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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.85:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital Stereo
  Subtitles
    English
  Extras
  • 4 Teaser trailer - Five Alive, Animal Adventures, Let's Celebrate, and Magical Treasures
  • 3 Karaoke - 'Going Out', 'Give It A Go', 'Reach Out'
Hi-5 - Surfing Safari
Roadshow Entertainment/Roadshow Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 51 mins . G . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Tim, Charli, Kathleen, Nathan and Kellie are back along with their friends Jup Jup and Chatterbox. Now just a quick note to the producers – try decaf coffee instead... Their energy is scary to watch with bright, bubbly faces for the full 50 minutes. So, monitor the coffee consumption!

Hi-5 provide energetic, catchy and slightly psychotic music for young kids, as well as a solid educational background. Not only do we have musical melodies, but rich harmonies to entertain the kids and let the musical adults enjoy some tuneful entertainment at the same time. Accompanying the music is laughter, stories, learning lessons and imagination-expanding exercises. Impressionable young minds can creatively develop with a quality entertaining show.

With this journey, the Hi-5 team venture into the African and Australian wilderness to go on a safari, and also, as the name suggests, a surfing safari. Along the way we will meet a ranger, a T-Rex, some underwater fish, go on a bushwalk and also an African jeep drive, not to mention experiencing Jup Jup’s mischievous actions and Chatterbox’s cheerfully curious enthusiasm.

The gang have three large group songs with a kiddie audience as well as dodgy miming, and then solo songs and group songs throughout the show. Cut scenes relating to the particular story or lesson are added in break things up into easily navigated chapters.

  Video
  Audio
  Extras
Contract

The video is presented in a widescreen aspect of 1.78:1, and is 16:9 enhanced. The most notable part of the transfer is the colours – they are bold, bright and brilliant, with no low-level noise at all. Some slight MPEG pixellation can be seen at various points of high-action throughout. These are not terribly distracting, and are mainly noticeable when actually paying attention to the finer details. With the target audience in mind, these are not a problem at all. The image is richly detailed, and incredibly sharp, but show a few slight cases of edge enhancement. Again, the target audience don’t really care about these, as they love the action on screen and are not picky like us little DVD reviewers.

The solo Dolby Digital 2.0 English track is adequate for the show, and is what you would expect. The packaging does state there is a 5.1 track, but alas there isn't. Dialogue is crisp throughout, and the music pumps through with a great bass level and precise clarity. There are no synch issues, except for the miming lip synch which can be a tad out, but still, the target audience doesn’t care – the music is what matters to them. Chris Harriott is the composer for Hi-5, and this disc shows a different type of music by the group – it lacks the energy, repetitive tunes and vibrancy of some of their other music, in particular the Music Machine disc.

Extra features are a little bit more scarce on this disc, with the only inclusions being three karaoke songs and four previews of other Hi-5 videos. The karaoke songs are Going Out, Give it a Go and Reach Out. These can be played with or without vocals, and subtitles too which display the lyrics word-by-word. Previews have been thrown on for Five Alive, Animal Adventures, Let’s Celebrate and Magical Treasures. These are just blatant advertising spots for the other Hi-5 merchandise. But the karaoke should keep the kids amused.

For the kids, this disc really hits the target and is great entertainment for them. Music, education and laughs – just what developing minds need!


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  •   And I quote...
    "Just a quick note to the producers – try decaf coffee..."
    - Martin Friedel
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Philips DVD 736K
    • TV:
          TEAC EU68-ST
    • Receiver:
          Sony HT-SL5
    • Speakers:
          Sony SS-MSP2
    • Centre Speaker:
          Sony SS-CNP2
    • Surrounds:
          Sony SS-MSP2
    • Subwoofer:
          Sony SA-WMSP3
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          standard s-video
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