Noddy in Toyland

• Cat.no: BBCDVD 1002
• Cert: Uc
• Running time: 86 minutes
• Year: 1983
• Pressing: 1999
• Region(s): 2, 4 (UK PAL)
• Chapters: 21 plus extras
• Sound: Stereo
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: 6 languages available
• Fullscreen: 4:3
• 16:9-enhanced: No
• Macrovision: No
• Disc Format: DVD 5
• Price: £14.99
• Extras : Scene index

Noddy In Toyland is one of the first DVDs released by the BBC and the only one to be aimed squarely at children. The back of the box promises “original animation imaginatively combined with live-action, puppetry and songs”.

What you actually get in each near-half-hour episode is around ten minutes of Noddy animation split into two parts, plus another twenty minutes of children shouting, running about, singing songs, et al – exactly what you get from most of children’s television.

The three episodes on this DVD are: The Big Mess, Stop Listen & Learn and The Trouble with Truman and the respective Noddy episodes contained therein are: Noddy Meets Some Silly Hens, Noddy Lends a Hand and Noddy and his Unhappy Car.

The picture is a standards-conversion from its original NTSC format and not much to write home about, although the print is fairly free of artifacts and the average bitrate is 5.34Mb/s for each episode.

The stereo soundtrack is clear, but full of screaming kids. If that’s your bag then it’s fine. However, in the opening song played as the camera pans across the film set of “Noddy’s Shop”, it sounds more like they’re singing about a “knocking shop”…

Extras :

Chapters : There are 21 chapters on this disc, at 7 per episode, which splits each programme up very well, so you can almost skip to just the Noddy bits if you prefer. I say “almost” as you still get the kids introducing each part by talking about the story.

Languages & Subtitles : All the dialogue is in English and has subtitles in English (for the deaf and hard of hearing), French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch.

Menu : A static and silent, but colourful menu greets you on booting up the disc. You can choose to watch each episode shortly or choose a particular one.

Overall : Sadly, Noddy in Toyland is quite a depressing experience. Having only seen the original stop-frame animation version of Noddy and not this particular TV series, I was expecting a 90-minute Noddy compilation, not a bunch of American kids running about being kids and being very American. If you are to buy some Noddy on any format, make sure it’s the original version.

One strange thing about this DVD: The cover states it is a U certificate (Universal for all) while the disc states it’s a Uc certificate (Universal, but especially suitable for children), but surely this descrepancy means it conflicts with the policies of the VPRC (Video Packaging Review Committee) ?

The other titles now available are Monty Python: Best of Vol.1, The Five Doctors, The Black Adder, Persuasion and coming in January 2000, The Planets.

Scheduled for Spring next year are : Monty Python: Best of Vol.2, Gormenghast, Walking with Dinosaurs and, of course, Black Adder II.