Koala Brothers-Volume 1: A Letter for George (2003)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Game-Buster's Telescope Game, Mitzi's Letter Game (incl bonus ep) Game-Frank's Jigsaw Puzzles Song Lyrics-Sing-A-Long: Helping Song DVD-ROM Extras-Colouring-In Book Web Links
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	60:18
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	None Given
Case	?
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Title of Show : The Koala Brothers

    Title of Disc : Volume 1 : A Letter For George

    Year of Production : 2003

    Country of origin : UK

    What's included? : 6 episodes from the first season (although a seventh one is available in the extras).

    Episode Length : 10 minutes each

    Details of episodes : 

1. A Letter For George - Mitzi sends George a letter but he loses it.
2. Sea Captain Ned - Ned finds an old rowboat and gets the Koala Brothers to help him fix it.
3. Josie's Big Jump - Josie can't skip but promises Mitzi she'll go skipping with her.
4. The Thirsty Penguin - A penguin arrives in town and needs a drink. The locals are not sure what she is. Introduces Penny.
5. Lolly Comes To Town - Lolly an ice cream vendor & emu comes to town but has trouble with her van.
6. Archie's Loose Tooth - Archie has a loose tooth and needs help.

    Style of Production : Puppet animation

    Premise of show : Two Koalas, Frank & Buster live in an outback community. They own a plane and spend their time helping anyone who needs it. Their friends and neighbours include a young wombat called Ned who lives on their property in a caravan, Sammy the echidna who runs the store, Josie the Kangaroo, Mitzi, a young female koala, Alice, a platypus, Archie, a crocodile (in cricket whites), George, the postman turtle and Penny a visiting penguin. The other characters have problems or mild adventures and need help from Frank & Buster.

    Age Group : 2-8

    Related to any other children's shows? : Not really

    Adult's view : This is a really cute show with some catchy music and fun characters. There are messages in it but they are not beaten to death. It is narrated by Jonathan Coleman which lends some authenticity despite its UK heritage. Quite watchable for parents and nothing to worry about i.e. no scary bits or unsuitable themes or messages.

    Child's view : Fun, fun, fun. My two young sons love this show, and have asked for the disc quite a few times.

    Other Releases of this show available? : There are three volumes of this show now available locally.

    Overall : Heartily recommended.

Video

    The video quality is very good.

    The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 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 some mild aliasing on fences, rope and the titles.

    There are no subtitles.

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 224 Kb/s.

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

    The music by Kick Productions is wonderful, very catchy and lots of fun.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    One of the best selections of extras I have ever seen on a children's disc.

Menu

    The menu included an intro, music, action and the ability to select episodes. It also includes a parental control function by which you can determine how many episodes from 1 to five your children are allowed to watch.

Games

    Three games are included, one of which provides access to a bonus episode of the show when all the answers are correctly completed. The games are:

• Buster's Telescope Game - See if you can work out who Buster is looking at through his telescope.
• Mitzi's Letter Game - Work out who Mitzi is writing to based upon what she puts in her letter (no reading required). If you answer all the questions right, the disc plays the bonus episode Ned's Scary Night (10:06). 
• Frank's Jigsaw Puzzles - Pick which piece will complete the jigsaw.

Sing-a-long (1:23)

    Karaoke style song sung (and danced) by the whole cast.

DVD-ROM

    There are DVD-ROM extras including a colouring-in-book and weblink to three related sites.

    This disc is available in the same format in Region 2. In region 1 some discs of this show have been released each containing only 4 episodes and less extras. The local release is the go.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The disc has a good collection of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall