen at 61:04.

    The musical score is credited to Carl Johson, but there are also five songs from Carly Simon.

    The surround activity is usually limited to the score, but occasionally there are a few surround effects, such as the storm at 39:56.

    I never noticed the subwoofer throughout.

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

Extras

    There are a few extras, but not as many as I've come to expect from Disney DVDs. All extras are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with stereo audio.

Menu

    An animated menu, with stereo audio. The initial main menu is marred by an overly-long and boring explanation of the various menu options.

Game-Piglet's Book Of Memories

    Follow the clues using your remote to put the scrapbook together.

Featurette-The World According To Piglet (2:01)

    A brief storybook style look at some of the stories from the Hundred Acre Wood.

Song Lyrics-Sing-Along With The Movie

    Subtitles during the songs in the movie.

DVD-ROM Extras

    Includes pictures of the characters to print and colour in, and help with making a scrapbook.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    Piglet's Big Adventure was released on DVD in Region 1 last year, and it is basically the same as our version.

Summary

   Piglet's Big Adventure is a gentle family film, with a good message about friendship and courage.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is also excellent (for what it is).

    There are a few extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Brandon Robert Vogt (warning: bio hazard)
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-535, using S-Video output
DisplayGrundig Elegance 82-2101 (82cm, 16x9). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationSony STR DE-545
SpeakersSony SS-V315 x5; Sony SA-WMS315 subwoofer

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