Teletubbies-Teletubbies and the Snow (Limited Edition) (2002)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Menu Animation & Audio Web Links Game-Advent Calendar
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	81:13 (Case: 86)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (57:56)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	None Given

    The Teletubbies is a long running children's show from the UK designed for toddlers. My son is a huge fan and gets very excited even by just being shown the case to the DVD let alone actually watching it.

    The show features four creatures called teletubbies who are dressed and speak like toddlers, however, they have antenna on their heads and televisions in their tummies. The four are, from biggest to smallest; Tinky Winky who is male and purple, Dipsy who is male and green, La La who is female and yellow and Po who is female and red. The only other regular character is a vacuum cleaner called the Noo Noo. The Teletubbies are played by people in costumes.

    The television show generally features the teletubbies having an adventure in Teletubby land and some live footage of children undertaking an activity such as using a camera, collecting eggs, playing hide-and-seek or listening to a story.

    This particular DVD is a Christmas themed DVD, but the Christmas stuff is kept fairly light with the majority of the running time being the Teletubbies frolicking in the snow which falls on Teletubby Land. The first ten minutes are an episode of a slightly different offshoot called Teletubbies Everywhere which features the teletubbies on coloured backgrounds and children from around the world speaking their own language. This section features a film of German children playing in the snow. Following that are these sections to round out the 80 minutes (which is a bit longer than most children's DVDs):

• Teletubbies and the Snow - It snows in Teletubby Land and they run away and then come out to play in it.
• Christmas in Finland - Finnish children singing Christmas songs
• Teletubby Land covered in Snow - Everything is covered in snow including their favourite things
• Christmas in the UK - Kids singing Christmas songs in a Church
• Slipping and Sliding - Teletubbies find out that Snow can be slippery. My son's favourite part of this disc. He absolutely loves this section.
• Christmas in Spain - Spanish Christmas traditions including logs and singing.
• Snowball - La-La makes a snowball which gets a little out of control
• Nativity Play - English children putting on a nativity play. Very cute indeed!
• The Snow Tubby - The teletubbies make a snow tubby and give it their favourite things

    To my mind, the Teletubbies have received some unfair criticism including that they are teaching bad use of the English language and that they are gay. This is rubbish - the Teletubbies are sweet and appeal to toddlers because they act like toddlers. This disc is called a Limited Edition but I am not sure how limited it is.

    If your kids are Teletubbies fans they will definitely like this disc. My son was very excited and smiled & laughed throughout. He is now asking for this disc by name, which he has never done with his other Teletubby titles.

Video

    The video quality is excellent.

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

    The picture was clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was fine as required.

    The colour was very good throughout with all colours being very bright and well saturated.

    On the artefacts front, there was some minor aliasing on the snow. The kids will not notice it, and if they do they will not care.

    There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired. They were clear and easy to read, however, I am not sure how many of the intended audience can actually read.
    

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is good, but very front and centre focussed.

    This DVD contains only one audio option: a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand.    

    The music by Andrew McCrorie-Shand is very catchy and sticks in the mind. This show incorporates some well known Christmas tunes into the score.

    The surround speakers were virtually not used at all, except I noticed when they said bye-bye that some of the voices came from the rear when played using ProLogic II.

    The subwoofer was not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu included music & motion and allowed for scene selection.

Advent Calendar (40:27)

    This is actually a very good extra which includes 40 minutes of highlights from this and other teletubby titles. Basically, the advent calendar includes 25 doors, one for each day of December leading up to Christmas Day. As each door is chosen, a short highlight of the Teletubbies plays. There is no Play All option, which I suppose would defeat the purpose anyway.

Web Link

    This is a page which includes the Teletubbies website address and a direct link when used through a PC.

    This disc is available in the same format in Region 1 and Region 2.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is good.

    The disc has a good quality extra designed for kids which runs for over 40 minutes.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall