Review of Cult Kids Classics

Introduction

Well after an endless season of nostalgia TV series, which always seem to be shown on Saturday evenings and featuring lots of annoying C grade celebrities who haven`t got a clue what their talking about, it`s no surprise that the video markets have also gone for the nostalgia angle and flooded the market with old kids TV shows.

Thankfully you no longer have to put up with the inane witterings of Paul Ross to relive those long lost Halcyon days as most probably your favourite series is released on its very own Disk or cassette.
This DVD promises 116 mins of pure nostalgia, or possibly 1hr 56 mins of pure horror as you realise how your brain has a habit of seeing those good ol` days in rose tinted glasses.
Anyway here we have a selection of episodes from various series spanning the years 1977 to 1991.

Chorlton and the Wheelies:
Chorlton and the Silence Spell (Transmitted 17th October 1977)
Spot the Happiness Dragon (Transmitted 2nd April 1979)

Dangermouse:
Dangermouse Saves the World Again (Transmitted 11th October 1982)
The Four Tasks of Dangermouse (Transmitted 8th February 1982)

Count Duckula:
The Ghost of Castle McDuckula (Transmitted 15th November 1988)

Jamie and the Magic Torch:
The Flying Rabbit (Transmitted 16th May 1977)

Rainbow:
Naughty Zippy (Transmitted 1st November 1991)

Button Moon:
A Day Trip to Button Moon (Transmitted19th October 1983)


As you would expect from any compilation type of disk the quality of the episodes and series vary greatly and of course not all programmes will be to your personal choice. Best of the lot has to be Chorlton and the Wheelies which has always been a personal favourite. It`s just so weird and imaginative that it`s compulsive viewing. I hadn`t realised until now that all the witches items in her room all have different accents. Hers of course is Welsh, but the spell book is German and the telescope is Irish and what about those freaky mushroom things that follow her around. The whole thing is genius.

Next in line has to be Jamie and the Magic Torch which again is very psychedelic with its colourful crayoned backgrounds and wacky characters straight from a bad trip. Again wonderfully imaginative and worth watching again.

Dangermouse is one of those programmes in which I was never quite sure whether I liked it or not. Of course you have the voice talents of David Jason and Terry Scott, but It just seemed at the time and even now to lack that certain something which other animated series, such as Battle of the Planets or Spiderman had. There are some great moments but ultimately just not enough to keep coming back for more.

Count Duckula although coming from the same stable as Dangermouse never really took off in my books and it was all too formulaic. Rainbow was the bain of my life as a kid and I would have to sit through it while waiting for something more interesting to come on. This is a later episode as well which were even worse and of course not as camp as the earlier stuff and so there`s not to much to get excited about.

Button Moon comes in the same area as Rainbow did and aimed at a younger audience it was never a particular favourite, although I can see how it would appeal to younger children at the time.
Everyone had their particular likes and hates, and as a general overview this disks succeeds in what it sets out to do. I think children today would still enjoy these programmes as much as any adult would reliving them and as such you can`t really fail with this disk.

Video

Picture quality is of course fairly bad and the episodes from the 70`s suffer the most as you would expect. Dirt is a problem throughout, although Rainbow and Button Moon suffer less.
The picture is generally soft and colours can be muted with contrast problems and dot crawl. The main problem is with the source material used rather than the encoding on the DVD as artifacts were minimal and not a problem. Its what you would expect really from old made for TV programmes from the seventies and eighties. Its certainly watchable but not exactly reference quality as you can well imagine.

Audio

Sound quality has all the same problems as the picture in the fact that these are old, cheaply made programmes. There is a fair amount of hiss audible especially during Jamie and the Magic Torch and Chorlton and the Wheelies but despite this dialogue is always intelligible. The newer episodes are not quite as bad but still have a higher noise floor than we`re used too. There are also a few pops and clicks throughout and obviously dynamics are very limited in this mono mix, but listening to Peter Davidson singing the theme to Button Moon is always gonna be harsh on the ears.

Features

None
An animated menu with the music from each programme upon highlighting the respective episode.

Conclusion

Picture and audio quality are not great as you would expect, but this is not a bad disk depending on of course what were your favourite programmes. As a general taster of nostalgic kids shows it works, but you may be better off in buying the complete series of your particular favourite on DVD instead.
If your excuse in buying this DVD is because its `for the kids` then I`m sure you`ll enjoy it just as much as they will.