The Ice Dream With Roy and H.G.

Winter Olympics pass under my nose every four years without any care or attention at all. I generally don’t pay much notice to sports I’ve never played, being won by countries I’ll never dare visit. Hell, Australia (the sporting champions of the world) hadn’t even won a gold medal yet, what sort of a mug's game is this?? Knowing that most Australians shared the same point of view, I was a touch surprised that Channel 7 even bothered to send sport exports Roy Slaven and H.G. Nelson all the way over to ‘the crossroads of the west’, Salt Lake City in Utah, to commentate on the 2002 Winter Olympic Games... but who else could have done the job?

The Dream is back, but this time under a snowy cover for the XIX Olympic Winter Games. H.G. Nelson and rampaging Roy Slaven put the laughs back into what would have otherwise been another dull Winter Olympics, excusing of course our first ever winter gold medal wins. Lets not take any glory away from Steven Bradbury or Alisa Camplin winning gold for their country, but lets be honest, without Roy and H.G.’s specialised commentary who really would have cared?

This was a record breaking Winter Olympics for Australia and, on a personal note, was the first winter Olympics whereby I actually cared to pay attention, and like a lot of other Australians I blame this on Roy and H.G. As screened every night for an hour on Channel 7 during the games, The Ice Dream was the most concise and enjoyable way of catching up on the important events of the games.

The Winter Olympics are gone and the gold medal hype has ended, but don’t let that deter you from investing in this disc. This is classic and gold winning humour that will remain priceless eternally... or at least untill we can host the games ourselves. So until Smiggens Holes 2010 (cross your fingers kiddies) this is as good as it gets, and let me remind you, this is good!!!

The Ice Dream is presented with a full screen aspect ratio of 4:3 and is thus, of course, not widescreen enhanced. This is straight from the television broadcast and as such looks quite good. The detail is sharp, the colours life-like, and the shadow detail perfect. Film artefacts are non-existent, nor is aliasing, MPEG artefacts or basically anything. Dare I say it, a faultless transfer.

There is a little over three and a half hours worth of footage and it has all been compressed well without any detriment to the quality. The layer change is placed between segments and is thus not noticeable at all. It is apparent that Channel 7 must have invested a few more pennies for this second show and into the release of this DVD. Overall a great transfer by Warner Vision.

The audio is also quite pleasant. Unlike the Sydney Olympics' The Dream, this disc is 100% free of the clicks, drop outs, and microphone problems that annoyed us with that previous release. Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, the dialogue and commentary is always clear, does not suffer from audio sync problems and is easy to understand at all times. Even when Dave Grohl is chewing like a dairy cow over a big chunk of gum the dialogue comes out clean and clear.

There isn’t much else that can be said about the sound on this disc, except that like the video it is a rather faultless transfer. Special note should go to the theme song for Smiggins 2010, Unleash the Mighty Mongrel, as performed by Roy, H.G. and the Channel 7 Commentators Choir.

The extras are again nothing special and include the full and uncut interviews with Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), Steven Bradbury, Alisa Camplin, and Katarina Witt. A two disc set (like The Dream) may have been a nice touch, but was really not required. The Sydney Olympics were a one off magic event. Not only was it in our own backyard, but the Winter Olympics don’t get half the coverage of the summer games and thus could not be expected to compete. But on show here is Roy and H.G. and they more than make up the difference.

Although it doesn’t contain as much footage, or half the local excitement of The Dream, The Ice Dream still provides lots of quality laughs. Their own personal sports commentary, interview skills and general ability to ramble on about unrelated yet hilarious topics makes Roy and H.G.’s latest DVD release a bargain purchase. If you’re a fan of The Dream, or better still a fan of their on/off television shows or previous radio presentations, then you’ll love this disc, its just more of the Slaven-Nelson magic and a must have addition to every sports lovers collection.