Hi Energy. Wow, that’s the same thing you get after a hit of coffee. Wouldn’t it be great to see off-stage during the filming of Hi-5 with the short blacks waiting patiently off-camera for their devourers to finish them off ready for the next jig?
OK, strange energetic boosts and plastered-on smiles aside, Hi-5 provides a strong background for the kiddliewinks covering logical thinking, words, shapes, counting, music, singing and dancing. If you think caffeine-induced presenters are bad, take a look at what else there is.
There was Fat Cat – probably not the best role model for young impressionable minds. There’s Humphrey, that big ol’ bear, but it would be good to have a role model who can actually talk. Winnie the Pooh – well he’s cute and all, and that adorable Eeyore is a tad depressed for the young’uns. The Wiggles – Jeff can’t even stay awake – what sort of role model is that? And let’s not even go near Noddy, not that there’s anything wrong with that mind you.
So here we have five energetic, gorgeous spunky people with a great wardrobe department, fantastic writers and direction including a solid educational background. Where can you go wrong? A hush of silence falls upon DVDnet... Exactly, there’s nothing to complain about. It’s educational, it’s fun, it’s colourful and has the potential to bring out so much creativity in so many fields from your children.
Hi Energy gives kids the chance to get up and jump about with some high energy dances and activities including the Can Can, Funky Punky Rock Music, some country hoe-down dancing, an obstacle course and some skipping. Yikes, that’s nearly all your dietary needs for one day! Charli, Kathleen, Kellie, Nathan and Tim give it all they’ve got for this 52-minute action-packed performance that is a great development tool for the kiddliewinks.
Ooh, it’s purrrrrty! This gacky 1.85:1, anamorphically enhanced transfer from Village Roadshow is gorgeous, and gives kids’ television a new dimension in appearance. Oddly the packaging states that this is the “original theatrical ratio” but last time this reviewer checked, Hi-5 haven’t made an outing to the cinema. Yet.
The colours are bright, alive, electric, luminescent and any other buzz word you can think of, however they are also a tad oversaturated, especially during Chapter 15, the Dancing Dinosaur. The odd case of moire nicks through too, oddly enough, on Kellie’s hair which is slightly obvious yet not hugely distracting. The odd jab of aliasing zips into the transfer here and there, but is so faint that the kiddliewinks won’t really care. Compression-related artefacts are not apparent, and the look of the overall image is sharp and clean. Wow, this is what digital TV must look like...
A solo Dolby Digital 2.0 stands prominently providing a clear rendition of the performance. Even though it’s not flagged as a surround track, if you have the hardware, it sounds a little bit clearer with Pro-Logic II decoding than the plain old two channels. However, as it’s intended to be viewed, the two-channel separation is quite minimal, providing a solid full-frontal soundtrack. Bass levels are adequate without being window-rumbling, and the treble is just spot on. Dialogue is clear throughout and suitably volumed to the music, with no synch issues at all. Chris Harriott’s music shines admirably through this soundtrack, and the lack of a 5.1 remix isn’t really missed given the target audience and the genre of the program too.
As with previous Hi-5 discs, a simple bunch of extras has been included, starting with the child-friendly menus. If your kids can’t quite handle the multitude of buttons on your DVD remote, stick this disc in and after a while the program starts automatically. Wow, that’s really helpful for DVD reviewers too who can’t find the remote...
However, if you happen to find your remote, the menus are a little hard to follow with the graphical buttons not clearly describing each link, well for beginners anyway. Oh well, maybe it’s like tablet jars that kids can open but adults can’t.
From the large Hi-5 hand in the middle of the screen you can select your favourite Hi-5 presenter and jump directly to their clips. For Charli (Body Move) they are Energy Dance, Silly Dance, Flamenco and Dinosaur Dancing. For Nathan (Shapes in Space), these are Bush Dancing and Tin Can Skittles. For Kathleen (Puzzles and Patterns) they are Dance Cards and Obstacle Course. For Tim (Making Music) these are Funky Punky Rockers and Rhythm City and for Kellie (Word Play) they are the Can Can and Skipping. All of these are presented in their native 16:9 enhanced aspect.
The next two options are so closely related that they can go in together, and these are the Songs of the Week and Hi-5 Karaoke Songs. For Hi Energy these are Energy (2:11), One Step Forward (2:26) and Move It (2:36). For the Songs of the Week, the straight clip is played with normal audio and no subtitles, however if you view them from the Hi-5 Karaoke Songs option you can have karaoke-style subtitles appearing, and remove the vocals from the music too.
Next up are some Sharing Stories with Cow Groove (3:16, 16:9) read by Tim and The Forgetful Family (3:21, 16:9) read by Kellie. These too, just like the rest of the clips, link to a separate title of the clip from the actual episode.
Finally are some previews for other Hi-5 DVDs and Videos. These are all presented in a full frame aspect and are for Music Machine (0:31), Star Dreaming (0:31), Playing Cool (0:31), Five Alive (0:31), Animal Adventures (0:31), Let’s Celebrate (0:32), Magical Treasures (0:31), Move Your Body (0:31) and Summer Rainbows (0:31) (double pack) and Surfing Safari (0:31). For the kids they can watch these and get hyperactive over which ones aren’t in their collection and start pestering parents the usual six months prior to one's birthday.
If you’ve got young kids, this reviewer can highly recommend Hi-5 as childhood entertainment. After surviving a number of discs, the educational background is clearly evident and strongly structured, giving children the ideas to expand their imaginations and grow within themselves as well as exposing them to new and inventive themes. Village Roadshow’s transfer is good with no nasty complaints, and the extra features are great for the kiddliewinks. If you see this disc going cheaply, grab it as the kids will love you for it. Well, that is until you don’t buy them something the next time you go out.
