Basil Brush-Unleashed (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Basil's Joke Book Outtakes-Basil's Bloopers Gallery-Basil's Pin Board Game-The Jelly Baby Game DVD-ROM Extras Music Video-'Bounce' & 'Boom Boom'
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	73:34
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Michael Kerrigan Dez McCarthy David McKay
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Christopher Pizzey Georgina Leonidas Michael Hayes Ajay Chabra Basil Sopher
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	Buz Mazumder Maxine Mazumder Belinda Cottrell

"Stay tuned for another entertainment extravaganza, but first, this, the Basil Brush Show."

    This announcement at the beginning of one of the three episodes of the Basil Brush television series contained on this disc pretty much sums up the Basil Brush experience. The Basil Brush Show, whether this incarnation or the one I remember as a child, has always included sick jokes, self-deprecating humour and a stuffed Fox puppet with a large tail or 'brush'. I loved Basil's antics when I was younger and although the show has changed considerably around him, Basil is pretty much the same as ever. The original show was pretty static and involved a compere reading stories and Basil interjecting with stupid remarks. This new show made recently in the UK is much more lively, but still has Basil interjecting with stupid remarks.

    The show features Basil of course and Stephen, Dave, Molly & Anil. Stephen is the token adult in the cast and spends most of the time making a fool of himself. Dave & Molly are two children who live with Stephen & Basil, with Stephen doubling as their guardian. Anil is the owner of the local cafe. The show is basically a sit-com designed for children in the 8-13 age group.

    The three episodes included are

• The Date - Stephen gets himself a date on the proviso that the girl's old aunt gets a date with Basil. This is definitely the funniest episode on the disc and includes many funny lines from Basil.
• Mouse - A mouse moves into the apartment and eats all their food. Their attempts to get rid of the mouse fill out the episode.
• Fake's Progress - A gypsy casts a spell on Stephen when he wishes he was better at attracting girls with amusing results.

    I am sure that children of the correct age group will find this show very amusing. It is also good entertainment for Dads who remember the original Basil Brush show with fondness (like me).

    "What do you call a Frenchman in sandals? Phillipe Phillope. Boom! Boom!"

Video

    The video quality is excellent with only one minor issue.

    The show is presented in 1.33:1 and is obviously not 16x9 enhanced. This is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was very clear. 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. All the colours of the rainbow are used in the sets and costumes. I did notice some very minor chroma noise in a red wall at 51:32 but I am sure your kids won't.

    There were no other artefacts of any description.

    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 satisfactory.

    This DVD contains one audio option, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 256 Kb/s. Despite the encoding it sounded like mono sound to me.    

    Dialogue was generally reasonable but sometimes due to accents or slightly muffled sound some wisecracks were difficult to make out. There were no problems with audio sync.    

    The theme music was loud and brash (as you would expect) and sounded fine.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu has motion and music, and allowed for episode selection.

Basil's Joke Book (8:01) 

    This is a selection of very sick jokes told by Basil, which kids will find very funny, interspersed with scenes from the series.

Basil's Bloopers (4:14) 

    A selection of quite amusing outtakes from the series mostly involving Stephen.

Sneak Preview of the 'Bounce' Music Video (1:12) 

    A video clip of a song from Basil's debut album. Ordinary.

Sneak Preview of the 'Boom Boom' Music Video (1:12) 

    A video clip of a song from Basil's debut album. Even more ordinary.

Basil's Pin Board 

    This feature includes a photo, a biography and a short film of highlights for each of the five main characters in the series. The video portions are Molly (2:18), Stephen (2:10), Basil (1:57), Dave (1:25) & Anil (1:47). On a DVD-ROM drive the photos are presented in a printable format, I assume to pin up on your bedroom wall.

The Jelly Baby Game 

    This is a small interactive game. If you find the jelly baby you get an extra joke from Basil.

    This disc is available in Region 2 but seems to be exactly the same.

    This disc contains three episodes of a fun children's sit-com, The Basil Brush Show.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is satisfactory.

    There is a good selection of extras designed for children.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall