Noddy-Hold on to Your Hat (1998)

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Game-Counting Game Game-Explore Toyland
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	60:00
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Sean McCann Katie Boland Kyle Kassardjian Max Morrow Teryl Rothery
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	Stacey Hersh Gail Harvey John Medland

    Noddy, Hold on to your Hat is a recently released DVD from the BBC for kids selection. Everyone remembers Noddy no doubt - some of the older ones amongst us would remember all the silly controversy about its political correctness (or lack thereof) some years ago!

    Anyway, this disc contains 6 episodes from the more recent CGI animated series. The producers have kept the characters looking much as they did in the older claymation series, although I felt this new computerised version didn't quite have the same appeal. Thankfully they've kept the voices English, and not gone for American ones instead!

    The episodes each have a runtime of 10:50 and can be played sequentially using the 'Play all episodes' option, or any episode can be individually selected. The episode titles are:

    Hold on to your Hat, Noddy!

    Bounce Alert in Toy Town

    Tickled Pink

    Noddy's Pet Chicken

    Noddy Goes Shopping

    Toy Town's Winning Team

Video

    The immaculate video is presented in 1.33:1 full screen, which is perhaps surprising for a relatively recent BBC production. I suspect the original was filmed in 1.78:1 though the full screen option may have been chosen to minimise the stress on some parents and kids from seeing 'black bars' on screen!

    The sharpness, black level and shadow detail are without fault.

    Colour is bright, but perhaps not as 'rich' as I would like.

    There were no visible MPEG or film artefacts.

    Perhaps surprisingly, there are no subtitles at all on this single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio track on this disc is Dolby Digital 2.0.

    The dialogue quality is good and clear at all times.

    The music is bright and cheery, though once again they have changed the title theme that I used to like from the earlier series.

    This being a stereo soundtrack there is no activity from the rear surrounds (unless you have your decoder setup to 'artificially' send info back there).

    The subwoofer chips in for the music, though of course this disc doesn't have its own .1 LFE channel to feed it.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

   The disc kicks off with Noddy introducing himself, his friends, and Toy Town.

    The only extras on this disc are 2 interactive games, one called Counting Game, and the other called Explore Toyland. The first one gives a few simple maths tests, while the second game test kid's observational ability. The game requires you to use the DVD remote for navigation.

    This disc doesn't appear to have been released in Region 1.

    A collection of cute, slightly old-fashioned fun episodes. Nice to see the producers haven't tried to modernise the show with lasers, guns, and so forth, nor tried to make Americanise it. It's very much like the older series and books, but using up-to-date CGI for the animation.

    The video and audio transfer are great, and there are a couple of games in addition to the 6 episodes.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall