New MacDonald's Farm-A Farmer's Work is Never Done (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	69:56 (Case: 78)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (320Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.75:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.75:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    New MacDonald's Farm is an Australian made children's show which is shown on the Nine Network. It revolves around life on a farm (on a sound stage) which is staffed by two people, Max & Milly, who are people in costumes featuring oversized heads. The farm animals are puppets and include sheep, cows, chickens and pigs. The format of this disc is very similar to a Hi-5 disc (another Nine Network production) in that it includes three major songs interspersed with a variety of segments from various episodes of the show. The segments include problems which arise on the farm such as caterpillars eating the vegetables, Max trying to give Milly flowers with little success, organising a surprise party, doing chores around the farm and how they have fun on rainy days. The segments are also interspersed with real farm footage. In total there is just under 70 minutes of action. The major songs feature Max & Milly and some children dancers. The songs included on this disc are A Farmer's Work, You're My Friend & How Many Animals. Annoyingly the chapter stops listed on the case don't match those encoded on the disc.

    Neither I nor my two year old had seen this program before we sat down to watch this disc together and frankly neither of us were overly impressed. He watched it quite happily, however, he has never asked for it again (which he always does with things he likes). I felt it was a bit lame and found the main characters annoying and the concept a little dull. If your children like the show, there is nothing wrong with the material presented here, but I think there are better children's shows available.

Video

    The video quality is very good.

    The feature is presented in a 1.75:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is probably the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was very clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise.

    The colour was wonderful, rich and solid throughout.

    The only noticeable artefact was aliasing which was quite regular but generally mild in nature such as on a tablecloth.

    There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired. The English subtitles were clear and easy to read.

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 an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 320 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The music and songs were cheerful and quite similar in style to Hi-5.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    None.

Menu

    The menu was simple, allowing for the selection of the major songs and control of the subtitles.

    This disc is only available in Region 4.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall