The Magic Pudding

This is a great little ABC DVD for kids adapted from the original novel by Norman Lindsay. Being a children’s film there isn’t a lot of depth in the plot and the story is basically of Bunyip Bluegum’s journey to find his real parents. With voices from an almost all Australian cast including Sam Neil, Geoffrey Rush, Hugo Weaving, John Laws, Jack Thompson, Toni Collette and Mary Coustas. The only exception being John Cleese, as the voice of Albert, The Magic Pudding.

I know my mother read this to me as a child but I don’t really remember it that well. I hope though that with the introduction of this on a more interactive form of media will bring about a new generation of Norman Lindsay fans.

So how does this transfer hold up?

Video Transfer

Given that this is an animated film I was expecting the transfer to be largely flawless. Sadly though the images often lose a lot of their sharpness and not an entire image at a time either. Sometimes it is only a part of a shot that is soft, ie: one character in a scene and not another. This is most likely to be a problem with the source material though rather than a transfer fault.

The rest of the transfer is quite good. There are no mpeg or film artefacts and only some very minor instances of shimmering. The colour palette is bright and vibrant and would be very attractive to the eye’s a child.

Audio Transfer

The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track is superb and I would have to rate as reference quality. Due to this I gave the DD 2.0 track a big miss. Dialogue is clear and easy to understand throughout. The surrounds get a real workout, which is unusual for a children’s film. The rear channels provided lots of input into sound effects and the score and the lfe channel was frequently playing its part as well. The audio was never overdone but it did seem to make the film a lot more exciting. A theatre full of giggling children would have loved it.

Features

Featurette: The Baking of- a fabulous making of the film, including some behind the scenes shots of the animation process and the characters doing the voices. Also some background info on Norman Lindsay.

DVD Rom Game Sink or Swim: A short and small cute game where you must drop the characters onto moving items in the water.

Overall

Sometimes reviewing these film makes me glad I don’t have children. While it was great to watch and review I think I would tire of it very quickly after it had been played ten or so times similar to a friend whose daughter takes her Pokemon DVD everywhere like it’s teddy bear. None the less this is a great kids film, which is very wholesome.  

Review Equipment
TV: GE 68cm (16:9 selectable)
DVD: Pioneer 737
Receiver: Yamaha DTS RX-V595a

Speakers:-
Fronts: Wharfdale Diamond R6

Centre: Venturi
Rears: Sony bookshelf

Sub: M&K v75
- Reviewed