Teletubbies-Animals Big and Small (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-Come And See Baby Animals Featurette-Come And See Animal Fun Featurette-Rabbits In Teletubbyland Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	71:51
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Vic Finch Paul Gawith David G. Hillier Bob Jacobs
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Teletubbies
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$34.95	Music	Andrew McCrorie

    Teletubbies: Animals Big and Small presents a collection of five episodes of this popular British children's program on DVD.

    The five stories that make up this DVD are as follows: Little Lamb, How Now Brown Cow, Crawling, Butterfly and Dog. Each story has an 'animal theme', as the Teletubbies learn to interact with the 'animals' they meet in Teletubbyland.

    Anne Wood and Andy Davenport of Ragdoll Productions created the Teletubbies in 1997. While the BBC program, aimed at pre-schoolers, has proved to be very popular, it also continues to gather a lot of criticism. For example, the Teletubbies themselves are aged somewhere between one and two. They do not speak English, but speak in a sort of English-based toddler language. For example, they say "eh-oh" instead of "hello". They also make a number of other nonsensical toddler-sounds. This concerns a number of parents, as it may stump or confuse children learning to speak clearly. Also, the Teletubbies are all rather round, and this attracted criticism for encouraging little kids to be fat. For more information about the Teletubbies, you can click here http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/teletubbies/

Video

    The transfer is taken from a recent broadcast television source, and it is problem-free. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, full frame.

    The sharpness, black level, and shadow detail are all good. There is no low level noise.

    As one might expect with a children's program, the image is flooded with bright primary colours. The colour is brilliant, and the flesh tones (in the live-action inserts) are accurate.

    There are no MPEG artefacts, film-to-video artefacts or film artefacts to complain of.

    The English subtitles are accurate.

    This is an RSDL-formatted disc, but I did not spot the layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is one audio option on this DVD, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 track.

    In regards to the Teletubbies, it is impossible to comment on either the dialogue quality or the audio sync. However, during the live-action inserts, which feature real children, there were no problems with either of these.

    The music is credited to Andrew McCrorie-Shand, and it consists mainly of carnival-style music.

    As a Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track, there is no surround presence and activity, and no subwoofer action.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are a few extras, all presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. I would have found an audio commentary or interview with the creators interesting, if only to explain the 'weirdness' of the program, and any possible educational content.

Menu

   A simple menu.

Come and See Baby Animals

   Clips of kids playing with baby animals.

Come and See Animal Fun

    More clips of kids having fun.

Rabbits in Teletubbyland

    Clips of the many rabbits that seem to populate Teletubbyland.

Other Titles

    Information about other Tellytubby titles.

    This DVD has not been released in Region 1, but they have a similar DVD titled Teletubbies: Baby Animals, which shares much of the same content.

    I have a two-year-old son who loves the Wiggles and High-5, and I have watched and enjoyed their DVDs with him a number of times. However, I must admit that I don't understand the concept or the popularity of the Teletubbies. Then again, maybe I'm not supposed to . . .

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is competent.

    The extras are slim.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall