Dom Robinson reviews

Distributed by
PT Video

Cert:

Cat.no: PTDVD 8097

Running time: 132 minutes

Year: 1980

Pressing: 2001

Region(s): 0, PAL

Chapters: 6 plus extras

Sound: Mono

Languages: English

Subtitles: None

Fullscreen: 4:3

16:9-Enhanced: No

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: £9.99

Extras: Cast Biographies, Animated Menus, First Ever Count Duckula Episode

Director:

Brian Cosgrove

Producer:

Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall

Screenplay:

Brian Trueman

Music:

Mike Harding

Voices:

David Jason, Terry Scott, Edward Kelsey and Brian Trueman

The cult of kids TV arriving on DVD continues with a series I regularly watched and enjoyed before I hit double figures and which, on a recent I Love the 80s, was admitted it was easy on the animators because many of the scenes that featured in every episode, such as DM driving from his secret hideout, were copied across each time.

Six episodes are included here. For a mo I thought this would amount to around 30 minutes screen time, but then I remembered that each one was aired in four parts (oh, how the continuing storyline would get me through yet another unbelievably shitty week at school from Monday to Thursday; and who cared about Friday afternoons because the weekend was here!) and so lasts around 20 minutes apiece.

Back to the plot and the six episodes are: Custard, The Duel, The Day of the Suds, The Bad Luck Eye of the Little Yellow God, The Four Tasks of Dangermouse and the 'title track', Close Encounters of the Absurd Kind in which Dangermouse (voiced by new first-time father David Jason) has to stop Baron Silas Greenback who is threatening to steal the Big Ear Tracking Station and Penfold (voiced by the late, great Terry Scott) has gone missing, but will DM find him before it's too late? Daft question :)

It's in 4:3 fullscreen and the print has many a scratch on it but nothing you don't expect and it certainly doesn't put you off for those who were big fans and at least it makes a damn sight more bloody sense than Pokemon !

The sound is in mono which comes across clearly enough.

Wherever there is danger he'll be there!

In the extras dept. there's Cast Biographies for the cartoon characters and not the voices behind them, the First Ever Count Duckula Episode, "No Sax Please, We're Egyptian", although he never quite did it for me, plus a brief sequence of DM being very unlucky with the birds.

The disc has no subtitles but a neat animated menu with the classic theme tune. If I had one complaint with the DVD it's that there's generally just one chapter per episode rather than breaking them down into individual parts. I say generally because the first episode has a chapter break randomly stuck in the middle, not between two of its parts but just somewhere where it doesn't belong.