The Wiggles-TV Series 1 (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Menu Animation & Audio Menu Audio Music Highlights-Wiggly Animations Music Highlights-Song Jukebox Gallery-Photo Storybook-Dorothy's Rose Petal Jam
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	290:21 (Case: 325)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (3)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Murray Cook Jeff Fatt Anthony Field Greg Page
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$36.95	Music	None Given

    The Wiggles are an international phenomenon, widely known and loved by children the world over. As I am sure we are all aware they are four Australian guys who got together to do some children's songs in 1991 and have not looked back since. Two of their members were formerly of the reasonably well-known local pop band The Cockroaches. Since their inception, there have been wildly successful concert tours, television shows, albums, videos and more recently DVDs.

    This newly released box set contains the television series they made in 1998, totalling 13 episodes. It was made for the ABC. The review copy I have received is in a normal 3 disc Amaray case, however, this set is also available in special edition packaging which is a metal lunchbox. It is not the Lights, Camera, Action series made in 2002 nor the latest series made in 2004.

    Each episode runs for about 22 minutes are they are all similar in structure including 3 or more songs, some Wigglehouse segments, Henry The Octopus segments, Captain Feathersword & Wags and some other crafts and activities involving real kids. Nearly all of the big songs are included such as Hot Potato, D.O.R.O.T.H.Y, Henry The Octopus, Quack, Quack, Captain Feathersword, Rock-a-Bye Your Bear, Pufferbillies, Get Ready To Wiggle, Fruit Salad, Shaky, Shaky, Dorothy The Dinosaur, Big Red Car, Crunchy Munchy Honey Cakes and many, many more. The Play All option from each of the three discs' menus also intersperses the animations from the extras.

    In short, if you only want to buy one Wiggles DVD set, this is the one to go for - it's got more than enough Wiggles for anyone, clocking in at nearly 5 hours, not including extras.

Video

    The video quality is very good but its age shows a little.

    The show is presented in 1.29:1 and is obviously not 16x9 enhanced. This is most likely the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was quite clear and sharp but not crisp. Shadow detail was not really called for as this is a very brightly lit children's show. There was no low level noise.

    The colour was very bright and well saturated.

    There was some minor aliasing on grilles and so on.

    There are subtitles in English for the Hearing Impaired which translate everything or sing-along karaoke style subtitles which only come on for the songs and appear one word at a time. Both are 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 one audio option, a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.    

    Dialogue was very clear and easy to understand, as were the song lyrics.    

    There were no problems with audio sync.    

    The music was clear and very catchy as you would expect..

    The surround speakers were used in a number of the songs for sound effects and music when played using Dolby ProLogic II.

    The subwoofer added bass to the music, especially the theme song, which is a function of my amp's bass management.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu has animated motion and music, and allowed for episode selection and picking specific songs.

Disc 1

Animations (12:16) 

    Unlike the main show these are presented in 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced as they are obviously a much newer production. On this disc are animated versions of Wiggly Party, Uncle Noah's Ark, Rolling Down The Sandhills, Lechoo Yalladim, Henry's Underwater Big Band & Haru Ga Kita.

Disc 2

Animations (9:33) 

    Unlike the main show these are presented in 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced as they are obviously a much newer production. On this disc are animated versions of Vegetable Soup, Hats, Go Captain Feathersword, Ahoy, C'est Wags, C'est Bon & A Frog Went A Walking.

Disc 3

Animations (3:44) 

    Unlike the main show these are presented in 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced as they are obviously a much newer production. On this disc are animated versions of Butterflies Flit & D.O.R.O.T.H.Y (My Favourite Dinosaur).

Wiggly Photo Gallery (7:48) 

    A self-propelling photo gallery with Wiggles music playing over it. The photos are stills of them from as early as 1991 showing them busking, early promotional photos and concerts at shopping centres.

Electronic Story Book - Dorothy's Rose Petal Jam (5:08) 

    A read-along story book.

    This box set does not seem to be available outside of Region 4.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    There are some quality extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall